BRITONS are more suspicious of one another than ever before. Our willingness to trust each other has halved over the past 40 years as communities and families have been fractured by social change, according to a senior Downing Street adviser.

The study of trust in Britain and around the world has been made by Cambridge University academic David Halpern, a member of the Downing Street strategy unit, Tony Blair’s personal think tank.

His work reflects a government drive to determine what makes people happy and how better to tackle related issues such as antisocial behaviour, vandalism and street crime.

The research shows that in the late 1950s, 60% of the population believed that other people “could generally be trusted”. In the early 1980s the figure stood at 44%. Now it has dropped to just 29% and is thought still to be falling.

Experts variously blame the demise of the job-for-life culture, greater social mobility, the rising divorce rate, greater immigration and a more aggressive dog-eat-dog commercial ethic. The result, they suggest, is less freedom, poorer health and less happiness overall.

The research shows that Britain is not alone. It is one of a block of English-speaking nations, including America, Australia and Ireland, that have all seen levels of trust decline in the past 20 years. By contrast, trust in Scandinavian countries has risen — Denmark and Sweden are the most trusting nations in Europe, with nearly 70% of people saying that they trust others.

Despite its greater job security, France has one of the lowest levels of trust in Europe, with barely one in five trusting other people. Experts say this may be partly explained by recent tensions over immigration but also point to the country’s experience in the second world war when it was effectively divided by the formation of Vichy France.

Halpern believes that increasing prosperity could be fuelling the decline in trust in Britain. “You use your wealth to free yourself of the inconvenience of other people. You ensure you have your own house, and you don’t even have to watch TV with your family because you have five TVs,” he said.

Othery is the kind of English village where you would expect children to scamper in the street and villagers to leave their doors unlocked at night. But even in this idyllic Somerset hamlet, whose 600 citizens still stand each other pints in the London Inn and kneel side-by-side in St Michael’s church every Sunday, people are less trusting than they used to be.

“Things have definitely changed,” said Tonya Maisey, 42, who runs the village bakery, “When I was growing up I knew everyone in the village, but now people come and go. I still know people would help me if I were in trouble, but you have to be wary.”

Although rural villages are by no means the worst affected, the fall in levels of trust in Othery is symptomatic of what is happening throughout Britain.

Commenting on Halpern’s research, Richard Reeves, a social affairs analyst, said: “We’re not just talking about being happy to chat in the lift. What we’re talking about is that people believe most people can’t be trusted most of the time and it is difficult, but not impossible, to trust someone who you don’t know well.”

Social scientists say the reasons for increasing mistrust in Britain are complex. We live busier, more fractured lives and are much less likely to live near relatives or to know our neighbours than 20 years ago.

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