Britons 'are more traditional than they think they are'

Insurance companies, who deal with most of the properties and contents in the UK, keep up with researching trends in family life. The Norwich Union has found, however, that most people's lives mirror one that would be recognised by their parents' generation.

The top five surnames in the UK are Smith, Jones, Williams, Brown and Taylor and the top five house names are 'The Cottage', 'Rose Cottage', 'The Bungalow', 'The Coach House' and 'The Lodge'. People still say that they value their photographs above all else (36 per cent of responses) and also in the top five of the choice of possessions are jewellery, music collections and the audio-visual players which let them enjoy them.

Times are changing slightly, however, as people also value their computers or games consoles in the top five.

Simon Warsop, head of home insurance at Norwich Union, says: "Our study provides a fascinating glimpse into the average British home in 2008.

"Contrary to popular belief, it reveals that we are a lot more traditional than we think we are. We are still enjoying holidays in Spain, we still live pretty close to our family and, yes, those wedding and baby pictures are still pride of place in our homes. But of course the tell-tale signs of modern life are creeping into even the most traditional households - the Xbox is up there with the television, computer and games consoles beat the prized record collection and we're spending nearly 13 hours a day away from our home - either at work or enjoying a new found leisure time."

Top five items claimed by Britons using their home contents insurance policy in 2007 were a Hitachi television, Sandisk camera memory card, Toshiba laptop, Sony Playstation and a Microsoft Xbox 360.

06/06/2008 12:33:22