To ask why you live in the UK?

[Hungryhippo12]

I will start off by saying I love the English countryside, the beaches, most of the people but I’m having a hard time deciding if it’s worth living here anymore. We’ve got the opportunity now to move abroad and I know the grass is not greener and I’ll be incredibly sad to leave but….

We pay a huge amount of tax (top tax band) and it’s not spent on tangible things we benefit from- for example I have no problem if it goes into the NHS or to people who can’t work etc but it’s not; millions of pounds gets spent on things that do not improve the lives of people in our country and then they wonder why people become resentful of paying all the taxes we do.

My children can’t just go out and play as knife crime is rife where we are , as is bullying, fighting and uploading the video etc

Everything seems disproportionately expensive as compared to earnings- for example, rent, mortgage , bills etc out disposable income is a lot smaller than say ten years ago despite earning a lot more.

I love our community, I strangely love the English weather but I’m finding things hard. There were riots in the city near where we live last week. The country just seems abit broken and a lot of unrest.

I read posts on here - especially ones about private school VAT - and people seem angry, hateful of those with more and kindness
seems to have been lost.

Is this just what England is now?

I only live here because I was born here.

It really has become a horrible society and I'd emigrate if I had the opportunity. However, my teenagers belong here and my mum is ill. Plus I have siblings here. So it isn't going to happen.

I used to put up with the weather because it was safe, clean and the services worked. Today I do not recognise this country as the same. We are taking the opportunity to leave and not looking back. It is very expensive and high taxes for a small part of the population. Have become unsafe and backwards. I am not in love with people who moved here in the last few years and hate how the locals turned a blind eye on this. In the end I am leaving so it won’t be my problem.
I know people would said the issues are everywhere but I have travelled extensively and here is the worst place of all. Second is Barcelona in Spain. I agree with you.

You would think your top band salary would buy you a house in a better part of Leeds.

I used to live in Luxembourg and Canada. I came back to the UK because it’s beautiful, the history, people are so friendly, the weather (Canada and Lux can be very hot and very cold!)

the NHS even in its current state is better than what I accessed in both countries. You only get good care if you pay mega bucks!!

It’s safe, no extreme weather, no natural disasters, no weird animals.

Even the bills like fuel and utilities, housing & food - everything is just more doable here and more comfortable.

Schools - big one for me. I love education but Luxembourgish schooling is odd. Canadas was better but still not as good as ours in the UK..

I hated the UK before I travelled but I was so happy to come home!

I also spent a lot of time in other EU countries and guns, spitting at strangers, pick pockets, carjacking, god it was so bad especially in some Nordic countries - I won’t go back anytime soon!

Yeah I’m happy to be home 🤣

I used to think everything in the UK was terrible so I voted Tory for 14 years and then it all got loads better.

Because the fascist government drove my family out of Italy in 1943, and they were allowed to settle here.

Actually, that’s another reason for me too.
My Bubbe left Lithuania, and her village was burned to the ground. Her sisters and mother never made it out.

The UK offered her a future and our family has made a wonderful life here, and has given back more than we took.

Given that, I pretty strongly object to people calling the UK ‘a shithole.’

Having read all these comments I now believe that the UK is the greatest country in the world!

Yes! Next year in Leeds!

Generally speaking I think the UK is a good place
to live - all countries have their problems.

I agree there is a bit of an expectation gap between what your can earn and the lifestyle one might hope it delivered however.

I am also paying the highest rate of tax, too young to have made any property gains so living in pretty modest but expensive-to-service property, not eligible for an any childcare support despite it crippling us, working very long hours etc etc.

On paper you’d probably think we were living in a mansion, jetting off in business class, Porsche on the drive. No chance - can’t even afford a drive.

The (sorry awful) ‘upper middle classes’ of the next generation are going to be exclusively wealth-based.

I live in Wales because I was born here and it’s home in a way no other place on earth could be.

There are many things I love about the UK, but having lived overseas for 25 years it currently feels run down and depressing.
The roads are in a poor state
what happened to dental treatment?
i was at A&E on Boxing Day and new year’s day - two relatives admitted to hospital and it was just shocking. Staff were excellent, but no beds and I was stuck in an ambulance (no space inside) and then a corridor with my elderly mother…
Town centres are grubby with boarded up shops
if I were younger I would go back overseas.

I live in SW London and wouldn't live anywhere else (more central, but can't afford it).
I was born here but grew up in America, which was great. There's lots of things I miss about there, but my heart is here.
I have also lived in Paris for a couple years as a student.
I can't really put in words why I love it here and London particular. It's a complicated reason not always logical but based on memory, family, history and I don't know what.

My Jewish grandfather left Germany for similar reasons in 1933.

