My town has really changed

@PiggyPigalle I was unemployed last year for a month and had to sign on at the job centre every 2 weeks. So this already happens. I suspect you are getting confused with people getting UC who are working and getting top ups.

I think the problem of tatty private rentals is two fold - many (not all I know before I get flamed) landlords want maximum profit for minimum input so aren't caring for their properties. This in turn means tenants don't bother either to make sure the rubbish in the garden is put in the bin, those old car tyres are taken to the tip etc. I went out delivering election leaflets and was shocked at the state of some of the houses that I went to - falling down fences, peeling paint, crumbling steps, a broken front door. Years ago when Birmingham Council owned the houses there were maintenance schedules so doors and window frames got regularly repainted etc. Now it's a free for all - you're lucky if you get a landlord who cares but it seems rather many don't.

what did people expect was going to happen when we started telling people they couldn’t be proud of their country? It’s no surprise they lose pride and act in disrespectful ways. It’s no surprise when our schools remove discipline, those undisciplined kids grow up into undisciplined adult.

its no surprise when we constantly excuse poor behaviour, blaming this that and the other we end up with adults not taking responsibility for themselves.

It’s no surprise when we have ridiculous amounts of net immigration that we have so many who don’t buy into British values. Indeed when out schools spend so long telling kids about other cultures and ideologies they don’t know about their own. A common culture and ideology is vital to society. Multiculturalism/diversity is killing the cohesive nature of society.

I think that part of the problem is that many decision makers live in a bubble and are insulated from what is being described on this thread. 'Metropolitan' Britain is moving further and further away from the rest of the country. I live in a cheapish suburb of an affluent and expensive city, and you just don't see these problems here, even though there is poverty, deprivation and quite a large immigrant population. Our city is full of naice shops and cafes, both in the centre and especially in suburban high streets. When I go elsewhere in the country, I realise how much of a bubble we are living in, and how we are insulated from the direction of travel.

My home town in an affluent county down south where I still live has never had a reputation for being a bit rough with some nicer area and has been marked as an area of deprivation for decades. However, I never used to worry about walking around at night alone or anything like that. I used to be able to go to the local park with friends and to town on my own around 9/10, the age of my eldest now.

But it’s hugely declined in the last few years. The town is full of addicts, there’s always hoards of teens walking around except many of them are wearing balaclavas and I would hedge my bets to say carrying knives and there is no way on earth I’d let my 9yo do the 5 minute walk to town on his own now in a million years. Cars are broken into nightly, every single day there is a post on Facebook about cars being ransacked. I don’t like walking to town at night anymore and we are literally a 5 minute walk away. We have a real county lines issue here, like many deprived seaside towns, this is the cause of both the increase in addicts and in youth violence. It’s sad, it’s always been a bit rough round the edges here but it never felt unsafe until recent years.

I hate to disappoint you but local authorities do not have the money to employ random extra staff.

What I notice is that people haven't got the self-respect to clear up after themselves and they think it's clever to behave in an antisocial way. There's a real attitude problem. I used to be the sort of person who'd call someone out for dropping litter but these days I just dare not. Just today I was walking through a park and there were two guys, roaring drunk on cans in the middle of the afternoon, staggering along. At one point one of them was beside me and the other behind me. I don't think they were going to try anything but decent blokes wouldn't corner a lone woman like that.

If we want our towns cleaned up, it could be done but the outcry from the liberals would stop it as there would be rules and they don't like rules.

Alcohol would only be sold at full fixed price in licensed shops across a counter.
Licensee will have the power to refuse a sale.

Those unemployed for more than six months, must sign on at a job centre
every two weeks.

Rough sleepers must accept a place at a purpose built hostel and be employed
by the local authority. Emptying public bins, working in parks etc.

Children causing harm, damage or repeated social nuisance, such as climbing on rooves, will be sent to approved school.

All the above have been in force before. I've watered some down.

What to do about drugs? Police would like them legalised.

Thefts from shops? Trained security can spray offenders and their haul with dye that lasts for two weeks. (That is those who take in a holdall and blatantly fill it. Not me who got to the Boots till and couldn't find my sweeteners to pay for. They were in my pocket!)
Receiving stolen goods will be treated as having stolen the goods.

Police: no more fast tracking those with a degree without ever policing anything. There will be a Degree in Policing and ex service people will take priority. Hi Viz jackets gone and uniforms updated. Height and fitness limits will return. Raise standards and more will apply to join. No one wants to join a dud outfit.

I used to go to Oxford Street a lot in the 70s and 80s as I worked near there, but the last time I went was ten years ago and I was shocked then by its decline so god knows what it must be like now. I don’t think I’ll ever go there again.

@Lifeomars I saw the same in Cardiff.

