General Election - Special Update

We have used Urban Life to report on your voting intentions and attitudes towards the election in the run up to it. Now we have the definitive answer on what actually happened on the big day itself among Urban Life voters. Unlike the apathy seen amongst the general public on voting day, three quarters of Urbanites who were eligible to vote did so on May 5th. And here's how the votes fell:

Liberal Democrats	36%
Labour	29%
Conservatives	21%

So had it been up to you, the UK government would look somewhat different now!

When you compare these actual results with who you claimed you were going to vote for at the beginning of the campaign, we can see that quite a few minds were changed over the course of the election campaign. Only 80% of voters who originally said they were going to vote for each of the main 3 parties actually did so.

Voting intention (end Feb)		Actual votes
Labour		14% went to Lib Dems
Conservatives		12% went to Lib Dems
		6% went to Labour
Liberal Democrats		11% went to Labour
		6% went to Conservatives
Green Party		36% went to Lib Dems
		18% went to Labour
		4% went to Conservatives

We also wanted to know what influence all the campaigning had on these "swinging" votes, as not only did a fifth of you say you had changed your minds in the final run-up to May 5th, but 1 in 10 said your change of heart came when you actually made your selection on the ballot paper.

The main activities influencing these swinging votes were: having spent more time thinking about it (39%), policies discussed during the campaign (15%), reading manifestos (12%) and campaign material through the door (11%). We even had 6% who just said that they panicked at the last minute!

Before Election Day, we commented that the result would be partly dependent on which way the high numbers of "don't knows" decided to vote. Well here's what happened:

Voting intention (end Feb)		Actual votes
Don't know		33% went to Labour
		31% went to Lib Dems
		19% went to Conservatives

"NONE OF THE ABOVE please!"

Something that became clear throughout our research, was the significant numbers of Urbanites who were not particularly convinced by any of the candidates standing for election. Almost 3 in 10 voters said that they would have chosen "none of the above" on their ballot paper had that been an option, demonstrating the need for new candidates to come forward to whom Urbanites could better relate. However, only 2% of this group decided to deliberately spoil their ballot papers in order to register their dissatisfaction.

38% of you are pet owners

Cats (20%), fish (11%) and dogs (9%) are the most popular Urbanite pets. Not all of our Urban Life members stick to the norm though, with the more unusual pets including tortoises, tarantulas, chinchillas and sea monkeys.

Perhaps a symptom of city-living, 17% of your cats are kept indoors permanently because you live in flats (31%), live by busy roads (18%) or have inherited what was already an "indoor" cat (12%).

Whiskas is still the number one cat food, but it seems this choice is dictated more by the cats themselves than by their owners!

34% of our cat owners said they choose the brand they do because it's nutritionally balanced, but the most common reason (36%) was simply because their cat won't eat anything else. It seems possible that 9 out of 10 cats do prefer Whiskas after all!

Urbanites and the Property Ladder

51% of Urban Lifers have a mortgage, for whom over half of you it is the first property you have ever owned. Almost one in ten of these properties owned are brand new buildings, as opposed to resale property.

Current estimated average Urbanite property value: London £256,500, Non-London £152,500

Current estimated average positive equity in your property: London £110,600, Non-London £63,400

Second home-owners:

Almost a tenth of you own a second property, predominantly as a "Buy to Let" investment (6% own in the UK and 3% own abroad). Furthermore, 13% of those who have just the one property at the moment might be interested in buying a second one as an investment in the next 12 months.

Non-home owners

Money is by far the main reason why many Urban Lifers haven't bought property yet - either you don't have enough money, enough deposit or enough to buy in the area you want to live in. Nevertheless, nearly a quarter of you think you will 'probably' or 'definitely' buy in the next 12 months. On average, Londoners have saved £9,700 for a deposit so far and non-Londoners have saved £4,300.

Your Hobbies

The Top Ten Urbanite Hobbies

MEN	%	WOMEN	%
Music	43%	Reading	57%
Reading	37%	Music	44%
Football	24%	Cooking	33%
Cooking	23%	Gym	27%
Gym	22%	Walking	23%
Walking	19%	Keep fit / Aerobics	20%
Photography	19%	Swimming	18%
DIY	16%	Dancing	14%
Cycling	13%	Photography	13%
Swimming	13%	Running /Jogging	12%

The list of your hobbies is pretty extensive, with 24 other activities not named above being stated as things you consider to be your "main" hobbies.