Distrust thy neighbour: community relations sour in pandemic

NEIGHBOURLY distrust has grown more than fivefold since summer 2020, with one in five people now saying relations have soured in their community.

Although a quarter of people (25 per cent) reported greater trust in their neighbourhoods, up from 7 per cent, nearly the same proportion – 22 per cent – reported a deterioration, up from just 4 per cent last July.

The survey was carried out by researchers at University College London (UCL) who have been monitoring the attitudes of more than 70,000 people throughout the pandemic.

Nearly one in five (17 per cent) said last month that they felt less cohesive, close and had fewer shared values with their neighbours.

While the number of people who thought neighbourhood support had improved rose from 28 per cent to 35 per cent, the number who said it had deteriorated also jumped from 5 per cent to 15 per cent. The downturn in neighbourly harmony for some follows a year in which both Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, urged people to report neighbours who flouted lockdown rules.

Police forces were inundated with calls from neighbours reporting the breaking of rules, with South Yorkshire Police registering 871 calls in a single week in January.

During the winter lockdown, Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said the force received hundreds of calls a day from people reporting rule breaches. In one weekend in January, the Met issued 140 fixed penalty notices totalling £39,000, in Tower Hamlets and Hackney alone.

While officials warned that those who broke the rules put everyone in danger, critics argued that encouraging informing on neighbours would cause an unhealthy climate of suspicion.

A Yougov survey from September found that a quarter of people in Britain would have informed on their neighbour for breaking the rule of six.

Dr Elise Paul, lead author of the report from UCL’S Institute of Epidemiology and Health, said: “There have been positive improvements in the way we feel about our neighbours, when compared to before the pandemic.

“That said, some people now experience worsening of neighbourhood relations. Much has changed over the last 18 months, with limits to our freedom, how we interact with others and changes to how we shop and travel.

“Perhaps these restrictions have caused some to feel less satisfied with life in their community.”