@Coolasfeck indeed- I suspect if some of the Reform voters looked a bit closer to home they would find plenty of pure bred Brits in their families more than happy to screw the state, cash in hand jobs and feral families - but yep blame immigrants, youngsters, single mums - never 'their' families - look at those riots- pure white troublemaking scum and their feral offspring

I live in a bog standard London suburb, 25 mins tube from the centre. We are ok here. Weekly bin collections, trees regularly cut, never seen anyone urinate in public. The two areas nearest to us have long queues in Gail’s and artisan bakeries etc.

What depresses me is oxford St. I used to love going there when I was at university in the 90s. We would congregate at topshop and have great days out. Oxford Street has now become disgusting. I’m sick of those American sweet shops and there is obviously poverty alongside the shops, with more and more homeless people. The stalwart department stores like House of Fraser, DH Evans and BHS have all disappeared. It makes me sad.

I agree with all sorts of reasons given here for the state of the country and people’s attitudes. I kind of also blame the Internet. Despite the positives, social media has the power to make people angry and mean.

I live in Bournemouth, and it's just awful now. I think the only thing the council spends money on is the gardens, although with all the knife crime in the town centre, I wouldn't call them Pleasure Gardens anymore!

I'm concerned about that @@Coolasfeck . We have some of the most deprived towns in the U.K here, and the last thing we need is the drug use at a scale one finds over there.

I feel very fortunate that my town has improved a lot since I moved here some year’s ago. A pretty rare thing it seems.

This has also been happening in Wales for decades. They called it social cleansing, or social dumping. Places that were once quite normal became rougher and more drug problems increased.

They move their most problematic or roughest tenants to quieter, cheaper villages & towns, and then it's then our problem for our already struggling public sector to deal with.

This doesn’t pass the sniff test tbh. Might be a third factor here

Aberdeen city centre is akin to a zoo..not a copper in sight.
Street drinkers and open drug use
Idiots balaclavaed up on E bikes.

Rishi Sunak boasted of doing this in the run up to the leadership election against Liz Truss. However, there’s just less money to go around now anyway.

I live near Bournemouth and it's very similar to what you describe OP. Except we have the Pleasure Gardens which are also host to the homeless and rats.

@Ameliasvocalfry how do you know anyone is an illegal immigrant ? Given that in year July 2022 to june2023 under the Tory's - 'illegal ' immigrants accounted for 1 in 28 of immigrants?? The vast amount of migration was authorised and approved by the gvt of the time. There were 38,000 unlawful arrivals and net migration was 900k - I am not saying it's right or wrong but those are the facts- pre Brexit unlawful migration was low - presumably because the French made a damn sight more effort and I believe we were allowed to send back ( correct me if I'm wrong)

We’re are a poorer country. We’re losing £100bn a year alone due to Brexit. Yet Farage is holding himself up as the answer to our problems. It’s madness but many will vote for him.

I don’t think the decline can be stopped as our non-don media are great at getting people to point fingers in the wrong direction whilst their friends strip the country bare.

We’ll end up with areas of the UK similar to Appalachia in America with endemic drug issues and poverty and no functioning health service or social services.

Then you haven't travelled enough @Ablondiebutagoody

Whilst looking at houses in my humble price range, which is already some of the lowest in the U.K, I have seen some streets in such state & squalor that they almost resemble slums in ex-Soviet countries.

I opened the door to an alleyway in one house to see what's around the back alley (which estate agents always want to steer you away from).

It shocked even me. Weeds, rubbish flying, one or two things that looked like they could be pill wrappers, and sofas & chairs left to rot. It was almost like those 19th century sepia photographs of how streets used to look like in poverty.

The house next door was in such a state that I assumed it was derelict which could be a real problem. The roof of the old shed in the small back yard was totally caved in, and on top someone had strewn an old, now sodden mattress.

I was again shocked when I learnt it was lived in, and met the woman who rented the house and lived there with her young son.

Well Said

I’m in California, but the same thing happened to my sweet town.
It was a small farming town, surrounded by orchards and vineyards at the bottom of the Sierra Nevada mountains. In winter, it looks like you could reach out touch those glorious snow-capped mountains.
Maybe 5000 people. 3 elementary schools, 1 high school. 2 markets.
Then, Walmart (the huge chain owned by billionaires) built a gigantic “superstore” and within 2 months, all the sweet boutiques and shops closed and one market closed because they couldn’t compete. Now our once-sweet downtown looks like an abandoned ghost town.
The population swelled by 10,000 people.
We have to drive 7 miles to do a shop for decent veg & meat & fish.
Walmart’s parking lot is overflowing with every fast food restaurant known to mankind.
It sits on the road leading into town and is the ugliest welcome to visitors you’ve ever seen.
I hate Walmart. It laid waste to our beloved little town.