Shared Values and Growing Division: What a New Study Shows About Britain

A 2026 survey commissioned by the policy-and-polling firm Public First interviewed 6,000 adults and held 300 focus-group sessions across the United Kingdom. Respondents were asked to rank values they associate with being British and to assess the nation’s social climate. The research found overwhelming agreement that hard work, fairness and community define British identity, yet more than two-thirds of participants said the country feels more divided than ever.

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• Hard work was named the top British quality by 70 % of those surveyed.

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• Community received an 80 % endorsement as the condition under which Britain is at its best.

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• Fairness (e.g., queue-keeping) was cited as the clearest shared value.

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• Only 27 % believed the Royal Family plays the biggest role in upholding British values.

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• 62 % of people who had volunteered in the past month felt optimistic about their local area’s future, compared with 25 % of non-volunteers.

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• Fewer than one-in-three respondents felt hopeful about the UK’s overall future, while 70 % thought conditions had worsened over the previous five years.

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• 50 % said immigration had a negative impact on the UK; only 20 % felt that cultural diversity made them proud to live there.

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Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, warned that the nation is “more divided” and called for politics that promote peaceful resolution of differences. Trevor Pears, chair of the Pears Foundation (the study’s funder), urged more community-building initiatives such as the annual Big Lunch. Labour leader Andy Burnham, on his summer “listening” tour, pledged to “bring back hope” but acknowledged the challenge of appealing across a fragmented electorate.

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The findings arrive as no party polls above 25 %, and politicians are increasingly using divisive rhetoric. The report suggests that messaging framed positively around the identified values outperforms grievance-based appeals, offering a potential pathway for parties seeking to reconnect with a public that still values fairness, hard work and community despite feeling divided.

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• “When you talk to people across Britain it’s clear they have a shared set of values – if fairness is Britain’s moral compass, hard work is its character and community the thing that binds us,” — Olivia Walsham, the director of social policy at the policy and polling research firm

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• “Politics should be about articulating how people feel about the world, but also the peaceful resolution of differences,” — Sunder Katwala, the director of British Future

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• “The values that unite us haven’t disappeared but no one is speaking to them,” — Olivia Walsham, the director of social policy at the policy and polling research firm

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• “Politicians should start by recognising people’s everyday values – fairness, hard work and community. Then they might fan the flames of a hopeful, shared patriotism that the country so desperately needs.” — Trevor Pears, the chair

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