The number of children reading for pleasure in the UK has fallen to its lowest level in two decades, prompting the children’s laureate to tell the government it must put enjoyment ahead of academic attainment if the trend is to be reversed. Frank Cottrell-Boyce, giving evidence to the House of Commons Education Committee, argued that an overemphasis on the mechanics of literacy is actively putting young people off books.
Cottrell-Boyce told MPs that conversations about children’s reading too often default to school performance, ignoring the fundamental need to foster a genuine love of stories. “We can teach them all the steps,” he said, “but the important thing is that they dance.” The screenwriter and novelist, who began his tenure as laureate in summer 2024, said prioritising pleasure was common sense. “No parent says to a child, ‘When you’ve learned the offside rule then I will play football with you’. We always put the pleasure first.” His core argument is that reading for pleasure should be treated the same way: the joy must come before the skill.
The Scale of the Decline
The urgency of Cottrell-Boyce’s plea is underlined by stark data from the National Literacy Trust’s annual survey. In 2025, just 32.7% of children aged eight to 18 said they enjoyed reading in their spare time — a 36% drop since 2005 and the lowest figure in two decades. Daily reading has also slumped to a record low, with only 18.7% of that age group reading something every day. The decline is especially sharp among younger children: daily reading rates for five- to eight-year-olds have fallen by 9.1 percentage points since 2019.
The gender gap is widening too. In 2025, 39.1% of girls aged eight to 18 reported enjoying reading, compared with just 25.7% of boys. The National Literacy Trust’s data shows this disparity has been growing steadily, with boys consistently reading for pleasure at lower rates.
The Causes Behind the Crisis
Cottrell-Boyce identified a combination of factors driving the decline, beginning with the pervasive pull of screens. But he placed equal weight on deeper structural issues: austerity, the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and poverty — including what he termed “furniture poverty” in emergency social housing. “No child is going to have a bedtime story if they have not got a bed,” he told MPs.
The link between poverty and low literacy is well established in the UK and is strongly intergenerational. Research cited in the committee’s inquiry shows that children from the poorest families can be up to 19 months behind in their vocabulary by the age of five compared with their better-off peers. At age three, the gap is already stark: children from the lowest income groups are, on average, 17 months behind those from the highest income groups in developmental measures. This early deficit compounds over time, affecting life chances, employability, and even earning potential — adults with functional literacy earn 16% more than those without.
The pandemic has deepened these inequalities. Cottrell-Boyce noted that many early-years workers are among the lowest paid and the youngest in the workforce. “At this point in time, it means many of them have had an incredibly diminished experience of education as a whole because of the pandemic,” he said. These are the very people tasked with introducing the youngest children to books, yet they themselves may have missed out on the pleasures of reading.
Parental engagement is also in decline. Research from March 2026, cited by the Publishers Association, found fewer than half of parents of children aged 0-5 — just 45.9% — read with their child daily, a significant drop since 2019. Barriers include lack of time, the cost of activities and resources, and a lack of confidence among parents who may have had negative experiences of reading themselves. The Education Committee is examining the relationship between reading for pleasure and increased screen time, as well as the role of technologies such as Kindles and audiobooks in either helping or hindering the habit.
A Focus on Solutions
Cottrell-Boyce insisted that fixing the problem does not require vast new spending — much of the necessary infrastructure already exists. What is needed, he said, is a shift in priority. The government should focus on the earliest years, supporting parents and nursery workers to build confidence in reading aloud, particularly those whose own schooling left them feeling incapable. “I think the early years are everything,” he told MPs. “Early years is when the cake is baked. Everything after that is icing or ganache, maybe, and candles and helium balloons. It’s all fun but the cake is what matters.”
He argued that current government policy for young children is largely driven by a desire to free up parents to work. “If that’s your driver for children, then this is literally the least you can do,” he said, referring to support for early reading. His own campaign, “Reading Rights: Books Build a Brighter Future,” aims to tackle what he calls “invisible privilege and inequality” and advocate for national provision of books and reading opportunities from the earliest years.
Rebecca Sinclair, president of the Publishers Association, also gave evidence to the committee, echoing the need for a fundamental shift in attitude. She said reading needs to feel “less worthy” — that parents and schools alike focus on “reading for skill” rather than pleasure, and that there is simply not enough time in the school day to create joy around books.
Despite the grim figures, Cottrell-Boyce said he is optimistic. “I think we can fix it. It seems to me blindingly obvious that what we do is prioritise the pleasure before we get into learning.” He stressed the value of “shared reading” in community settings and said building parental confidence is the key.
The government has responded by designating 2026 as the National Year of Reading, a major initiative led by the Department for Education in partnership with the National Literacy Trust. The campaign, with the slogan “Go All In,” aims to bring together schools, libraries, communities, businesses, and literacy organisations to encourage people of all ages to rediscover the joy of reading and integrate it into daily life. Ministers have also pledged more than £10 million to ensure every primary school in England has a dedicated library space, with the National Literacy Trust aiming to achieve this by 2028. The Education Committee’s inquiry, which heard evidence from the Booksellers Association, the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, the British Dyslexia Association, and the Centre for Social Justice, continues to examine what more can be done to reverse the trend.
