BRINGING up a child in Britain now costs more than buying a house, according to new research. Britons spend more on raising their children than any other nation in Europe.

The total bill for rearing a child from birth to the age of 21 is said to be £140,000, £2,600 more than the average cost of a home.

The figures work out on average at £6,686 a year, £129 a week or £18 a day for a typical two-parent working household.

The sum includes amounts spent on necessities such as food, clothes and childcare and luxuries such as toys, leisure activities and an annual holiday, but does not include the cost of a family home, a car or loss of earnings during maternity leave.

The figures are also calculated on the basis that a mother returns to work part-time six months after having a baby.

The main differential between European states is the cost of childcare. The average on the Continent is about £100 a week for one child, which is usually subsidised by the State, or children attend state-run nurseries, compared with the average in Britain of £119 a week, normally payable to a private nursery. The most expensive years in a child’s life, however, are aged between 19 and 21, when parents foot the bill for university or college to the tune of some £10,000 a year.

But the childcare costs also hit hard for two- to five-year-olds, when parents have to find as much as £9,889 a year.

British parents spend 33 per cent more than those in Spain, 30 per cent more than in France and 26 per cent more than Sweden. They also pay 17 per cent more than German parents and 14 per cent more than Italians, even though Italians spend 14 per cent more than the British on child necessities.

The higher costs in Britain were also caused by parents spending more on luxury items for their children such as toys, leisure activities such as gym membership and a summer holiday, thereby spending 71 per cent more than the Spanish and 62 per cent more than the French.

The research was conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research on behalf of the Liverpool Victoria, Britain’s largest friendly society.

In the first year of a child’s life parents spent about £7,138, with most going on nursery furniture and baby equipment. When children are at primary school, aged six to eleven, the biggest costs are for food, leisure, school lunches, uniform and books. Malcolm Berryman, Liverpool Victoria’s group chief executive, said: “Everyone knows that raising children can be expensive but few will have realised that bringing up three children could cost nearly half a million pounds.”

He said the findings showed the importance of saving regularly. People saved and budgeted to buy a house, but did not save to pay for child-rearing costs.

The Trundles from Poole, in Dorset, are a young family juggling to pay for household expenses on one income.

Liz, a former store manager, said she and husband, Spencer, an engineer, had never had such a low income since she gave up her £15,000-a-year job to look after Will, now four, and Ellie, two and a half.

Mrs Trundle said: “There is always something to pay for. Today, I needed to get a new pair of shoes for Ellie. We like to get them quality items that last and so that cost me £28. It’s particularly hard if they both need things at the same time.

“I know it’s going to get worse as they get older. I’m trying to plan for it by training at a college half a day a week — when Ellie is at play group — to become a classroom assistant and then a teaching assistant.

“This will give me the school holidays off. Otherwise, I would have to pay heavy childcare costs for the six weeks in the summer and it would not be worth it.

“Some of my friends are parents and both work, but it’s hardly worth it for them. It costs them £200 a week in nursery fees.”

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