Belong: The Cohesion and Integration Network have released a report 'Beyond Us and Them: Societal Cohesion in Britain Through Eighteen Months of COVID-19' following one of the largest studies ever on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected British society.
The report forms part of the 'Beyond Us and Them' project produced in partnership with the University of Kent and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, studying the effects of the pandemic on societal cohesion.
Following over 39,000 survey responses, 61 focus groups and 256 interviews, the findings of the report indicate:
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a greater sense of national division, but our sense of local unity has remained strong and people’s trust in others has grown over the course of the crisis.
Local authority areas that had prioritised support for social infrastructure and cohesion - and been supported to do so by government investment - proved to be more resilient in the course of the pandemic than other places.
Belong: The Cohesion and Integration Network are calling on the government to:
Draw on the lessons of the pandemic to “build back unity from the bottom up” by channelling moderate investment into local initiatives which build social infrastructure and people’s sense of togetherness.
To firmly embed this approach within the government’s levelling-up plans.
