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

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I don't know if I'm just feeling a bit down and bitter lately but I just feel like lately our country seems to have gotten very run down. I went out into town today and couldn't help but notice how grotty and rundown everything looks. Litter everywhere, security guards everywhere - in nearly every clothing shop there is security on the door now, security wandering up and down the high street. It makes you feel really unsafe but they must be there for a reason now? Shops are dirty; filthy floors and used Starbucks cups just left off the shelf for some poor worker to clean up. Clothes for sale that are covered in makeup stains. I just found it really depressing. It's just not one town either, I've noticed it nearly everywhere I've been. I'm in my late 20s so it's not like I've had decades of life experience to draw from and I have a rose-tinted view of yesteryear, but it seems that in the last 5ish years things have really declined.

There are a lot of very scummy people around these days.

Northwest and the villages towns and cities round me are fine imo.

For our village the villagers do a monthly litter pick on a Sunday once a month so perhaps for your area see if a group can get going - the community spirit would also be good for the whole area.

I am 43 and still live in the area I grew up in. It’s so much nicer now. The beck used to be full of litter and trollies, there was loads of rubbish, big chimneys etc. it’s much improved now.

I used to go into our city centre every weekend in the day and the evening and there was so much to do. But going in now seems like a trek when it isn't and there's not a lot there.

We go to retail parks or other towns if we physically shop and we rarely eat in the city. Our city is depressing.

It just gets worse though, fewer shoppers or people going out mean stores or places close and then fewer people.

I swear the money laundering fronts are getting more sophisticated. There’s a premises near me which for a long time was an “ aesthetic doctor” fillers ‘n’ Botox place but I never saw anyone in there. Then we went away for a couple of weeks and when we came back it was a private ultrasound clinic - with again hardly any customers.

They don't clean the streets either. Rely on the rain to clean them? You go to hotter countries and early in the morning they are out washing down pedestrian streets etc.

Make park areas and don't maintain them or police them so they become drug dealing areas.

Raise rents so all the shops close and dodgy ones open...are they just a front?

I feel bad for when I shopped online but so many times I went to a shop and couldn't get what I wanted/ told to order online ...it doesn't encourage you to make the trek to a shop.

Cities are definitely filthier. I am mid 40s and yes, cities were always dirtier than quiet country villages - but now it’s like people don’t care at all. And so many high streets with just boarded up shops and everything so derelict.

Yep, it's true. I'm currently in another European country which is supposedly much poorer than the UK. However, I'm struck by just how smart and healthy everyone is, how clean and smart the towns and shops are.
I feel like there's an air of menace in the UK. Somany aggressive people who you can imagine kicking off if you look at them the wrong way, or accidentally knock into them. I'm not talking about immigrants.
Here in this other country in Europe, I feel completely safe. People seem kind and gentle. Not aggressive like many Brits.

It's not just urban. I live very rurally and fly tipping and rubbish is endemic. There are roads so bad you have to drive down the middle because of potholes. Our local small town has zero shops open apart from charity shops and , thank god, a good grocer who arrived from the Middle East 4 years ago and is the one shining light of fresh produce without driving to the nearest supermarket. And we live in the "breadbasket of England".

On top of this we have rural deprivation levels higher than urban areas in terms of need,less spending per head, low spending from our Conservative council, high council tax, and zilch attempts from the local MP to do anything.

I teach here, have done for a decade, but I spent 15 years teaching in East London and I swear, the poverty and need here gets zero attention compared to cities. That's why County Lines is winning.

Everywhere is getting so run down, a lot of it is us the citizens fault not us personally but those who do have no pride that drop litter than go out and break play park equipment. We are running our own areas like wtf.

Also all the tent villages popping up, right next to park ways barely behind a bush or two.

Beggars sitting on road junctions with their signs all seem to say the same thing 🤔

Empty shop units door ways covered in cardboard where yet again more rough sleeping.

More and more housing estates less and less green space. No extra doctors or dentists or schools nothing but bricks and concrete.

Talking of money laundering we have an actual tv shop still. As in where people would rent TVs from decades ago. And it’s still there. It’s got yo be a cover as it doesn’t even stock good TVs when we go by it.

I’ve been to urban slums in 3rd world countries. The worst places here are now like that.

I agree. Leicester is my nearest city. We have lived locally for 20+ years, and the decline in the city over that period has been genuinely shocking to witness. It’s now so grotty & neglected & run down. Parts of it feel more like the third world than Britain. Many people who live in our village simply refuse to go into town these days because they just don’t feel safe there.
Last year M&S closed their main high street store, after trading there for 100 years. The worst thing is that nobody was surprised. I’m not aware of another city centre which M&S have given up on. It’s still empty & boarded up, of course. The closure felt symbolic; the final blow for the city centre. Last one to leave, turn out the lights.

The worst places in the UK are like Somalia and DRC?

I think not

It's decades of bad governance. Tories didn't do anything right in 14 years. Now Labour are out of their depth and seem to be running the country with a managed decline attitude.

Out of town retail parks and on line shopping have totally destroyed High Streets.
Once the initial decline set in it was just a slippery slope. Landlords will rent their premises to anyone willing to pay the extortionate rents - which aren't businesses that can compete with online shops.
We don't have security guards in our county town yet - except on the door of pubs and bars in the evenings.

It’s easy to fix. As we have done here. Litter picking with dc whilst out for a walk every Sunday. Stop shopping on Amazon and use your local shops. Plant flowers in boxes and take some pride in the area around your home, work and where you go. Help others if they are struggling to maintain for whatever reason (usually health or age) if everyone played their part - then it would encourage others (as it has here) and we live in a lovely place that looks better every year because we care for it, and support local businesses rather than billionaires.

Online shopping has killed the high street and the social care budget has killed our local authorities. And no consequences for antisocial behaviour.

I don’t believe it’s just the UK though. Seen it in Ibiza old town, Brussels, Paris and Naples (which has always been notoriously rough) on holidays over the last few years. Friends from what’s considered a nice part of Canada have reported the same over there.

And sort out immigration probably! The country is full to bursting.

I'm wondering if you live in the same town as me! Sounds very familiar 🤔

You can only buy from local shops if they are there though

We do still have them. Support what’s left?

Or the nearest ones to you.

I think M&S went from Bradford city last year ( I could be wrong).

I finally succumbed to getting the bulk of my grocery shopping delivered as I just cannot bear going to my dirty, full of too many dusty looking people locales (Peckham, Camberwell, Walworth) to shop anymore.
For my ethnic shop, I do a monthly shop in Brixton and Lewisham market for bulk veg shopping.

But Southwark is mostly a veritable shithole or at best fur coat and no knickers. From the Thames to the borders with Lambeth and Lewisham boroughs.

Sounds very familiar too!