The Notebook: Susannah Streeter on the parenthood trap, stripped-back burgers and the terrible trend of pub queues
Today, it’s Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, holding the Morning Wire pen
The pricey parenthood trap
I congratulated my 40-something friends and new parents who took on the daunting task of moving house with their baby last week. It’s a challenge we recklessly took on ourselves, almost 17 years ago – feeding a newborn while trying to remember what was in the boxes piled up in the corner is not an experience I’d like to repeat and I was a decade younger than they are. They’re far from alone in having put off parenthood.
The birth rate in England and Wales has fallen back again to levels not seen in 20 years. If that continues, it will bite the economy hard in decades to come. It’ll mean adults of working age will have to shoulder a bigger tax burden, unless immigration increases or a productivity miracle occurs.
It’s understandable given the very real struggle for many families right now that people are delaying having kids or choosing to be child-free. Financial worries have been exacerbated by housing insecurity and, for younger people, the prospect of getting a foot on the housing ladder is a distant hope.
As ‘Generation Rent’ struggles with higher payments, the number of young adults still living with their parents to avoid punishing accommodation costs has grown sharply. Without a home of their own, or barely managing to scramble the cash together to buy, it’s not surprising that potential parents are putting off the decision to have children.
Childcare in the UK is also super expensive, with only the Czech Republic and Cyprus ahead of the UK in terms of costs. While extra help is being phased in, with 30 hours of free childcare for all children over nine months, it won’t be fully available for another two years. So, there will be little immediate respite from painfully high nursery fees.
The increasing demands from firms to see employees back in the office won’t help. Would-be parents need flexible solutions and more family-friendly policies to encourage them to take the plunge into a lengthy and expensive but ultimately priceless experience.
A tomato too far
Though high food prices are still problematic for hospitality firms here, we ain’t seen nothing like those seen elsewhere. In India, vegetable prices are up 37 per cent in the year to July, and tomatoes have more than quadrupled in cost – so much so that Burger King has ditched them from its buns.
The company isn’t offering a substitute, unlike KFC which swapped lettuce for cabbage after Aussie crops were destroyed by floods. It may not be a whopper of a problem for the chain, but it is just a taste of the disruption we are likely to face, especially if unusual weather patterns persist.
Digging deeper than greedflation
Accusations of ‘greedflation’ are circling, as data shows that many companies in the services sector have been able to increase their profit margins this year, despite rapidly rising costs. But this wide snapshot masks the serious challenges that many smaller firms have faced, particularly in the hospitality sector, amid soaring bills. The British Beer and Pub Association warned that the erosion of margins has been crippling the industry at an unprecedented rate. Support with energy bills has been withdrawn, with many small businesses locked into painful contracts for electricity. If more were allowed to renegotiate deals, further rises might be limited, and the inflation headache might lift sooner for the Bank of England.
Queuing at a bar? So not chic
Visiting a village bar while on holiday near Bordeaux, I was surprised by their diversification. As well as serving as the local parcel collection point, it sold everything from stamps to sunglasses, hunting knives and oysters by the kilo. Could this offer a blueprint for how British pubs might survive in these tough conditions? But one thing our boozers could do without right now is another queue. A curious post-lockdown trend seems to have emerged in Britain’s pubs. There is now space at the bar! Punters snake out the door while waiting to order. Although, being little over 5ft tall, I often needed sharp elbows to get served, a crowded bar was always a supremely social place to be. Let’s hope this misguided single file of politeness is a short-lived phenomenon.
Age-old advice still worth its weight
‘It doesn’t grow on trees’ is my money quote of the month – from my Dad. It took some persuasion to get him in front of the camera to reminisce about teaching me and my sisters all about money. It was for the Hargreaves Lansdown ‘Pass it On’ campaign, showing how parents can give their children a financial helping hand. For us, economising to eventually invest meant a lot of scrimping and saving, which included one holiday backpacking to France.
Shame he didn’t invest in a good dictionary on that particular trip. His attempt to buy methylated spirits for our stove saw him presented with an inflatable rubber ring at the camp shop. Though it did nudge me towards studying French at university – there’s always a silver lining to a sliver of embarrassment. Thanks Jeff!