Cost of childcare

sir – I read your article, “The women whose childcare costs are so high there’s no point working” (telegraph. co.uk, January 25), with exasperation.

It astounds me that we have reached this point. If we end up in a situation where only those who earn enough to pay the UK’S extortionate childcare costs (or can simply afford not to work) feel able to have children, there will be a significant drop in birth rates.

There seems to be an attitude that taxpayers should not subsidise care for other people’s children. The implication of this attitude is that only the wealthy should have children. Yet just this week, Japan’s prime minister warned that declining birth rates are bringing the country to the brink of collapse.

We need to rethink our attitude to early years childcare and society’s role in it. The care and education of children from the ages of five to 18 in state schools is an accepted part of Britain’s infrastructure, paid for by taxpayers. It allows parents to work and, in turn, pay taxes. So why is there such resistance to the idea that the care of children up to school age should be supported by greater tax spending? AE Couchman

Maidstone, Kent