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.

Londoners moved into my village, tarmacked the village green, campaigned for our local post office to be replaced with M&Ms World and now they live in our houses and all the locals have to live in a bin.

Local pub is now a Shoeless Joe’s 😞

What are you even on about OP 😂
Pretty much everything near me in London is a thriving independent business.

It’s not London’s fault your local businesses are shit and folded.

I love the 2 London threads at the moment, one questioning why anyone wants to live there and one criticising Londoners for, in fact, not wanting to live there 😅

This has been happening for years in places like Cornwall and Lake District where locals have been priced out by second home owners, leaving village amenities, shops, pubs, etc with too few customers to remain viable.

For crying out loud, just because someone lived in London at some point in their life doesn’t make them a whole different breed. I live in the opposite end of the country from where I’m from. Originally I moved to a tiny village and could have been accused of taking a ‘local’s’ house or taking a ‘local’s’ job.

Seriously, get over yourselves.

Just because you were born in a town/village/city does not mean that you MUST stay there for the entirety of your life 🙄

God, I’d love a Gail’s in my town. How do I rally the DFLs to campaign for one?

Holiday home owners are quite different to people who relocate though. I do agree that, in regards to holiday homes, there needs to be a limit

You're missing the point that the locals are priced out, so they can't afford to buy and live in their home town anymore. Especially the next generation, students who've gone to Uni, etc., who set up their homes and lives elsewhere. That leaves a vacuum behind.

OP, if you live where I think you do, then you are very misguided. Your local council's extortionate parking charges will be a major contributing factor to the decline of the High St. Plus online shopping, of course. With regards to your high st, you need to use it or lose it.

Your town has a huge number of private schools, which have been operational for many years. You have lived in a very privileged, insular bubble for many years and a bit of diversity will do you no harm. ( ex Londoner here, who lives very close to where I think you are referring to) House prices where I think you live have always been incredibly high. It's a middle class cliche town.

Be truthful, You just hate it that new people are moving in, probably because your family have been there since the Industrial Revolution and you hold the view that it's 'your town'.

Yes, but people who relocate often don't "partake" in local amenities. There are people who live in my village who honestly didn't know it has a library! They're replacing locals who have used local amenities and shops for years/decades and often don't even try to embrace what the local area has to offer.

Londoners have endured hundreds of years of everyone going down there to make their fortunes in the streets paved with gold.

Now Londoners' streets are paved with shit, they now want to find other towns and villages that might be paved with gold.

Who cares?

Which Gails are you all going to? I’ve tried cinnamon buns from three separate branches and they’ve all been dry and overcooked.

How local do you have to be to be allowed to buy a house? 1 mile? The next town over?
Where’s the concern about the ex-Londoners who were priced out?

Your posts just come across as quite xenophobic. ‘but people who relocate often don't "partake" in local amenities.’ What??? Based on what?? You’re talking utter rubbish.

But there are always locals that are the same. I live in a town far from where I was born and use all the local amenities.

I also think it’s highly unfair to just pin this on ‘Londoners’. I’m not one but I’ve essentially done the same, I’ve relocated. I brought variety into a town just like every other person who lives there.

Originally living in London doesn’t make you a whole new breed but I don’t seem to hear from people complaining, for example, that people from Newcastle have taken over Bristol or those from Somerset now live in Birmingham.

Yes, if you live in a commuter town/village then you will probably have a lot of people travelling to London or similar cities to work. I’m in a commuter town and our trains to London are rammed at the start and end of the day. Many of those people however are actually local people.

Honestly, some of the bizarre comments on this post make it sound like ‘Londoners’ are the beginning of the apocalypse 🙄

Maybe you could campaign to not allow people to move to a different town from the one they were born in. If you were born in a village you are not allowed to move to London. If you were born in London you are not allowed to leave and spoil it for others. What do you think?

Gail’s is where hope goes to die. Worst chain ever.

I don't think OP is coming back...

They would be coming for me with pitchforks for being a deserter 🤣

Shops are closing all over..the shop. Most Londoners that move away aren't even real Londoners anyway!

That said i get what you’re saying but its the locals who enjoy the big fat payments they get from selling up.
Pure Gym us basic, it is not going to close a pool with leisure facilities. Maybe you will get a David Lloyd soon ha.

I'd like to start a campaign to get those places opened in London!

In all honesty, I don’t think the town where I live would have survived without people moving here from different places. It certainly wouldn’t survive without the local people being able to commute to London.

It's not the fault of Londoners that shops go under.

Should we all be locked in the city and never allowed to move out?

Just to add, I’ve never even heard of Gail’s before, is it really that bad?