Britain’s collapsing birth rate is becoming a “looming disaster” fuelled by sky-high housing costs, tiny flats and a chronic shortage of family homes, a major new report warns.
Researchers said soaring house prices and shrinking living space were increasingly stopping Britons from having the number of children they actually want. The stark warning comes as Britain’s fertility rate has slumped to a record low of just 1.41 children per woman – far below the level needed to sustain the population.
Experts say the steep decline is altering the age structure of the country, which is threatening long-term economic growth and placing an unsustainable financial burden on public services. At the same time, more than eight in ten Britons say the cost and availability of family homes is making it harder for people to marry and start families, according to the research published by the Family Education Trust.
Nearly three-quarters said the type and size of housing available had a major impact on decisions about having children. And almost two-thirds said improving access to affordable family-sized housing would encourage more people to marry and have children.
Yet despite the dramatic fall in births, Britons still say their ideal family size is around two children, according to the analysis, carried out by Lyman Stone, a demographer at the Institute for Family Studies. The study, “Britons Want Family-Friendly Flats: survey evidence shows the housing market weighs on fertility”, is based on research involving more than 2,000 UK adults and includes a foreword by former Conservative MP and GB News presenter Miriam Cates.
Ms Cates warned Britain was facing a full-scale fertility crisis with devastating economic and social consequences. She wrote: “Politicians, policymakers and the media are increasingly recognising collapsing birth rates as a looming disaster and economists are gravely concerned about the impacts of a shrinking future labour force and tax base.”
She added: “As this report has shown, the desire to have children is still strong. For increasing numbers of women – and men – childlessness is not a choice but a source of grief and regret."
The report argues the housing market is increasingly preventing people from achieving the family life they want. Researchers found the gap between the number of children Britons want and the number they are actually having has now reached record levels.
Researcher's said the UK's collapsing birth rate becoming 'looming disaster'
The report said this “fertility gap” appeared particularly stark in London, where people reported some of the strongest desire for children in Britain despite the capital having among the country’s lowest birth rates. Researchers said young adults today were far less likely to own a home than their parents were at the same age and far more likely to be living in small flats.
Home ownership among 25- to 34-year-olds has more than halved in a generation, falling from 53 per cent in 1991 to just 22 per cent in 2021, the report states. At the same time, new housing has increasingly shifted towards smaller flats rather than family homes.
The report found would-be parents consistently prioritised practical family needs, including extra bedrooms, gardens, good schools and short commutes when considering whether to have children. One finding showed moving from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom property increased confidence about having a baby by a similar degree to cutting housing costs by roughly £1,100 to £1,900 a month.
Housing pressures were found to weigh most heavily on renters, flat dwellers, lower-income households and people who wanted children but did not yet have them. Ms Cates suggested Britain’s post war baby boom may have been fuelled not just by optimism after the Second World War but by the mass construction of affordable family homes.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Miriam Cates warned Britain was facing a full-scale fertility crisis
| GB NEWSShe wrote: “In the two decades after the War, Britain built an astonishing seven million homes, over half of which were social houses. Young men and women in the 1960s and 1970s had access to a plentiful and affordable supply of homes that Gen-Z can only dream of.”
The former MP noted most post-war homes were houses rather than flats, in contrast to many modern developments dominated by smaller apartments. Dr Tony Rucinski, chairman of the Family Education Trust, said Britain had become too expensive for family life.
He said: “Britain is not anti-family. Britain cannot afford to be a family.
"Eighty-one per cent of the country says housing costs are stopping people from starting families. Sixty-five per cent want planning rules rewritten to prioritise three-bedroom homes.
"The strongest cross-party consensus in British politics right now is that we are building the wrong houses. Family-sized homes for a family-sized country.”
The polling found strong public backing for more family-sized homes, with many Britons believing too many new developments are made up of small flats unsuitable for raising children.More than half of those surveyed said they personally knew young people or couples delaying children because they could not afford a suitable home.
Ms Cates suggested the solution may require a return to large-scale housebuilding, including social housing aimed at young families. She wrote: “Perhaps then, what is needed is a new wave of social house building, replicating our post-war success, but this time ring-fencing those homes for young couples with or intending to have children.”
The report argues Britain’s housing market is increasingly failing to provide the kind of homes many people associate with starting and raising a family. And with fertility rates continuing to tumble, researchers warned Britain risks paying the price economically and socially for decades unless young families can access affordable, secure housing.
Ms Cates concluded: “If Britain wants more babies, we must build baby build.”
GB News has approched the Government for comment.
Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter