Tories fear 'birth dearth'

People should have more children to counter an ageing population in Europe, according to a Tory MP.

Shadow work and pensions secretary David Willetts is concerned that rising numbers of older people will affect economic growth over the next 50 years.

Mr Willetts said in a speech on Tuesday that he was not arguing that a woman's place was in the home.

But the Family Planning Association (FPA) has reacted in anger saying no amount of Conservative "exhortation" would dictate the choices made by couples.

This issue is always focused on women as the ones to "blame" for the decline in the birth rate, but men are putting off having children to a later age too FPA spokeswoman

Mr Willetts said a higher life expectancy was good news.

"These are not extra years of miserable incapacity; if anything we die fitter than before," he said.

"The problem is that there are not enough young workers coming along behind."

'Birth dearth'

Mr Willetts said that after the baby boom of the 1950s, Europe suffered a baby bust.

The speech in London was to launch a pamphlet for the Centre for European Reform called Old Europe? Demographic Change and Pensions Reform.

He argued the European Union would see in the next half-century an extra 40 million people aged over 60, along with a reduction of 40 million in those aged 15-60.

Birth rates in Europe are dropping

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday suggest about 172,000 more people migrated to the UK in 2001 than moved away from it.

But Mr Willetts said although migration could help, having more babies would lower the UK population's average age.

"Europe faces a birth dearth. Nobody wants to force women to have more children than they wish.

"But we have created an environment in which people are having fewer children than they aspire to.

"This is not - emphatically not - a statement that a woman's place is in the home.

"It is societies where women - and men - can combine work and children that have higher birth rates".

He called for a family-friendly policy that would allow people to have the number of children they want.

Contraception revolution

FPA spokeswoman Melissa Dear said: "Statistics show women and men are choosing to have children later in life due to a whole variety of factors.

"Effective contraception has revolutionised people's lives and provided freedoms that were impossible just a couple of generations ago.

"Higher expectations in terms of living standards and the desire to fulfil personal goals and ambitions have meant a decline in the fertility rate in many European countries," she said.

Ms Dear said the issue of a falling birth rate had always focused on women as the ones to "blame", although the reality was men played an equal part.

Economic factors might influence the number of children a couple might have, she added.

Last year in England and Wales there were 596,122 births, an increase of 0.25% on 2001's total of 594,634.

It was the first increase since 1996, though the annual total is still the lowest since 1977 apart from 2001.

The average age for motherhood is 29.3 years, compared with 29.2 in 2001 and 27.9 in 1992, two-and-a-half years older than 20 years ago.