To think our towns and cities are just so run down lately, and our standard of living has decreased significantly?

If house prices weren't skyrocketing due to the demand from immigration, they would have a fighting chance.

they haven't skyrocketed because of immigration although that hasn't helped

For me it’s the state of the roads as well.

I’ve had at least one blown tyre a year for the last 3 years as the roads are in a dreadful state and nothing seems to be done about them.

This is the price of austerity I guess.

I went into my city,recently for a medical appointment. Was shocked how badly broken it was. So many empty shops, graffiti, so many poor homeless people sleeping in doorways 😢 when I was a student here 40 years ago it was vibrant and thriving 🤷‍♀️ no longer

If house prices weren't skyrocketing due to the demand from immigration, they would have a fighting chance. Not everyone can be in the top 10% of earners, our young people deserve to live in dignity but now they're left fighting for the crumbs while people who turn up in the country without documentation are handed everything for free. It's a fucking joke.

May or may not, but we don't have the infrastructure for ever increasing population, i.e. housing, schools, GP surgeries, hospitals, etc etc. In lots of places the utility supplies are also creaking as ever more houses are built without the infrastructure being improved to accommodate.

Hardly any, they are largely being housed by local councils who now pay private landlords extortionate fees. Yes, because a lot of the social housing stock was sold off. Now it's a business to let out substandard housing to the highest bidder- which is often councils who are lumped with paying the rent on their behalf. All from our taxes, yay!

Nail on the head. Especially the mobile phone accessory shops full of cheap Chinese crap that no one would want. That's the thing with the money launderers - they need to make the shops look full and prosperous so buy loads of cheap crap to give the illusion that it's busy and prosperous. As you say, if you go in and actually ask them to do something technical, they've not got a clue. It's all nothing but a front for money laundering. Same with a lot of ethnic food shops - likewise shops full to bursting with cheap foodstuffs, but never any customers.

Sandwich bars and kebab takeaways can sometimes be similar - again, cheap "purchases" of core foodstuffs often cheap crap from supermarket value ranges so they don't lose much money when it goes past it's sell by date and has to be dumped - some of them are really poor in terms of food quality - I mistakenly went into a sandwich bar once and all the sandwich fillings etc were laid out in the counter fridge display but when I asked for a sandwich the guy behind the counter just shrugged and said they'd run out of bread and rolls! Yeah right!

Pile it high with cheap crap shops and "labour" only like nail bars and turkish barbers are very commonly used for money laundering, and modern slavery too.

I was in Sunderland recently. In the 70's, 80's, 90's, it was a bustling town, then city, centre. Days and nights. It's very depressing now.

What is the end game though? We're at a point now where our young people can't afford to start families.

We haven't invested in young people or young families though. We have no choice but to rely on immigration as demographically wise we are screwed.

My boss saw an actual human shitting out a bag of drugs in a retail park in Luton. That's how bad it is there. 11am right near Luton airport.

The country is not full to bursting by the way

They are to blame for the unnaturally high property prices though, which is the one big force preventing people spending on anything else besides their basics.

How many immigrants are buying houses?

QE caused house price inflation and we also have an ageing population plus we sold off a lot of social housing and do not build enough homes.

Exactly. There’s no point urging people to support local businesses if they don’t exist! We may have done this to ourselves but that doesn’t necessarily mean we can bring it back!

I can’t think of any West Midlands town that doesn’t look neglected and unloved. The high streets are just vape shops, barbers, fast food shops and charity shops, litter everywhere and no one seems to care. I really don’t like living here anymore.

They are to blame for the unnaturally high property prices though, which is the one big force preventing people spending on anything else besides their basics. All so that those with investments see continuous growth year after year. What is the end game though? We're at a point now where our young people can't afford to start families. Is the aim to just import our population and watch British culture vanish?

My priority housing wise is always to live close to a good high street so I take the smaller house/garden etc. So many seem very happy to live away from amenities though.

Not just the internet - the out of town supermarkets and retail parks started the demise about 30 years ago. Ironically, the internet is now affected the out of town shopping areas with more and more huge "sheds" now lying empty in previously busy retail parks.

1. It isn't.

2. Migrants aren't responsible for the growth in internet shopping or Tory austerity.

Well many areas of London were grim when I was young eg Hackney which then gentrified beyond belief.

It's been a downward trend from 30-40 years ago. Mid 90s was the start. Our seaside town started going downhill back then, M&S closed down, closely followed by lots of other "High Street" shops, and the terminal decline started. It was all charity and bookies about 20 years ago, and has just got even worse, now, with all the money laundering shops, selling vapes, ethnic foods, nail bars, Turkish barbers, American candy shops, etc. Lots of other towns up here in the North West have been going the same way over the past few years, such as Barrow, Bradford, Bolton, etc. It's not just derelict/run down town centres, there's so much dereliction everywhere - boarded up houses, litter, and so much deterioration in behaviour with low level crime, anti social behavior, illegal parking, etc.

I think people are finally starting to notice now that it's spreading to "naice" places in previously unaffected areas. But nothing will happen to turn the tide until it starts to hit London badly - then suddenly the politicians will wake up because they can't have it happening on their door-step!

It's so sad that the country is becoming so run down - some places are starting to look like third world slums.

People forget that we work long hours here, often with long commutes & our pay is shit so people have less time to get to the shops hence the reliance on delivery.

Is it also a better work life balance so you have the time to pop to all the different shops rather than trying to squeeze everything in.

I’m in Cambridgeshire and regularly visit Norwich and Cambridge, as well as nearby market towns. I have absolutely noticed an increase in street drinkers and mentally ill people. During and immediately after COVID the rubbish by the roadsides was awful, though it seems to have improved now. In general though I’d say they are still really nice, safe places with plenty going on.

I agree. When I was in my teens/20's I was spoilt for choice of shops on the high street of my very ordinary town. I could hop on a train to Birmingham or Leicester and again, thriving city streets but it's no longer the case.

Online shopping hasn't helped the high street, neither have huge retail parks, but if you don't use the stores that remain they will close.

and if you are ever in Tring, pop into Grace's Hardware you won't be sorry

Ipswich has never had a very positive reputation but it was miles, miles better in the 80s and 90s than it is now. It’s as if there’s been a deliberate policy of destroying anything good in the town and running the place into the ground.