AUSTERITY is the principal factor behind Britain’s tumbling fertility rates, a new analysis has revealed.

Research published today by the Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP) think tank found that Britain’s birth rate has declined by 18.8 per cent, falling faster than any other G7 nation.

Commissioned by Sky News, the report analysed the average number of children born from 2010 to 2012. 

CPP chief Ben Franklin cited “austerity and the austerity drive” as “the principal factor” behind the plummeting fertility rates.

He noted that falls in fertility rates were previously associated with rising levels of education and income among women. But over the past 10 years, rates slumped more in Britain than other nations because “austerity was quite significant here, and more so than in other countries.”

In 2010, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition inflicted drastic austerity measures, slashing £40 billion from public spending and £7bn from welfare benefits.

The research found that areas with higher deprivation saw faster falls, which “demonstrates the impact of government cuts to social security spending that occurred over that time.”

As the cost of living tightens its grip and support continues to be hollowed out, families are finding it increasingly difficult to cover basic expenses.

The average rent has risen by 8.4 per cent to £1,286 per month over the last year alone.

Nevertheless, austerity is expected to continue in Rachel Reeves’s autumn Budget at the end of the month, after the Chancellor announced that a £22bn black hole in government finances had been left to Labour by the previous Tory government.