To someone who is used to doing hill starts without the handbrake this never causes a problem. When parking on a steep hill you *always* turn your wheels against the kerb so it is impossible for your car to roll down the hill. It's good advice even if you are planning to use the handbrake to pull away because your handbrake might fail while you are away from the vehicle.
Even if you don't do that and hit the other car, it's not exactly going to cause any damage if you only start 1 inch away from them.
On "normal" hills around here no car seems to roll back more than a couple of inches, but I must admit I haven't really been paying that much attention.
Never seen anybody heel & toe it outside the UK, there is no need. I've never had anyone leave less than a foot to my car on a *flat* road, let alone a 1:3 hill where most people would probably leave a good metre or two. On a 1:3 hill I suspect many UK drivers would roll back even *with* using the handbrake.
Have you ever driven much in any country outside the UK? They all seem to get on fine without using the handbrake for doing hill starts. Rolling back really isn't a problem and many of them thought I was mad for saying I normally use the handbrake for hill starts and I couldn't in this car.
