Tackling Loneliness and Connecting Communities

It is important to remind the House of the statistics on loneliness. Some 47% of people over the age of 16 say that they experience some degree of loneliness, and 6% say that they often or always feel lonely. Contrary to what was discussed in the main Chamber debate that I led, it is not older people who now experience the highest levels of loneliness; people aged 16 to 24 are more likely to say they feel lonely often or always. Women are more likely to be lonely than men, and although there is no significant variability by ethnicity, there is for those who suffer poor health, who are disabled or who live in deprived communities. The main challenge of loneliness is that it can affect anyone, regardless of whether they are the chief executive officer at the top or the apprentice at the bottom. It is a subjective emotion, vulnerable to changing circumstances and life’s varying events.

When the Government led by my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) took on board the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness’s recommendations to appoint a loneliness Minister, there was a moment when we worried what our media would say. Would they mock the Government for trying to come up with policy around people’s feelings? Had we gone soft? Is loneliness not something that just affects old people? As it happens, we got nothing but praise, in part because commentators understood then, as they still do now, the impact of loneliness and why there needs to be a Government-led policy approach to tackling it.

In fact, we had interest from around the world. We had ministerial delegations from New Zealand and Japan, and conversations with people from South America and Scandinavia. The world’s media is very interested in what we have been doing in the UK, because loneliness can increase early mortality, disease and poor mental and neurological health. I will not beat around the bush: loneliness is expensive. I am not sure there a definitive figure for how much it costs, but we know it affects the health service through GP appointments, admissions to accident and emergency units and social care. We also know that it has a massive impact on productivity, with one set of figures suggesting that it costs UK employers between £2.2 billion and £3.7 billion a year. Tackling loneliness is good health, social and economic policy, so it is worth doing properly.

The loneliness strategy, which I was proud to author, is a good start. We in the UK lead the world in strategic thinking on tackling loneliness, but others are catching up. The hon. Member for Batley and Spen and I regularly speak to politicians around the world about loneliness; we have become quite the double-act—I hope that strikes fear into the Minister. In recent months, I have attended a conference in Barcelona, and spoken to the Mayor of Buenos Aires about how cities can combat loneliness. From my earlier work, I keep a close eye on what the wonderful US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, is doing and saying on the issue—if colleagues have not read his book, it is well worth doing so. However, I am not afraid to admit that the strategy, as brilliant as it was and as welcome as it was back in October 2018, is probably in need of a huge refresh post covid if we are to maintain our global lead. If there is one good thing about the pandemic, it is that it shone a huge spotlight on loneliness, but we need to get a grip of the issue and urgently revamp some of the excellent initiatives that started but withered, first, due to the lockdown rules, and then due to other priorities.

One measure I am particularly thinking of is social prescribing. There was huge enthusiasm after the launch of the strategy, and to me, as a local politician, it felt extremely positive, but the link workers were reassigned during the pandemic, and since then they have been racing to catch up amid other priorities, and the groups they previously prescribed to have disappeared.

Before the pandemic, working from home was for the few who embraced flexi-working, but now it is fairly standard, which has reduced the connectivity with the workforce for many. Transport services have disappeared from communities, isolating the elderly. We can all tell stories about our constituencies. Mine is about the 155 bus, which has ceased to exist in my villages, increasing loneliness across Burham, Eccles and Wouldam. Youth services, which were pretty patchy before, are non-existent now, leaving youngsters bereft of any connection beyond school. It is beyond the scope of this debate, but it is partly for that reason that I think we should give 16 and 17-year-olds the vote in local elections, to give them a say on the services that affect them.

The rush to build large-scale developments to address the housing shortage has resulted in a decline in community. Estates once promised community centres, green spaces and play areas, but they are now built to an identikit, soulless spec; people come and go but never commune. Finally, there have been cuts to things such as BBC local radio services, sports provision and accessible green spaces. They may be small losses to some, but they are huge to those who need them, such as the one in four people who use radio as a means of combating loneliness. The challenge for everyone, including the Minister, is that there is no one cause of loneliness, so there is no one solution. On this issue, more than ever we need—to use that often-uttered phrase—joined-up thinking.

