RAISING a child in the North-East now costs more than buying a house, according to research published today.

The total cost of raising a child in the region from birth to 21 stands at £131,240 for a typical, two-parent working household.

This is a three per cent increase on last year, and is £10,000 more than the average price of a North-East home. It equates to parents forking out £17 a day for the first 21 years of a child's life.

The research was commissioned by savings group, the Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society.

Ian Cordwell, group marketing director, said: "It's staggering to think that raising three children could cost nearly half a million pounds."

A third of the costs will be incurred before the child reaches five, and the first year alone costs more than £6,000.

More alarmingly, the figures exclude the cost of buying a family home, or bigger car and earnings lost during maternity or paternity leave.

Despite the increase, the region remains one of the cheapest places in Britain to raise a child - £22,380 less than the national average.

The Yorkshire and the Humber region is the cheapest area for rearing children, at an average cost of £127,463.

London is the most expensive area to bring up a baby.

Author Elizabeth Gill, 53, of Durham, was left to raise daughter Katy after her husband, Richard, died in a boating accident in 1988.

She said: "I don't think you ever stop paying, but then parents love spending money on their kids. When I was 35, my mother bought me a second-hand sports car for my birthday."

Jane Sidey, 27, a single mother who runs her own childcare business in Leadgate, near Consett, County Durham, said: "After my son was born, I went back to work and it worked out that we were only about £10 a month better off than when I was on benefits."