The great sharing economy

A report into sharing across the UK, by Rachel Griffiths.

The gap between rich and poor in the UK is at the highest since records began. Inequality is rife with 50% of the nation’s population owning just 1% of its wealth. We are bracing ourselves to face consequences of huge public spending cuts, becoming concerned about levels of ‘happiness’ across the nation, and all the while desperately seeking solutions for serious longterm issues such as global warming and global poverty.

How would this change if we shared more?

Why are there 38 million empty car seats on the road every day when the majority of us would prefer to travel with others? The fact that we share less means an increase of around 2% in the number of commuter cars on the road every day.

Sharing makes 8 in 10 of us feel happier, so why aren’t we doing more?

This paper explores attitudes to sharing in the UK, the extent to which we share and hints at the barriers that may prevent us from doing so.

The research shows that there is a very strong will to share more in the UK, but not necessarily a clear way. The research was commissioned by Co-operatives UK and carried out by George Street Research between 1 and 7 June 2011 using a nationally representative sample of UK residents from Research Now’s online panel. In total 1, 018 surveys were completed.