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

@Lonelycrab That’s because users pay for them. The taxpayer used to subsidise too much and believe if or not, British Rail was a nightmare. Ancient trains and poor service everywhere. It’s better now but younger people have no idea how bad it was. Like much of our infrastructure, it’s aging. That’s the problem. Plus drivers who don’t want or need to work at weekends.

And the privatisation of our rail network has resulted in some of the most expensive trains in the world, as well as unreliable.

Well the privatisation of our water companies hasn’t made us wealthier has it. It’s given us record breaking bills and disgustingly polluted waterways.

No, it’s primarily because our population has aged significantly. The fact we don’t subsidize vastly inefficient public owned industries anymore is an improvement in the public finances not a worsening. The public sector tend to do a very poor job of running businesses- we are all wealthier thanks to privatization.

If we don’t want to shop in the high street, why should more successful businesses be taxed to subsidize the less successful? There’s been a shift in retail the same as when supermarkets became a thing. The high street will need to change but if we’re not spending our money there, it should shut ir become something else. We need better planning though for good community spaces

Regarding spending, I wonder if that is because the state no longer owns anything, and so has to buy services from the private sector, who now do own all the assets. For example, local authorities have no housing, so they have to pay eye watering sums to private landlords, which pushes expenditure up.

ETA there is a lot of tax paid on work, too much in my opinion. However, there is very little tax paid on wealth, which seems to me to be where the issue is. I think there should be a tax on wealth (by which I mean those with assets over £10million), with the revenue raised helping to counteract some of the effects of our increasingly unequal society.

Agree with OP and this too. I noticed when I was traveling in another European country earlier this year how they had cleaner streets.

I can’t drive but I don’t find it enjoyable walking around my area because of how grotty a lot of the streets and the nearest parks to me don’t look great. Too many people hanging around who look as if they may be on drugs often with not pleasant looking dogs.

And my town is middle of the road, Not posh but not known for being rough either.

Since I moved here a few years ago so many of the high street stores have closed leaving us with more vape shops which sucks and adds to the general feeling of gradual disrepair and neglect

‘And that was certainly noticeable to me when I went to Paris last summer. Used to be that London was clean and pleasant whereas Paris was dirty and a bit unkempt. Now London is covered in litter and crumbling pavements, but Paris has had a glow up and is green, tidy, clean and eco-friendly! Plus you see constant litter removers and street-cleaning and washing machines out in Paris everywhere! It was quite a novelty, as I literally can’t remember the last time I saw a street in the UK being washed and cleaned.’

Paris had a massive clear up for the Olympics. I read they moved literally hundreds of squatters’ tents from the centre, they bussed the people out to remote country districts where there were barracks and holiday camps ( they didn’t stay). Recently a theatre in the centre was occupied by hundreds of migrants from French speaking African countries, the district was paralysed by noise, shoplifting, squatting in the hotels and restaurants. It was finally cleared a couple of weeks ago….but the French, like us, have no long term solution.

Even when I lived in France ( we left in 2019) many of the smaller towns had lost virtually all their shops and were shadows of themselves. People just used the out of town shed strips instead. They were not dirty, but that was because they were empty.

Europe has a lot of similar problems to UK, although the greater landmass of many countries does mean you can still move around.

While I agree that there’s a weird vibe all around generally, but when it comes to the lack of/subpar upkeep of shops etc I think it’s been like that for ages.

I’ve been living in the UK for a little over 10 years now and I’ve always found it shocking so I don’t think it’s any worse. I don’t know if it’s because the employees tend to be younger in these places or what, it’s just not great. What is better here in terms of manners/consideration, then lacks in cleanliness.

In terms of littering it’s an educational problem. I live near a busy bus stop close to a local high school and kids leave it filthy on the daily. There’s no reason for it, but then again kids here also seem fine in sitting on filthy floors like it’s nothing. I swear they’re built different.

Have to confess the one single policy I’ve seen from reform around Amazon and deliveries in general that is imo a good idea, is to tax deliveries at 1 or 2 % and to reinvest that revenue into the high street.

