To be irritated by the Londoner exodus to my town?

[thesecondnamegame]

I've been priced out of my Greater Manchester town by the London diaspora. Anybody who knows the area will know which town I mean. My tatty council town centre terrace is worth 300k. A load of Londoners came up after the BBC moved to Manchester. Half the kids in my kid's school's parents are from London and they love to make sure you know that. House prices have become ridiculous and are in a different world to the rest of Greater Manchester. It's ridiculous as it used to be a very unremarkable market town (albiet with not much to it) and now it's gone all 'naice' and I'm having to move 10 miles away because it's reaching the surrounding towns and I simply cannot afford to live here and I want to buy a property. It annoys me, I keep imagining somebody who had a London salary and bought a house in London, sold it, and came up here and bought a house 3 times bigger for the same price as their smaller London home. It just seems like they cheated. There are no school places either, because a lot of the Londoner's chose this particular town for the schools. The catchments are bloody tiny, I know somebody who lives in a village about 4 miles away. The schools in this town are the closest schools. No school would take her child and she ended up having to home educate for months.

All my relatives who bought properties or private rented have had to leave, even those who went to uni and got great jobs.

This thread is just hateful. Blaming people for doing the best for themselves and their families. Dividing people by where they were born in a country smaller than most US states. The reason people are having difficulty is because it suits a very few people for money to be concentrated in small areas/groups. The rest of us squabbling between ourselves about which of us bears the blame (answer: NONE) suits them cos it just keeps us looking the other way. I grew up up north and moved to London and it's my home now. I don't want my hometown people to hate me for being privileged nor my neighbours to hate me for being a gentrifier. I want equality like many people do - but I can't actually do that by myself and nor can any of you.

@awaketoosoon

Somebody born and raised in London who was able to go to uni and go into a job on a London salary is incredibly privileged.

So they deserve it less?

And the ones who don't go to uni or have normal jobs?

And of course university education pays extortionate London rents whilst also leaving loads to save for a deposit.. Oh actually no it doesn't. Then if someone manages to get a deposit (despite the very high rents and child care and other costs/ they then can't get a mortgage because their income is too low compared to out of control London house prices. What do they do? Do they move elsewhere to be surrounded by insular locals (who don't want them to move to their local area but have no qualms about moving to London to price out Londoners).

Also university education doesn't protect against unplanned life events. Becoming a single parent or getting sick or being disabled. These Londoners are really in the shit because there's no safety net for them. Not in London. Not elsewhere either.

No. Privileged is those from outside London, who for the last two decades (whilst Londoners suffered) have enjoyed access to affordable housing in a stable community, close to their friends and family and support networks.

@OhWhyNot

Tealightsandd I know I am one of them

But I am also aware that there are many Londoners who earn £80k plus a year

What percentage?

Because it’s not that many. Unless you think retail workers, office workers etc etc are all coining it in!

BBC employees get a London weighted salary when they live and work in London - they didn't get to keep that extra when they moved out of London.

Also lots of those people who move out of London didn't grow up there etc - they moved there originally because the careers they wanted were based there - now lots of employers (not just the BBC) are using new technology to base themselves away from the capital it means a lot of people can go back to their home town and areas to live and work.

They have often spent 10-15 years living in tiny flats with no outdoor space and still with a daily commute of an hour or more each way. Why wouldn't you take that little bit of equity you'd earned slogging it out in the city suburbs and convert it into something nicer if you could?

plantsitter agreed.

Is Chorlton gentrified now? I remember it being fairly average 25 years ago. I haven't lived in Manchester for years.

Yeah, it’s true - Altrincham was dirt cheap before the Londoners turned up

I live in one of the Greater Manchester property hotspots and this mass exodus of southerners must have passed me by.

That's a very good post @ThePlantsitter

I hope you feel very welcome in London.

Most Londoners only dislike the people with insular double standards. The ones who expect one way only traffic.

@PotassiumChloride me too, must keep my ears open for London accents tomorrow in Waitrose!

@thesecondnamegame

Somebody born and raised in London who was able to go to uni and go into a job on a London salary is incredibly privileged. They had the opportunity buy a shoebox in London, stay there while it builds equity for a year or 2, then sod off up to Manchester and buy a 4 bed semi-detached without batting an eyelid because it's "Oh so cheap compared to London!" When lots of people are doing that it then unnaturally inflates the local house economy and so they all benefit even more. The issue is, it doesn't work the other way round. All that happens is house prices sky rocket and the locals have to leave so the town just becomes London away from London with the ridiculous house prices and pathetic school catchments to go with it.

