A glance at recent headlines suggests neighbourliness isn’t exactly in fashion: five-year “war” over “untrimmed” hedge; wellness guru accused of blocking neighbours’ access; shared hedge court “battle”; “fine for noisy rooster leaves neighbours cock-a-hoop”. In March, the Times reported a surge in litigation over boundary disputes; in June, the housing ombudsman told the BBC that antisocial behaviour complaints had doubled in the past five years.
But I don’t believe we’re all living in a simmering neighbour grievance stew, threatening to boil over any second. Almost all of us live in intimate proximity on this small island and vanishingly few cohabitations end in complaints and court. We ranked fourth of 24 countries in trusting our neighbours in the World Values Survey and while the sense of belonging to our neighbourhoods has declined slightly since Covid-19, it is steady at about 60%. Most people try to be decent, tolerating barbecue smoke, straggly privet or escaped tortoises laying waste to their gardens.
