Archive for March 29th, 2010

AXA’s Community Challenge Reveals The West Midlands Steers Clear Of Neighbours And Prefers To Drive To Shopps For Sugar

• Six in 10 in the West Midlands, the highest in the country – drive to the shops for a cup of sugar rather than borrow from a neighbour
• We are emotionally distant from next door – one in four don’t even know neighbours’s names
• However, almost half of us feel living in a community is important
• And more people in the West Midlands are members of Neighbourhood Watch than anywhere else in the UK
• AXA and Neighbourhood Watch launch quest to find the nation’s number one, enter at www.axa.co.uk

AXA and Neighbourhood Watch are calling for people in the West Midlands to show Britain how close-knit the community you live in is.

AXA Home Insurance is today launching a nationwide search to rekindle the nation’s lost community spirit. With the support of Neighbourhood Watch, the UK-wide community association, AXA’s Community Challenge will find the best community in Britain and that community will win AXA’s support to help turn a local project into a reality.

Emotionally distant

The move comes as new research[1] reveals that every six out of 10 of us in the West Midlands would rather drive to the shops than ask a neighbour for a cup of sugar.

It seems some of us will go to great lengths to avoid speaking to our neighbours these days. While previous generations wouldn’t have thought twice about popping next door if they’d forgotten something off their weekly shop, today we prefer to get in the car.

The research, commissioned by AXA Home Insurance into the state of community spirit, has found that we are now so emotionally distant from our neighbours that only a quarter of us (25%) in the region know our neighbour’s names and one in nine (11%) of us admit we’ve never helped a neighbour as we don’t know them or would not feel comfortable doing so.

Three-quarters of us (75%), among the highest in the country – don’t socialise with our neighbours, and rather than popping next door for a friendly cuppa when someone moves in, more than one in five of us (23%) can’t even bring ourselves to say hello on the street.

Everybody needs good neighbours

Despite this, four in 10 (41%) admit that a neighbour’s willingness to help others is the key to giving a sense of community, and 49% acknowledge that a community is important. In fact, for three-quarters (62%), the key benefits of living in a community are friendliness closely followed by helpfulness (53%).

Also crucial for most of us is the fact that living in a community makes us feel safer (54%): while the majority of us (82%) feel safe in our area during the day, by the time darkness falls, almost a quarter (23%) feel wary.

However, a high number are involved with community, with 35% involved in local organisations such as church, the PTA and Neighbourhood Watch. In fact, more people in the West Midlands are involved with the latter than in any other part of the country.

Recession bites

But it’s not all down to us: the survey shows what a major impact the recession has had on people’s sense of community, with 17% saying it has made things worse and one in 10 (10%) blaming it for creating a ‘think for yourself’ culture.

While four in 10 (40%) cite local shops as being key for shaping a community, almost a third (29%) have seen their local independent shops close, 46% have noticed a rise in unemployment, while 17% say they have seen a rise in crime levels.

Amanda Edwards of AXA Home Insurance said: “It’s worrying to see how few of us can turn to a neighbour for even a cup of sugar these days. However, it seems that it’s not that we don’t like them; it’s more that so many of us simply don’t get to know our neighbours anymore, so would naturally feel awkward about asking for something.

That said, belonging to a community is still important for half of us which is why we at AXA Home Insurance have teamed up with Neighbourhood Watch to launch our search to find Britain’s Best Community.

Roy Rudham, Chairman of the United Kingdom Neighbourhood Watch Trust (UKNWT), added: “It’s the simple things that make a community a great place to live: good amenities, schools, and transport, and especially people. When you have neighbours looking out for one another, the place you live automatically becomes friendlier, safer, and transforms an area into a place you feel truly at home. We’re looking forward to finding out which of Britain’s communities combines all of these attributes and calls itself the best.

AXA Home Insurance Community Challenge

The AXA Home Insurance Community Challenge runs from 22 March 2010 to 31 August 2010 with AXA and Neighbourhood Watch announcing the best UK community in October 2010. Communities will be evaluated based on criteria such as the most neighbourly, the safest, or the cleanest.

Community members can enter their local area into the competition by downloading a PDF form from www.axa.co.uk and www.neighbourhoodwatch.net and return by email to axa@community-challenge.org.uk or post to AXA Community Challenge, PO Box 64189, London WC1A 9EJ by the closing date. The best community in each UK region and an overall winner will be chosen by a panel and announced in early October.

More information on AXA’s Community Challenge can be found at www.axa.co.uk.

[1] The research was completed by OnePoll in March 2010 amongst 2,000 UK adults for AXA Home Insurance.