To feel so sad about what happened to our town?

I feel the problem is business rates , none of the shops local to us can afford them but the council need the money.

I feel the solution could be to get rid of business rates and fill the gap with an online transaction tax of say 2% on all online buying. This money could be hypothecated to replace money from the rates.

It may be that it can be less than 2% due to the sheer volume of transactions. This way the likes of Amazon pay to help struggling high streets, get shops back and the towns footfall should increase and feel a lot safer for people to use

I had a niche bricks and mortar shop with a large virtual following. I tried to keep it going single handed after my DP died two years ago before I closed it just around Christmas. No footfall. I was encouraged to keep going as well, I needed to make a living (ha) and I had cheerleaders. No customers mind. I'm in around 10 grands worth of debt because my mindset was wrong apparently and I wasn't positive enough to manifest success.....

A similar shop has just opened up in a creative market space in the centre if town. (So minimal overheads). I see on social media my alleged customers fawning Over this new venture. It's hard not to be bitter or take it personally but I'm assured it's market forces and nothing personal.

I'm not an online fan - and I hear that many small online businesses are also folding.

I'm never going back into retail again.

Another thread worth checking out is the one about the Carers Allowance scandal. Another barometer of the ideological strategies at play.

But in many cases it really did affect them horribly and will continue to impact negatively for generations to come.

Ebbw Vale for example was on the bones of its arse when the steel works closed. The EU was pouring money into Ebbw Vale. Hundreds of millions of pounds in EU funding - roads, rail links, apprenticeships, regeneration projects.

62% of people there voted leave - the highest proportion in Wales.

I think everyone who complains about this and shops online, and I bet a lot do, should take a long look at themselves and realise that maybe they're the problem.

Did you vote leave or remain?

it was pretty clearly said that’s exactly what’s going to happen in case of leave
vote 🤷‍♀️

When was the referendum? I remember doing some research for work on the decline of the town centres back in 2010. Labour was still in power. Well, Gordon Brown was.

Mary Portas published an excellent report about the same topic at around the same time.

I've got a thread running about fear around the proposals to shake up benefits and sick note culture. It strikes me there is a crossover with the sentiments being expressed on this thread. All these issues are part of a melting pot of chaos and can't be considered in isolation.

I can't say I recognise this to be honest although I fully believe you.

I do feel like there is more trouble locally. A stabbing a few weeks ago and a spate of car thefts that affected a large area and therefore many people. Ultimately though it was only one person carrying out each of those things...but it was all over town social media so it was hyped up.

I also feel there are some very poorly behaved young people, but I reckon every generation thinks this.

Our town centre is aesthetically beautiful but hardly any shops now. Multiple coffee shops though, and restaurants still in business, so people are still spending.

There aren't any shops to shop in - it's all shops producing low grade crap like b&m, pound land, plastic shoe shops etc

The only real shops I support wherever I can are: local bakery, sewing shop, small family garden centre, small family stationers, small art/cards shop.

That's literally it where I live, The rest are cheap chain shite selling plastic from abroad.

I think part of the problem is that even when alarm bells were ringing decade's ago, we were always promised jam tomorrow if we just kept calm and carried on. And it was a lie.

It was this bad under Thatcher. The North & Midlands got absolutely hammered. The South East and wealthy London couldn’t have cared less. Remember Harry Enfield’s characters ‘bugger all money’ and ‘loadsa money’? The 80s were dire, absolutely dire. Some of those places have never recovered from that period.

Amazon - people choosing to shop online, shops closing, less footfall.

If we want thriving highstreets we need to support them. No good going occasionally and then moaning that they've become empty because others haven't spent their money there.

Start shopping in physical shops again 😊

December and yes, around parliament, St James, the National Gallery.

The bits that are there as showpieces for parliament and tourists.

I agree that responsibility to one's own has declined, but if you consider that meeting the cost of living requires working all the hours God sends if you can get a job, particularly at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum it's hardly surprising.