If it's as easy as that, why don't you move to London, earn a London salary, and then purchase yourself a shoebox?

This notion that everyone in London earns a significant salary is stupid beyond belief.

But I am also aware that there are many Londoners who earn £80k plus a year

There's 9 million people in London. The highest earners are a small minority. Huge numbers are on minimum wage.

My grandparents lived in Ramsbottom in GM
We visited recently and we were utterly shocked by how costly the housing was up there. It wasn't like that when my grandparents lived there.

I love it when they move up north for the cheap houses beautiful countryside and good schools and then complain it’s not cultured enough so start wanky meditation sessions at the community center and open coffee horse boxes all over the show and charge £4 for an iced latte. If you don’t like somewhere don’t move there, don’t move then force your own ways on a place ! Just because your pointless BBC job where you work from home in your new big northern house exclusively having zoom meetings about equality and diversity and blathering about how great you all are for leaving London allows you to spend half your wage on coffees and art classes for your toddler doesn’t mean we all can 😂

I was born and raised in London. Couldn't afford to buy a house where I grew up and had to move miles away. There's literally no other option

@Dizzybintess I love Rammy but it has changed! It still has a good flavor to it though because a lot of the people that move there and start businesses etc are still local but have moved from other parts of Bolton, Blackburn etc.

And london is full of strangers and newcomers too

Unemployment is also higher in London than elsewhere. Try living on the UK's paltry welfare benefits in London. Particularly private rentals. Rents are around £200 a month above the benefit payment. It's not as if these people can just move. They can't afford to, don't have access to 'local' social housing elsewhere, and there's the insular locals...

@FlippingFlipFlip

I've been priced out of London....where am I allowed to go?

I will let you my garage if you cut my grass.

At least half, if not more, of the BBC staff are not Londoners. They moved to London for study or work. Look at the big names just for starters. Some are even from Manchester. Imagine - a Mancunian returning home. Shocking!

@TedMullins

OP it’s not Londoners or the BBC that are the problem. It’s capitalism. The housing market is honestly one of the biggest evils of modern society as far as I’m concerned. I agree with you that it’s an unsustainable situation for this gentrification to continue until pretty much everyone except the rich is priced out. Most people on this thread agree with you, as you can see. We need socialist housing policies more than ever - yet people keep voting for the tories. I honestly wonder what it’ll take for this country to wake up and realise this is the consequence of a Tory government who want to artificially prop up the housing market (and want to move the BBC around the country) and this government isn’t on their side. So many people can’t see past their own interests that sadly I think it would take a fair few people to face homelessness themselves before they’d change their political persuasion.

The Tory government propping up housing is the very definition of socialism. A more right wing government who believes in free markets would result in lower house prices.

Come and move to the SE OP. You could get a three bed semi for less than 300k within hour train from Victoria. Mind you that has gone up by about 80k in 16 years as Londoners move out. Swings and roundabouts as lots of locals still in situ

@Legoandloldolls

Come and move to the SE OP. You could get a three bed semi for less than 300k within hour train from Victoria. Mind you that has gone up by about 80k in 16 years as Londoners move out. Swings and roundabouts as lots of locals still in situ

You know damn well many, if not, most, are not Londoners.

Definitely swings and roundabouts. London is full of people from the south east.

@TedMullins

OP it’s not Londoners or the BBC that are the problem. It’s capitalism. The housing market is honestly one of the biggest evils of modern society as far as I’m concerned. I agree with you that it’s an unsustainable situation for this gentrification to continue until pretty much everyone except the rich is priced out. Most people on this thread agree with you, as you can see. We need socialist housing policies more than ever - yet people keep voting for the tories. I honestly wonder what it’ll take for this country to wake up and realise this is the consequence of a Tory government who want to artificially prop up the housing market (and want to move the BBC around the country) and this government isn’t on their side. So many people can’t see past their own interests that sadly I think it would take a fair few people to face homelessness themselves before they’d change their political persuasion.

applauds

@Blueeyedgirl21 This is the type I was on about at the school gates! MN can whinge about anti-London discrimination all they want but these people do exist. Good god, some of the stuff I've heard honestly. I have nothing against working and lower middle class Londoners who've been priced out, why would I? But god, those bloody BBC high-ups type who've sold their big London house for an even bigger house and go bleating on about how cheap it was and how thrilled they are with it in a completely tone deaf manner, and are smug about what they've bought to the area. Do one, honestly. All you did was move with your job, thanks a lot. Honestly I don't know how this little backwater town would have managed without you [sceptical].

I grew up in East London and couldn't afford to buy there what was I meant to do? Stay and live in a tent?! How very dare I move out of London 🙄