Nearly half of British adults belong to no community organisation at all, according to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who warns that reversing this civic recession must become a central priority for Prime Minister Andy Burnham this autumn. Brown argues that tackling the decline of clubs, associations, and voluntary groups is essential to Burnham's ambition of putting citizens back in control of their communities.
The Scale of Britain's Civic Decline
Brown cites sobering statistics: trade union membership has halved from over 13 million in 1979 to under 7 million in 2025. Church of Scotland membership has fallen from 1.3 million in the 1950s to less than 300,000 today. The Women's Institute has dropped from a peak of 470,000 members in the 1950s to about 170,000 now. Since 2000, the UK has lost approximately 1,200 youth centres.
Working men's clubs, once central to industrial communities, have declined from 4,000 in the 1970s to about 1,800 today, with membership falling from 4 million to under 1 million. The number of pubs has dropped from 75,000 in the 1960s to roughly 45,000. Volunteering, which briefly surged during the pandemic, has fallen from 27% of adults a decade ago to just 17% now.
Beyond Formal Memberships: The Breakdown of Everyday Relationships
The breakdown extends beyond formal memberships to informal relationships, Brown notes, with soaring numbers of young people in England reporting having no close friends at all. He compares the neglect of civic infrastructure to the public outcry that would follow if roads, railways, or cash machines failed, insisting that the quiet erosion of community life demands urgent repair.
This trend is not unique to Britain. A survey of over 30,000 people in 20 countries shows that civic decline, alongside economic decline, helps explain widespread loss of trust, nostalgia for the past, and lower tolerance. Brown warns that this sense of decline combined with social isolation encourages a zero-sum worldview, where people see life as a struggle between “us” and “them,” potentially undermining commitment to democracy and international cooperation.
Proposed Solutions: From Civic Capital to Youth Service
Brown advocates for what he calls “double devolution” – extending power beyond local authorities to local communities. He suggests an opt-out national community service for young people, a remodelled Pride in Place programme, legislating participatory budgeting, and designing services to be more accessible. These should be part of a nationwide consultation on rebuilding community life.
Drawing on a Danish law that requires municipalities to fund voluntary associations, Brown proposes a UK civic capital fund to guarantee support for those forming or joining clubs, with the stipulation that they are open to all and contribute to the common good. The fund could assist with travel, venue hire, and membership fees.
Civic Education, Local News, and Digital Communities
Civic education and volunteering hours in school curricula have proven effective, from Ontario's mandatory pupil volunteering to Sweden's school councils with real decision-making powers. Brown also suggests an Erasmus-style exchange between UK nations and regions to help young people connect across divides.
Areas without quality local news see the least civic activity and are more prone to online misinformation, Brown notes. He supports expanding the BBC local democracy reporting service and highlights the Facebook page Love Kirkcaldy, which has nearly 60,000 members – roughly the population of the wider town – and brings people together face to face.
Brown concludes that successful community organisations are those we feel we own. The most effective way to build civic society, he says, is one person inviting another to join in. When neighbours speak of “our school” and “our community centre” rather than “the school,” a community has been reborn. Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010.