There are some brilliant projects out there. Let’s Get Chatty is a befriending initiative that started in March 2020 to support residents of Medway in tackling loneliness and isolation. The group, which has won a Pride in Medway award, has grown over the past three years, and runs “Coffee, Chat and Connect” and “Walk and Talk” sessions. Similarly, the Larkfield Community Group, at the other end of my constituency, arranges a buddy scheme, connecting a lonely person with a volunteer buddy for an hour a week to talk, listen and hopefully become a friend. Dr Huq, you have previously mentioned the banking hub in Acton, a vital community resource that helps tackle loneliness.

We have Men in Sheds, active retirement associations, the women’s institutes network, the wider scout and guiding movement, disability sports initiatives, friendly benches, walking groups, more active running groups, church-run groups, refugee services, parental support groups and bereavement clubs—the list goes on and on. I am proud that many of those groups have joined hundreds of other community organisations from across Kent and Medway who have attended my over-55s advice fairs since 2015, connecting constituents with like-minded people, activities and hobbies.

I hope that colleagues will highlight and celebrate the local and national groups they know. They deserve recognition for all their hard work, but we need more of them. We also need stronger national leadership on this issue. I do not mean the Minister, who is wonderful, but we do need to strengthen the cross-Government approach of providing long-term funding to projects, and to upscale and improve the evidence base. We need to incentivise local authorities and their partners to develop local action plans to tackle loneliness and, incidentally, hold them to account on delivery.

Funding has generously been given from central Government to local councils in the past for loneliness projects, but whether they have been delivered or the success of delivery is not transparent. We must invest in the community and social infrastructure needed to build connections, particularly in areas with higher levels of deprivation. My own patch has seen mass development and yet valuable section 106 funding has never been allocated to a community hall or any type of communal facility where people can gather.

We do not even build pubs anymore. Once pubs were the centre of a community; these days, we allow them to decline into disrepair, before they are bulldozed and made into blocks of apartments with no communal space. We need to loneliness-proof all our new transport and housing developments. I have supported a recent application for a brand-new retirement community, which has everything one would want to see to keep people connected in their later lives. I see my right hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark) here, which reminds me of “The Thursday Murder Club” retirement property. That is fiction, but it can turn into reality.

There is so much to celebrate in the UK. We started the global conversation on loneliness, thanks to a cross-party commitment to honour Jo’s legacy. Yes, we find ourselves in challenging times, but that is when those who feel acutely lonely need our strength and determination most. We have passed the pandemic; there are no further excuses. We have the chance now to grip the issue, revamp and refresh the loneliness strategy, and I hope the Minister will do just that.

These events are a brilliant example of how, by coming together to celebrate what we have in common, communities can help create opportunities for connection and offer a pathway out of loneliness and unwanted social isolation. It might feel a bit depressing to think that we have to create situations where people are able to connect, but we have to accept that in recent decades our communities have changed significantly. The pace of life, technology, the internet and changing work patterns are just some of the many factors that in some ways can help us to feel better connected, but in other ways can significantly increase levels of loneliness and isolation.

Loneliness was an issue close to Jo’s heart, which, in her far too short time in this place, she was determined to tackle. From our childhood growing up in Batley and Spen, she knew the importance of social connection and community. We were very lucky to have a close, loving family and a wide network of friends, but when Jo went away to university we both experienced the dark cloud that loneliness can cast over your life. It was a tough time for both of us, and a clear illustration of the words that she spoke much later when she said,

“Loneliness doesn't discriminate and can affect anyone at any stage in their life.”

After her murder, Jo’s work was taken up by my now friends, my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) and Seema Kennedy, the then Conservative MP for South Ribble, as joint chairs of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness. Working with a range of brilliant organisations in the sector, it was their report that led to the appointment of the world’s first ever Minister for loneliness, who is here with us today, and the world’s first ever Government strategy for loneliness.

