Londoners moving out to towns - AIBU

[Disgruntledtownie]

I have lived in the same town all my life - great community feel, independent shops etc.

During COVID, we had an absolute influx of people moving out from London which massively drove up prices so locals have had to move away and it’s really changed the whole town.

A lot of the Londoners were campaigning about getting a Pure Gym in the town - one opened, and now our local leisure centre has had to go into liquidation. This is where all the school kids learn to swim, all the teens hang out after school etc and it’s just gone.

An independent family owned shop that has been in our town for over 130 years has had to close as business has dropped.

In the last two years, Gails and a Joe & Juice have opened right next to independent coffee shops - there’s been massive queues outside Gail’s and everyone saying how good it is they can still get their Gail’s fix out of London. But it’s meant the independents have struggled and a few have had to shut.

I totally appreciate that times are tough and spiralling costs and overheads will have impacted these businesses but AIBU to think if you move out of London, you embrace the local shops etc and don’t just change the town into a mini London ??!! It’s just such a shame to see our local community disintegrating around us.

They are probably not 'Londoners' born and bred. I am but was unable to return to SW London due to prices when I graduated from my Masters, then again, I live in Brighton now and it's on a par if not more expensive where I live than many parts of London, it wasn't when I decided to live here at 25 though. My friend and I were spoilt for choice large period property flats to rent, one we turned down as it was too big and had one more bedroom than we needed! Despite that I'm sure the 'locals' were upset by DFLs!

Londoners still spend money in Gail's Sevenoaks - I did last week

I do get what you mean to an extent OP. It’s more a change in area than Londoners in my opinion. If an area suddenly becomes attractive to a different type of person ( for the big houses/commute or whatever) and they bring with them shops/businesses (pure gym) that are popular with them. The people that were happy to live in the area before these came along get miffed and leave, it’s sad but unfortunately how it always seems to go. Look at certain soulless areas of commuter belt Surrey and how that area has changed in last 50 years or so. There are some positives though, and the council should be better at keeping places like leisure facilities going.

If it is in the southeast, especially Sevenoaks or somewhere like that, how can you even tell. I do some work in Lewes and it is not like I'd be able to tell if someone had moved from London. My knewish boss has but I only know that as he has told me. It is more understandable and noticeable in Devon or Cornwall but I don't understand a commuter belt town being that alarmingly transformed.

I'm one of those Londoners. I've done volunteering for several community organisations, and I use a mix of independent shops and supermarkets.
I am quite a low earner though, so I might have that in common with the locals.

Born and bred Londoners also hate it when out of towners move to the city and gentrify it, locals from smaller towns hate it when Londoners move there too. Realising more and more how parochial the UK is. Should we all just stay wherever we were born?

Hi Op, I live in the same town! I don’t think it’s anything to do with “Londoners”, trading conditions are just so different and the running costs re heating a pool and leisure centre etc have gone up so much. It’s a tough time for high streets.

"This is a local shop, for local people."

If the leisure centre or coffee shops were any good they wouldn’t have gone out of business.

This. My local cafe (the only one in our immediate area) is just shit. This was broadly fine when the area was a bit down at heel / mixed, now people have UberEats and decent coffee elsewhere. Very complacent to rely on your captive audience.

There's another slant to this........
I don't live in London, so I'm basing this post only from what I see and hear in the media.
Apparently much of London's "high end" property has been, and is, bought by wealthy buyers from the likes of China, Russia, and the Middle East as a safe investment - people who have no intention of living there.
So presumably this must have a knock-on effect - people who live/work in London are priced out of these areas and buy in cheaper areas, which in turn become sought after.....and so on and so on.
I don't know what the answer is. Naively, I wish domestic properties were seen as homes, not investments, but I just can't see that happening 💁

jfc

there’s a post on here about why people live in london in the first place and now this implying we’re not allowed to move out?

High streets and shops are closing all over the country. I’m from a small town in the West Midlands, it has a bunch of chain shops as mentioned above.

There is another thread saying why do people live in London. This thread covers people from London bringing London to the smaller towns.

This is true- I was born and bred in London and it was a pretty middle class area then but our neighbours(on our street) were GPs, teachers, lecturers, local solicitors (not lawyers), even one MP who was pretty senior in their party, two streets away. My Dad was an Economist who worked in central London but he was on good money but overseas investors have changed the landscape. The pricing out has arisen due to needing to be a millionaire.

You’re talking about Sevenoaks aren’t you? It’s been full of people moving out of London for years. The leisure centre closing is because of wider financial issues, nothing to do with Londoners moving in.

Multi - millionaire even

Many Londoners move out because they can't afford to live in London. They want a decent quality of life too.

Yes! Their cinnamon buns are out of this world.

I've seen on the internet - plenty of proud and humble Northeners moaning about UK being London-centric and 'I hate London, can't imagine living there' thrilled with fancy cafes, Selfdridges, SpaceNKs moving in...haven't seen a pic of them drooling over 20p iced bun from 'local bakery'.

I think it’s hilarious that anyone who lives in Sevenoaks thinks people moving from London is a new thing. (Most aren’t “Londoners” as in, they didn’t grow up in London, that was just somewhere they were living for a few years and then have moved on again to a different area that suits them better. )

To be honest that's just life. Most Londoners don't start life in London.

If I moved back to my home town along with all the other Londoners I know who moved from there we'd drive prices up too.

People can't afford homes in London so they move out. The whole housing market needs to be shaken down if you want to stop it or else Londoners will be priced out and have nowhere to go.

And it's not the Londoners demanding most of these things the businesses just follow the money.

Seems to be

Lots of swimming pools all over are closing because they can't afford the utility bills to heat the water.....nothing to do with Londoners not liking swimming.
Londoners have been priced out of London for years because they are not rich and are living on Similar wages to the rest of the country

😆

Sounds like she wanted money without doing the work.