That seems to be an unavoidable way of taxing those corporations and would help level the playing field a bit. Sure, we have to pay more but it’s a price worth paying for a viable high street.

I think I'm quite lucky where I live. It used to be quite a rough town with a bad reputation but it's really improved now. We have issues with littering etc but our local Facebook group always have litter pickups being organised and we have councillors posting what they have done. We live near a forest so we have lovely green areas to go to. I've recently joined a group about improving our local park. Our town centre isn't the best but I think that's the case everywhere, but they have built some new retail parks where most people go. We lost our indoor market sadly but they have started an outdoor weekday one which is nice to see. The schools are mainly good here too.

I remember how grim it used to be so for me it has improved

Yes it's all very depressing.

Public sector spending and taxation is greater now than it was inthe 70s and 80s In inflation adjusted terms.

Amazon doesn’t pay 0% tax due to a “clever corporate structure” or otherwise. But it doesn’t need stores due to its online structure. But it would make no money if we didn’t all want to shop online

Luton could be nice though except it just seems a lot of concrete in the town centre. And some random culture corner that not sure is trying to acheive..

Guess same as anywhere though. Im Dunstable and it seems they've tried to make nice by putting random giant plant pots and grass bears here and there but in odd places and haven't added much to anything. Just a variety of barbers and nail bars and shops that are empty.

Its easy to fix this country, bring back fair taxation, we had it in the 50s and 60s, stop turning the country into a playground for global millionaires who pay fuck all tax.

Its really that simple, but the very rich own the political parties, be that Cons, Labour or Reform or even Lib Dems. Maybe the only ones not owned by the very rich are the Greens, and they aren't getting elected anytime soon.

That's just poor excuses. I'm sorry but they wouldn't treat their homes that way. They would just eat something on the sofa and drop the rubbish on the floor next to them. They wouldn't spit on their carpet emor floor either.

I believe some would!

The same reason why they voted to leave they didn't get it then and they don't get it now. Those are the people that voted.

A few months ago I need to go to a small town, usually no other reason to go there, as there virtually nothing there, but I needed to go to a relative's bank branch and took my daughter with me.

She asked why it was so scruffy and dirty! Lots of boarded up shops. We are more used to going to shopping centres and outlet villages more so than small towns, I explained because the town isn't privately owed, they don't employ as many cleaners etc as the shopping centres/outlets. So sad really small towns going to ruin and looking through a child's eyes what they notice.

YANBU. We've left the UK and comment on it every time we return for a visit. And we used to live in a wealthy borough, but that too is now full of potholes, Poundland and fast-food chains instead of lovely Spanish tapas bars etc.
It's the boiling frog effect. Most Brits don't see it - unless they travel abroad, queue in the "All passports" queue and notice how much worse dressed they are than the locals they used to look down on.

Did I read this correctly?

The entire city of London, Surrey and Sussex ( I assume East and West) is very very dirty.

What the fuck ???

I sometimes feel like this. I'm not in the UK, but my family is pretty middle class, my sh a civil servant with a pretty good salary, I'm in a human services job with a lowish salary - but two FT incomes.

We leave in a pretty cheap house, we have old cars, we art as cheaply as possible, and don't travel. And we are rural. Right now, we could not even afford the cheapest homes in the worst parts of the city, and a cheap apartment rental is more than our mortgage.

I don't understand how people are managing to live in the city or commuter towns.

What I don't understand is, if everywhere is so run down, how come so many food outlets are surviving. It is so much more expensive to buy take away or wat in a cafe or restaurant than cook at home, and yet places that charge £4 for a coffee are thriving, while every other shop is a charity shop, barber or betting shop.

Instead they make people on benefits go and work at places like Poundland for free.

Why provide a useful service to the public when they could be helping private companies turn a profit?

You were old enough to vote in the Brexit referendum. What was your vote leave or remain in Europe or did you not vote at all thinking it wouldn't affect you?