I remember with much fondness the launch of the loneliness report in Jo Cox House in Batley when I described myself, Rachel Reeves and Seema Kennedy as the latest version of Charlie’s Angels. It was great that we were reunited today at the Great Get Together event next door. I am hugely grateful to everybody who has helped get us to where we are now on the issue of loneliness, and I am very proud, now as an MP myself, to be co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on tackling loneliness and connected communities, working closely with the team from the Red Cross, who provides us with first-class support, and who, along with many others, including the Campaign to End Loneliness, continues to do outstanding work in this area.

As the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford said, given what we have been through during the last few years, this work is more important than ever. We need to make sure we keep the issue of loneliness and the importance of human connection on the political agenda and alive within our communities. It is in our communities where so much of this work should and does happen.

It was through my work with Jo’s foundation and the volunteer group More in Common Batley and Spen that I really began to understand and value the role of the voluntary sector and the grassroots work done day in, day out in all our communities across the whole country to address loneliness and social isolation, and the importance of the broader mission to create well-connected, compassionate communities where everyone has a sense of belonging and identity. That tackles a huge range of issues, not just loneliness. The pandemic, which led to such a terrible loss of life and enormous hardship for so many, demonstrated just how vital communities and connections in our communities are. It is a lesson that I hope we never forget as the covid inquiry begins its work.

Although I pay tribute to the many volunteers and organisations across the country, including, proudly, in my constituency of Batley and Spen, we cannot simply leave it to communities and the voluntary sector to do the work. By adopting the loneliness strategy, the Government recognised that they have a role to play and it is our job to make sure that Ministers do not take their eyes off the ball.

The current cost of living crisis, with persistently high food inflation, has exacerbated problems. When you are strapped for cash, the temptation is to stay at home and batten down the hatches. It costs money to go out and see friends for a coffee or for lunch, or even just to get the bus into town. If you are going to invite your family round, you want to put on a decent spread, but if you cannot afford to do that, perhaps you won’t bother.

Although I am now looking at loneliness through a political lens, this will always be a personal issue to me, not least because through my life and career, like Jo, I have always been very people focused. I do not want to lose that just because I now work in the very different world of politics—a world that I am sure colleagues will agree is, sadly, sometimes detached from the reality of many people’s lives, so I have tried to draw on my life experience during my time here, some of which I have talked about but a lot of which precedes Jo’s murder.

My background is in holistic health and wellbeing, and in education, so I have tried to draw on those different chapters in my life during my time in Parliament. Early this year, I published my “Healthy Britain” report with the Fabian Society, which has been well received. I believe that tackling loneliness has to be part of a wider, cross-departmental, cross-sector and holistic approach to improving the health and wellbeing of the nation. As I said in my report,

“Health, education, transport, housing, planning, employment, culture and leisure policies can all make a dramatic difference to reducing loneliness and improving physical, mental and social wellbeing.”

My report also talks about the need for a much greater focus on prevention and early intervention in many areas of health and wellbeing.

I echo the words of the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford: there is a need for renewed energy and effort on loneliness, and as part of that we need to do much more to identify people who are isolated and to support people at risk of becoming lonely. That requires leadership. Here at Westminster, that means using legislation to ensure that everyone has access to social spaces, that they are not forced into isolation because they do not have reliable transport and, crucially, that if loneliness is affecting their mental or physical health, they can get access to a health professional and see them face to face.

As the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford said, we need to build loneliness out of our communities and build connection into them. We also need to hold the Government to account to make sure that happens. In that regard, I welcome the start the Minister has made on this work and it is great to see him here today. Today’s debate, at this particularly important moment, is a welcome opportunity to refocus all our efforts on this important agenda.

The hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford referred to Men’s Sheds. We have had a proliferation of Men’s Sheds, as I want to illustrate in my contribution. I recently watched a video of a Men’s Shed learning to play the ukulele. Those of us of a certain generation will know what that is, but those who are younger, like the hon. Member for Batley and Spen and others, might not. These men were from the Glen housing estate, and the camaraderie between them was clear to see. When I looked at the men in that video, I saw men who had been recently widowed or who had lost their jobs. In the Men’s Shed, there were hurting men who were healing simply by being with other men and focusing their minds on living and not just existing. That is so important.