This content applies to England only.

In response to Britain’s increasingly diverse society, the Government and housing professionals are looking at ways to improve 'community cohesion'.

When a community works, a neighbourhood feels much more like home.

What is community cohesion?

Community cohesion is about improving the way a community interacts – ensuring that all its members can participate in social activities and access services without suffering a sense of exclusion based on their ethnic background, faith, disability or age. Community cohesion is a way to promote interaction and understanding between different groups of people, and through this generate a sense of trust and community spirit.

In this way, community cohesion is seen as a means to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. Evidence suggests that when communities are segregated by age, income, ethnicity and household make-up, they are more likely to experience increased tensions.

Overcoming barriers to community cohesion

Sometimes barriers to community cohesion exist because the specific needs of groups within the community are not catered for. For example, Shelter research ‘The Advice Gap’ found that black, minority, and ethnic (BME) groups face many barriers when accessing housing advice, even though they suffer disproportionately higher levels of housing problems.[1]

[1] Michael Bell Associates, The Advice Gap: a study of barriers to housing advice for people from black and minority ethnic communities, Shelter, London, 2007.