THE monthly bill for feeding children in Scotland is higher than in London, according to research.

But the average cost of raising a child to secondary school age stands at £81,000 in Scotland, against the UK average of £85,000.

Childcare is the single most expensive element of raising a child in their early years and accounts for almost half of the overall cost, according to the Halifax Cost Of Children research.

Scotland is the third most costly place in the UK behind London and the South-East to raise a child, with the monthly bill at £620, against £837 and £651 respectively. Food for a child is £88 a month in Scotland and £85 in London, while childcare in Scotland is £285, compared to £386 in the south.

Children will cost parents the most in the first year of their child's life, with parents paying more than £8,500 in the first year alone on average. This drops to a low of £6,489 for a child aged between five and eight, where childcare costs dramatically fall.

Food costs rise gradually with age, being most expensive for parents with children aged nine to 11, where monthly spend tops £87. Holidays are the second biggest cost, reaching a peak for parents of children aged five to eight at £71 per month.

Richard Fearon, head of Halifax Savings, said: "It is no exaggeration that having children is a huge commitment. The stark reality of how much it could cost you over the long term should not be underestimated.

"The initial outlay can be a burden in the first year, but childcare remains a big expense through those early years."

The cost of raising children and the pressures it can cause north of the Border have also been recently highlighted by the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland. John Dickie, the group's Scotland director, said: "This research reinforces our own Cost Of A Child report, which highlighted the growing gap between family incomes and the increasing cost of raising a child.

"Even where both parents are working full-time on the national minimum wage they are nearly a fifth short of what is needed to provide a minimum socially acceptable upbringing for their children. This creates huge pressures on families, who make impossible choices between paying the bills, putting food on the table or getting into debt."

He added that measures should be taken on the basis of the costings that have been made.

He said: "It is vital now the UK Government rethinks the cuts and caps to benefits that are squeezing the incomes of families in and out of work. But there is also far more that can be done here in Scotland to reduce childcare costs and cut the costs of school, for example, by building on the welcome introduction of universal school meals, boosting school clothing grants and reviewing charging for school trips and activities."