Baroness Meyer (Con)

My Lords, people aged over 85 are the fastest-growing population segment, but we are also having far fewer children. This is a problem, as the excellent report highlighted. The committee doubts that financial incentives can reverse falls in fertility. I do not entirely agree. Since the 1950s, successive French Governments developed a strong, pro-family system, with tax advantages and practical benefits aimed at larger families. It worked: France had the highest fertility rate in western Europe. Today, France has not escaped the recent decline, but its fertility remains higher than ours, at 1.56 per woman. The Government can create an environment in which it is easier for people to have more children. Higher taxes, housing and childcare costs have made it harder to start a family, just when fertility drastically declines with age. The Centre for Social Justice estimates that 3 million women may remain childless. It calls them Britain’s “missing mothers”. Not wanting children is a choice; wanting them, but being unable to afford them, is a problem. There is another worrying statistic. In 2023, almost one in three conceptions ended in abortion—the highest proportion on record. Yet the Government recently removed women from the criminal law relating to their own abortions at any stage of gestation. Then there is the other problem, addressed by many noble Lords, of intergenerational fairness. Immigration is not the answer. As Professor Andrew Scott told the committee, “immigration may buy you time”, but it does not solve the fundamental problem. Immigrants grow older, too. Instead of all this, we need a fundamental change in our attitude towards ageing. Retirement should not be seen as the finishing line. We should encourage people to remain active, engaged and useful for longer. As we said before, look at this Chamber. Many Members are well beyond conventional retirement age. That is a perfect example, and we should stop treating older people as a cost and recognise them as an underused resource. This week, 84 year-old actor Peter Marinker, recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, is performing Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” alone on the London stage. What better example could there be? What steps will the Government take to change our attitude towards older people, and will they consider reducing taxes and improving housing and family policies to make it easier for people to have children?