I live here because I was born here and my family and friends are all here. When my family are gone (only child) there is little holding me except my friends. I live in the midlands area and it used to be so lovely but its gone downhill hugely and quality of life/stress etc is not where it should be any longer. When my parents are gone we will be moving to the other end of the country because on balance there is a better work/life balance for us. Not sure I would move country entirely, that might be a step too far as there are good points to the UK too that I wouldn't want to lose so I guess my take is probably move area before abroad.

@Hungryhippo12 I don’t know if you’re still reading the thread but had some advice if you were considering moving to Nz both being doctors.

doctors in Nz are extraordinarily well paid (certainly far better than uk) and it’s a similar free health care but with lots of private. People are also used to paying for GP appointments unless chronically ill or very low income. So if you’re GPs it’s a much more service oriented practice as you need to attract and retain patients (no one is limited by postcode!) but less bureaucratic than England. If you’re an anaesthetist or orthopedic surgeon, for example, you can make an absolute fortune.

what to look out for, however, is where the jobs actually are. Drs I know in Christchurch are very happy - amazing state and private schools, good housing stock rebuilt or strengthened after earthquake (as was the hospital). Drs in - say - Timaru or the west coast, however, can feel isolated in a very small town without much going on. There was a terrible case in the courts recently about the wife of a South African doctor who had a bad mental health episode shortly after moving to Timaru (I’ll spare you the details). It highlighted the lack of support for some new arrivals to Nz, especially medics who may have been wooed by the attractive salaries and relocation packages.

in short though, Nz is a great place to live if you have heaps of money and if you both work as doctors that won’t be a problem.

If you are north of Leeds, maybe just venture a little further up into N Yorkshire. I know it is insular and not exactly diverse (to put it mildly)if you are used to a city, nut there is no knife crime and it is beautiful. Easy commute to Leeds if you look at York or some of the villages off the A64.

Having lived in other countries for over 13 years, we like it here.

Because ridiculous pressure was brought to bear on us to move from DH's company - including over 20 people we worked with losing their jobs if we did not. (Letters were drawn up, that sort of thing).
Because despite everything, we knew that the education the girls would get (even at a bog standard comp') would be superior to that which they would receive in NZ, and one DD was far more likely to be able to achieve her ambition of studying medicine.
Because on a secondment to decide where we could live, if not NZ, I'd decided within 48 hours that Canada was not a goer, and they couldn't get me to set foot in Denver, let alone live there. (I've got an odd sort of preference for having better odds of my kids coming home from school outside of a body bag).
Because we both had the right to live in the UK already, with DH having been born here, and I'd already got citizenship the first time we came to live here.
Because winter Christmas, Easter spring, the ability to get NZ lamb, British sausages, and M&S foodcourt, plus Charlie Bigham's ready meals, and extra thick cream (yes, we're gluttons) make life alright. Sometimes.
Because 12,000 miles improves my day to day relationships with my immediate family so much better!
Because robins, owls, muntjac deer, foxes, badgers, pheasants, and hares. . .

I really like London, the community and the energy if I'm after more

I don't even mind the weather

One of DD's friends at university is from Texas. She never wants to live in the USA again.

I love the UK.

Also a high earner and paying lots of tax

My kids go to a lovely free state school

I and one of my DC have had hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of high quality medical treatment on the NHS including fantastic, life saving emergency care.

I love how green it is and that our weather is largely mild and temperate with few extremes.

I love our freedom and democracy.

Where i live it is safe, a lovely community. I think its easy to assume things are perfect elsewhere. I have friends and relatives in america, canada, Australia, lebanon, israel, and europe. There are variations on some of the issues we face in the UK everywhere.

Speaking as someone who emigrated 4 years ago, we have never looked back. Even when we return to uk for visits, it's not the same anymore, I miss a handful of things but honestly we are so much happier. Our chosen country is only 3 hours flight, has all seasons including hot summers and cold snowy winters, the nature biodiversity is next level, it is much cleaner in cities in general apart from the outskirts and we got so much more for our money property wise. We hate how crowded and busy the uk is. Traffic is horrendous everywhere and we got sick of the wet weather. Our older son is fluent in 2 languages now too.
However that's just our experience, it is still a bit backwards in some ways including racism but that doesn't affect us, personally.

Stuck here because both my DC are disabled and that means emigrating to anywhere else isn't possible. Nowhere would have us. Immigration policies are ableist.

Otherwise I’d be in Canada where I have citizenship or France where I have family.

We hate how crowded and busy the uk is. Traffic is horrendous everywhere and we got sick of the wet weather.

I can't argue with you there. An 89 mile journey took me over two hours earlier this week. It was mainly motorway, but it was still stop start near Manchester, and for no reason at all.