Britain's new social class

Saturday August 5, 2006

A decade after their lager-swilling heyday, Britain's New Lads of the 1990s have turned into male versions of singleton Bridget Jones.

Research published this week identified a new social class: the "regretful loner". They are men aged between 35 and 45, who live alone, and have either failed to settle down, or are the victims of failed relationships and separated families.

Even worse, the RLs have also become the latest bete noire of the environmental lobby. Thanks largely to the group's increasing affluence, academics believe that the unchecked growth of this social class is on the verge of causing a consumption crisis.

The growing generation of ageing single men also stands accused of putting a critical strain on Britain's healthcare services.

Research showed that one in five single men fail to tell anyone - even their doctors - about their health problems.

For men in a stable relationship, the figure falls to 7 per cent.

"Women tend to talk a lot more openly to their friends about health and wellbeing issues, whereas our research shows that men are more private," says Dr Chris Dark, of the medical insurer PruHealth.

As a result, men who live alone double their risk of heart disease. Last month's Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health discovered that the two strongest indicators for severe angina, heart attacks or sudden death, were age and living alone.

The rise of the Regretful Loner appears to be rooted in the the growth in divorce and family break-up throughout the 1980s and 1990s. As a result, as many as five million extra homes will have to be built in Britain over the next 20 years.

Academics are exploring new ways for Britain to cope with the change in living habits. Dr Jo Williams, of UCL's Bartlett School of Planning, says one-person households consume 38 per cent more products, 42 per cent more packaging, 55 per cent more electricity and 61 per cent more gas than their paired-up contemporaries.

"The rise in younger, one-person households is having an increasingly serious impact on the environment, but we have identified possible opportunities which arise from the group's expansion and diversification.

"Regretful Loners who are forced into living alone by circumstances create demand for more collaborative lifestyles, such as more widespread co-housing schemes, where you have a private space such as a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, but share some living and storage areas."

The RLs may take a bit of persuading, though. They frequently cite "freedom" as a reason for staying single.

"I'm quite happy living alone, and I'm certainly not a regretful loner," says Simon Beckett, a 32-year-old business publishing editor.

"My marital status is hopeful. I haven't been in a relationship for a while, but I'm certainly not averse to the odd date.

"There's a time and a place for living with other people, and it's called university. Once you earn a few quid, you can afford the personal space.

"I have all the trappings of the single male lifestyle: the Sky Plus, DVD, Xbox and a widescreen TV, but I do my bit for the environment. I don't drive, and I try not to create waste in the first place.

"And, unlike married people, I don't have kids to splurge vast amounts of money and resources on. In fact, I would say that living in a small flat like mine ought to mark me, and others like me, out as environmentally responsible."

Either way, it's not as if the single male isn't already the victim of persecution from corporate Britain.

The Association of British Insurers says insurance firms routinely charge single males more than any other social group. "Statistics show that people in stable relationships make fewer claims," says a spokesman.

Not surprisingly, the "RL" label is widely rejected by the men to whom it is supposedly applied. Most RLs see their single status as a lifestyle choice.

One of the most famous living RLs, the eternal bachelor Hugh Grant, helped cement the single male's status as "cool" icon playing Will Freeman in the 2002 film About a Boy.

Nick Hornby - whose 1998 novel inspired the film - leapt to the defence of the maligned breed of males.

"One of the things that I was trying to do with that book was to write about someone who was not a "regretful" loner, but who did it because it was the easiest and healthiest, and most comfortable way to live."

For Hornby, the unhappily single man is far less of a social danger than the unhappily married-with-kids.

"There's a line in the book when Will is being told that he's immature and selfish, and [he] says, 'Why am I being selfish, if it's only me?' There's a possibility with a lot of these sort that they would go on being selfish within the confines of a family, and that, surely, is even worse."