There is a sex bias that women bear the brunt if caring for children and the elderly for example. Dementia patients often need 24 hour supervision for a long period before they need residential care. The system likes to keep them at home for as long as possible, unless you can afford private care. Respite is like rocking horse shit.

People could manage with a bit of support, but it's not available.

Same with childcare.

It's all a pretty pickle isn't it?

Stabbings are now becoming common in my town . A weekly occurrence.Used to be one a year if that .

Oh, please. A lot of the places that voted leave were already living this appalling reality. Too many people didn’t give a shit because it didn’t affect them. This country doesn’t know how to stand together.

Definitely, a huge negative impact that is rarely pointed out anymore. They've taken the trade from almost every small business that used to exist: fruit and veg, butchers, bakers, fishmongers, shoe shops, clothes shops, hardware stores, tv stores, pet shops etc.

They've even gone after florists, gardening stores and now key cutters, carpet cleaners, coffee shops.

They have decimated our town centres, trades, job market in local towns. They even sell the produce for a loss to the actual producers when it comes to fresh produce and meat - they have the farming industry by the balls.

I think the supermarkets have had a massive impact on our culture.

I've read that San Francisco has changed profoundly in recent years because of fentanyl addiction.

The impact of technology in getting rid of so many retail jobs is having an impact on low income families. There's pressure to work but fewer of the traditional entry level jobs.

The gap between rich and poor is more and more obvious IME.

@taxguru definitely the Lancashire mill towns and have relatives the other side of the Pennines who report the same. As PP say a few picturesque tourist type towns are the exception.

This government have done this. Lack of investment in mental health services, closing sure start clubs, reducing numbers of police etc etc. It's not a coincidence that they've been in power for the past 14 years.

I'm from France but have always loved the UK and have lived here a lot, across the country.

Yes we can have problems in France and Spain as a PP mentions but truly the level of degrade in the UK is something else. I believe it is to do with no social pressure. The UK seems to really have changed on that level since I first came in the 80s. There's an air of "I do what I like", whether it's the junkies or parents with their kids. People don't hold other people in check anymore. Anything is permitted.

The UK seemed to start sliding away from Europe culturally and embraced the American wild west feel, but the problem is: Americans have the space to do that, brits don't.

I also agree with PP there is a lack of responsibility for one's own. If people felt able to work "as a mob" to say "who do you think you are?" there would be less bad behaviour on the streets. If people felt socially and emotionally obliged to support and fix their own people, there would be less broken people roaming the streets.

The attitude is "where are the police, where are the council, where is the housing" instead of "where are the brothers, where are the neighbours, where is the society"

They want you to believe hard work brings wealth but does it fuck.justsimply set yourself up to be exploited by inbred wanktards.

Lagoony can you name and shame some of these people?

I blame two things

1. Internet: stopped normal people using the high street, made space for depravity as no more social shaming
2. Family: breakdown of units but also just a less "lean on me" culture across all social classes in our country Yeah what about social services but what about US what do WE do for people?

How many times have I read on MN threads along the lines of "my sister is an alcoholic and a horrible person, now she's being evicted, and she wants to stay with me, my DH says no way, WWYD?"

And 95% say YANBU: "Priority is your DP, look after your kids, she's her own responsibility"

Once upon a time an extended family would have stepped in and sorted that sister out with carrot or with stick.

Now people are somebody else's problem.

We became too focused on the self and nuclear family.

Our sense of responsibility to extended family and community broke down

I live in a small seaside town where people go to retire, but I grew up here. Crime isn't too bad, I'm sure it goes on but not to the extent op describes. But the town centre is derelict. Clothes shops slowly went one by one, replaced by charity shops and businesses that local people tried to set up but eventually they get shut down as well. Apparently the council charge too much rent but I don't know that much about it.
It's a shame but I now buy clothes and makeup online and only go into town for a coffee with a friend or occasionally a haircut. Even the bank I used is gone.
We get tourists in the summer on caravan holidays and things so it could be so much nicer here, a proper English seaside town but it's just empty.

I still have an nhs dentist because it's the same one I've been going to for nearly 30 years but they cancel regular checkups a lot, including for my 7 year old son.