How many Brits can trust their neighbour to lend them £30 in an emergency
Key Points
- 36.2% of respondents said they could borrow £30 from a neighbour in an emergency; 55.3% said they could not
- 68.4% agreed their neighbours could be trusted and 64% said people locally help each other
- Only 44.8% described their area as close-knit
- Median social capital score was 4 out of 7 across seven neighbourhood questions
- Findings come from 135,725 self-selecting volunteers and do not represent England as a whole
Just over a third of respondents to the largest loneliness study conducted in England said they could borrow £30 from a neighbour in an emergency.
The Measuring Loneliness in England (INTERACT) study asked 135,725 people how far they trusted the people around them.
On the question of borrowing £30 in an emergency, 28.9% agreed and 7.3% strongly agreed, while 27.9% disagreed and 27.4% strongly disagreed. That made money the weakest of the seven neighbourhood questions the survey put to participants.
On a positive note, practical help fared better than cash. Just over half of respondents, 52.5%, agreed or strongly agreed that a neighbour would shop for groceries if they fell ill, and 64% said people locally were willing to help their neighbours.
General trust scored highest, with 68.4% agreeing or strongly agreeing that people in their neighbourhood could be trusted.
Fewer people described the place they live as close-knit. Only 44.8% agreed or strongly agreed that theirs was a neighbourhood where people generally know one another, and 34.3% said their neighbours did not share the same values.
Outright friction was rare, with 17% agreeing that people locally do not get along with each other. Across all seven questions the median social capital score was 4 out of a possible 7.
The survey also recorded how often people saw anyone at all. In the month before responding, 5.3% of participants had seen or heard from no relatives and 8.8% had seen or heard from no friends, while 24.7% lived alone.
“The key message is not simply that many people feel lonely, but that loneliness is strongly influenced by people’s surroundings, social network, and their environment,” said Austen El-Osta, study lead for INTERACT at Imperial College London’s School of Public Health.
The findings describe the people who took part rather than the population of England.
Researchers recruited volunteers online through NHS primary care networks, charities and social media between March and July 2023, and the resulting sample over-represents women, White respondents, over-65s and graduates.
The authors state that the study cannot estimate how common loneliness or low neighbourhood trust are nationally.
