COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT News Release (018) issued by COI News Distribution
Service. 29 January 2009
People feel their
local area is a place where individuals from different backgrounds
get on well together, new figures published today show (29 January).
Headline figures from the citizenship survey show that 82 per
cent of people see their community as cohesive, an increase from
80 per cent in 2005.
Also:
* 76 per cent of people feel that they strongly belong to their
neighbourhood with 81 per cent of people satisfied with their
local area as a place to live
* Older people were more likely to be satisfied with their local
area than younger people (88 per cent of people aged 75 years and over)
The survey is less positive on people feeling their voices are
being heard at a local level. Fewer than 40 per cent of
respondents felt able to influence decisions in their local area.
This is an area the Government is keen to address and has set out
plans - in its Communities in Control White Paper and in new
legislation currently in Parliament - which will go even further
in giving more power to local people.
Cohesion Minister Sadiq Khan said:
"Britain has a proud history of individuals from different
backgrounds living side by side with each other and as this survey
shows there remains more uniting us than dividing us.
"We must not take this for granted though. We need to ensure
that Britain continues to be a place where people are proud to
live and everyone can succeed. That means building on what we have
already done to deliver equal opportunities and racial equality.
"Too few people feel they can influence decisions either at
a local or national level. This is something we must address and
why we are giving people more power to have a greater say in the
way that local decisions that affect them are made."
These findings come from the Citizenship Survey: April -
September 2008 (covering the first two quarters of data from the
2008-09 survey).
Every year almost 15,000 people are asked for their views on
issues around community cohesion, discrimination, values, civic
engagement and interaction. The biggest survey of its kind in the
UK, the survey is one of the key tools used by Government to
measure the effect of its policies.
The full survey is available on the Communities and Local
Government website. Among the key findings are
Community Cohesion and belonging
* 76 per cent of people felt they belonged strongly to their
neighbourhood, an increase from 70 per cent in 2003
* 81 per cent of people were satisfied with their local area as a
place to live
* Older people were more likely to be satisfied with their local
area than younger people. Levels of satisfaction were highest
among those aged 75 years and over (88 per cent) and lowest among
those aged 16-24 years old (76 per cent)
* 81 per cent of people mixed socially at least once a month with
people from different ethnic or religious backgrounds
Active and empowered communities
* 39 per cent of people feel they can influence decisions
affecting their local area. 22 per cent feel they could influence
decisions affecting Great Britain. Both measures remain unchanged
since 2007/08 but both have fallen since 2001
* 41 per cent of adults have volunteered formally at least once
in the 12 months prior to interview
Discrimination
* 10 per cent of people said that racial or religious harassment
was a big problem in their local area. A higher proportion of
people from ethnic groups (20 per cent) thought that racial or
religious harassment was a problem compared to White people (9 per cent)
* 8 per cent of people from minority ethnic groups who felt they
have been refused a job for reasons of race compared with 2 per
cent of White people who felt they were refused a job on these grounds
Notes to editors
1. The Citizenship Survey is a face to face household survey
carried out on behalf of Communities and Local Government covering
a representative core sample of almost 10,000 adults in England
and Wales each year. There is also a minority ethnic boost sample
of 5,000 to ensure that the views of these groups are robustly
represented. It asks about a range of issues including views about
the local area, community cohesion, racial and religious prejudice
and discrimination, values, interaction/mixing, political
efficacy, civic engagement, volunteering and charitable giving.
2. The survey was first carried out in 2001 and was carried out
every two years. Since 2007 the survey is being conducted on an
annual basis with headline findings available every quarter. A
full report is published once a year.
The full Statistical Release can be found here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/citizenshipsurveyq2200809
Media Enquiries: 020 7944 3288
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