UK ministers will be under far less pressure to raise taxes in the coming years to pay for the costs of the country’s ageing population because of falling birth rates, declining life expectancy and rising immigration.

Although the UK population is ageing, making it more expensive for taxpayers to provide public services, fewer children and pensioners than previously expected and more immigrants will all ease the pressures on the public finances, according to Financial Times analysis of the latest official predictions on demographic trends.

It means the government will have to find just ￡13bn in extra taxation to fund public services each year by the end of the decade, or 0.4 per cent of national income, instead of the ￡69bn implied by previous estimates for population changes by the UK statistical agency.