Lonely Nation

Loneliness in Britain is worse than ever. During 2023 a quarter of the population felt regularly lonely, a figure that has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the UK leading the way in launching the world’s first loneliness strategy, the problem continues to get worse.

Polling conducted for this report has revealed that seven in ten of 18–24-year-olds say they feel lonely. 29 per cent say they feel a fundamental separateness from other people and the wider world. These figures are worrying. They point to a wider breakdown in the mental health, resilience and sense of hope felt by people today.

This report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) offers a new perspective on loneliness and social isolation. Lonely Nation offers a renewed framework for understanding the crisis of loneliness and isolation facing our communities. Critically, instead of reducing loneliness to a product of individual experience, stigma or a psychological condition, the CSJ root the current loneliness epidemic in its broader cultural context. It does this primarily in understanding that loneliness is one product of a crisis in family stability across Britain. Lonely Nation finds that British families are uniquely fragile and complex and that decades of family breakdown have contributed to the rise of loneliness and isolation today. It considers subjects that others have shied away from, including asking if the decline in marriage has contributed to a rise in loneliness. The CSJ make a convincing case that family must be put at the heart of a refreshed strategy for tackling loneliness.

The challenge for whoever forms the next Government is that these problems cannot be solved with technocratic or statist solutions. The injustice of loneliness, whereby people lack the human relationships intrinsic for human flourishing, can only begin to be solved by a new sense of shared moral purpose. Resolving loneliness requires an approach to Government focused on nurturing human virtue, rather than one simply concerned with addressing material needs. The next Government must appreciate the lives people wish to live and help individuals to live a good life. Lonely Nation offers a hopeful vision of the future. It provides the next Government with a framework for building less lonely communities, underpinned by strengthening families which are at their foundation. It paints a picture of the good life formed in the ordinary relationships of family, friends and local communities.

This report reinforces the need for a new ethical conception of politics that puts human relationships, solidarity, belonging, community and family at the centre. These are the natural instincts of most people in Britain today. Polling in this report shows that over half of adults believe life would be emptier or meaningless without their immediate family members in it. 60 per cent say society is too individualistic.

A less lonely society cannot be built by just relying on state action. It is made at the local level, by the goodwill and service of grassroots charities, voluntary associations and social enterprises. This report is filled with examples of small charities doing their bit to repair the social fabric, help strengthen families and tackle loneliness. By strengthening these small associations, the Government can do much more to tackle loneliness than it ever could do on its own.

To achieve this the next Government should take up the recommendations in this report including reinvesting in relationship support programmes, strengthening statutory paternity leave, rolling out family hubs, removing the couple penalty that exists within the welfare state and helping people bridge the financial barrier to marriage. This would all be underpinned by a new Office for Family and a renewed loneliness strategy that emphasises stronger families and the importance of reducing family breakdown in tackling loneliness.

This year there will be a general election. Political parties will need to show they have grasped the immediate challenges facing the country, as well as contend with a deep sense of disillusionment with politics. This report finds significant public support for its recommendations to strengthen families and rebuild community life. The next Government should place them at the heart of its strategy to tackle loneliness.