Last month, Keir Starmer warned the UK was at risk of becoming an “island of strangers”. His speech was primarily concerned with the cultural and economic impact of migration – and has since been criticised for echoing far-right rhetoric.
The focus was wrong. Had the Prime Minister centred his speech around the concept of loneliness, it would have had a radically different tone – and left a radically different impression. This speech would not have talked about the alleged negative impact of the UK’s migrant communities, but instead reflected that loneliness in the UK has been steadily increasing over the last decade. We are an “island of strangers” in as far as people in the UK do not have as many social connections as they would like – and the UK’s Black and Minority Ethnic people are more likely to experience loneliness in their communities and at work.
Perhaps coincidentally, Starmer’s speech coincided with Mental Health Awareness Week, and the central theme this year was ‘community’. The campaign highlighted two important ideas: that experiences of loneliness and social isolation can negatively impact mental health; and that those living with mental illness are more likely to experience loneliness and social isolation. Humans are social animals, and the ability of people to connect with family, friends, neighbours, and their local community affects people’s mental health and wellbeing. This is something that many of us experienced in big and small ways during the Covid-19 pandemic, as people took the important and necessary precautions to isolate.
If we talk about the UK as an “island of strangers”, we should be thinking about why it is so difficult for people to connect socially – and what is lost when we are living without community.
The state of social infrastructure
Could one reason for the increase in documented loneliness be due to the pressures that the UK’s social infrastructures have been put under in recent years? Social infrastructures are the spaces and places that facilitate social connections – the libraries, parks, pubs, cafes, churches, music venues and sports fields, to name a few, where people connect and spend time together. As recent research by New Local has highlighted, spaces such as Community Centres are often central pillars of their neighbourhood. Social infrastructures make it easier for people to do an activity together, and build the cooperation and trust that are the bedrock of community.
Yet, since 2010: 800 libraries have shut ; 7,000 pubs; one in seven high-street shops; 400 Swimming pools; and 1,200 youth centres. The loss of any one of these spaces is sad. But the erosion of entire networks of social infrastructure leaves many neighbourhoods, towns, and cities with nowhere people can comfortably and affordably spend time with one another. That makes it more difficult to maintain relationships that help mitigate loneliness, social isolation, and poor mental illness.
Health, wellbeing and community
This is one reason the Bennett Institute’s recent Measuring Social and Cultural Infrastructure report is so important. It provides an accessible framework that can support policymakers and local community organisations to understand what social infrastructure they have on their doorstep, and why these spaces should be protected. It does this by providing a step-by-step guide for identifying, measuring, and reporting on what social infrastructures communities have access to.
At the report’s launch event, on 30 April at the British Academy, I commented that the next iteration of the report should focus on capturing the value of the social connections supported by social infrastructure. Here, I was thinking less about the economic value of these social connections – the case for which is already strong – and more about the value in the breadth and depth of social relations supported by different social infrastructures. Might it be possible to evidence multiple benefits for health, wellbeing, friendships, and – vitally – the way social infrastructures create those moments of joy and meaning that make life worthwhile. Surely doing that would consolidate the argument for why policymakers at every level, from parish councils through to national Government, should strive to make the UK an island of communities.
Social connection
In our research at the Institute for Community Studies, and at The Young Foundation more widely, we have found many seeds of hope.
First is that it does not take much to catalyse the formation of strong social relationships. In our work in Basingstoke, we found that a group of local people were ready to build strong social connections with each other, their neighbours, and their wider community. All they needed was an excuse to organise, and a small amount of funding to compensate them for their work as community researchers. As we reflected here, investment in social infrastructure and creating platforms for place-based decision-making can help build a movement of neighbours.
Second, the mechanisms for facilitating social connection are becoming clearer and clearer. In my review of the impact of university green spaces on health and wellbeing for the National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA), I found a strong body of evidence that highlighted the positive impact that university green spaces have on mental and physical health. It is not the simple presence of green space that makes the difference, but the fact that green spaces are places where people play sport together, walk together, grow food together, volunteer together. Recognising green spaces as social infrastructure is, therefore, important – and an effective tool for countering social isolation.
It is important that we continue to build the evidence base on the relationships between social connection, mental health and wellbeing, and understand the role that social infrastructure can play.
The Institute for Community Studies’ research on the Community Ownership Fund has highlighted the importance of researching difference mechanisms to help communities save assets and amenities at risk of closure. But we need to go further. We are keen to explore the viability of further models to ensure all communities have access to the social infrastructures they need – and interested in learning how to maximise the potential of social infrastructure. What does ‘good’ social infrastructure look like? What makes the difference between a park that is unloved and unused, and one that is vibrant and popular?
Over the coming months I will be mapping university owned green spaces across Tower Hamlets, Bristol, Sheffield and Newcastle, to explore how these spaces might best support the health and wellbeing of their local communities. The piece of work is designed to help universities maximise the civic impact of their existing assets – and hopefully increase the access that local communities have to high quality social infrastructure.
Why neighbours matter
The Prime Minister warned we are at risk of becoming an “island of strangers”. He’s not wrong, he’s just not right either.
If we are, it is highly unlikely to be because of the UK’s migrant communities. It is more likely to be because we have slowly but surely eroded the foundations of the social infrastructures that can help turn strangers into neighbours. Every closed library, youth club, and leisure centre represents fewer spaces where people can connect. Fewer spaces for young people to spend time. Fewer spaces where the people we live alongside in our neighbourhoods, towns, and cities might become more than strangers.
If we want the UK to become an island of community then we need to stop viewing social infrastructure as a nice-to-have. Spaces to connect can help mitigate loneliness, support the nation’s mental health and wellbeing, and make the places that we live places where people flourish.
It is time to make the UK an island of community, an island where everyone has somewhere to go, something to do, and someone to do it with.
The Institute for Community Studies at The Young Foundation is a partner in the new UKRI -funded Centre for Collaboration in Community Connectedness (C4), based at Sheffield Hallam University. Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss the topics raised in this article, or share insights into how university green spaces are being used to support mental health and wellbeing in Tower Hamlets, Bristol, Sheffield, or Newcastle.
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