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

[blahhhhg]

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.

We moved our town 20 years ago. It was a shit hole then and is a shit hole now.

I worked in retail 30 years ago, we had security guards then. We frequently had shoplifters, for some reason they went after the cheese and bacon mainly.

Things aren’t majorly worse as far as I can see.

Councils are struggling. They have had a real decrease in their budget in real terms and have an ever increasing adult social care bill to pick up. I think people forget that adult social care is not just the elderly but also adults with disabilities, learning disabilities and mental health. Councils are also being completely ripped off in many cases by private companies in the adult social care sector. As someone who works in the sector I think people would be shocked to see the sheer costs of some care plans.

I grew up in a lovely town which is declining but I am not surprised. House prices have pushed young people out. There is holiday homes on every street pretty much. The few houses which come up for sale barely last a day or two before they are snapped up over the asking price.

Agree.
Online shopping has killed the high street

Do you really believe that?

That immigrants are living it up and given everything?

Seriously?

Low Taxation?

We are indeed. Then when all the steel works, car factories, mines, energy companies and British Rail were sold off... what assets has the UK got now?
We were told that privatisation would mean competition and cheaper and more efficient services. I've never known the rail network be so bad.
In my city there was a good stock of well maintained council housing. All sold.

Yes wonderful fly tipping

always Someone else’s problem

Yes, Thatcherism. Cut taxes, especially the upper rates.

The problem is Thathcherism could only work once..there's only so much council housing to sell off. Only so many public services to sell off (including water and gas). Only so much north sea oil to profit from. Low taxes destroy public services which then require high taxes to try and fix. Unions crippled helped undercut wages and now everyone is skintnor needs tax credits to pay the rent.

We're paying for it all now.

Yes

I don’t feel safe in my local town anymore. I can remember as a teen getting my first job I’d regularly go in to town alone to spend my wages 20 years later I wouldn’t dream of it.

I was in Buxton recently, bleak, tumbleweed kinda place.

@MistressoftheDarkSide Dark Angel!

TBF the high street doesn’t help itself.

I’ve been trying to buy a pair of trainers. Been to four shops and they didn’t have any in the style I like, in my size.

This experience is far more efficient online.

I have more need to go out and shop when I wfh than when I am in the office.
I just want to run home and stay therr untill next office day.
When I was fully wfh I went to town every weekend but it was shit.
Vape shops, barbers and nail shops, gambling places and that run down cornershop surviving on drugs sale.

Not now though - the most recent Tory governments legacy doesn’t involve low taxes, and that’s not what’s to blame for crap services.

I think people are only now realising just how fucked England is. British exceptionalism has hidden this reality from us all for many decades but streets full of rotting rubbish and shoplifters tell a very different story.

That's so interesting as we went back to Southport this weekend for the first time in nearly forty years (I was born there.) It had certainly changed an awful lot, was thinking of it when I saw this thread.

So why are you blaming "people who don't speak a word of English/ have an active hatred of British culture can be ushered into private lets at my expense" rather than greedy landlords?

I have to agree OP. In and around Manchester City centre and neighbouring town centres I feel the same. It’s very sad and seems like too big a problem to fix overnight too.

Truss thought she could be Thatcher 2. But Thatcher sold everything off..there's nothing left. Thatcherism died in 2008 and we've meandered since. The austerity of the 2010s followed by the pandemic has destroyed a generation at least.

Thank you 😊 ancient brain remembered the Angel but not the Dark!

Buxton however, has always been a bit of an odd place for shops. It was quite bleak when I last visited about twenty five years ago.

Okay so now we have Labour all of these problems will magically disappear….. great we will look forward to it! 😳

That and knife crime

Not all areas are the same and I know some are much worse than here, we deal with dog poo and litter. Others even more

Well those are the people who benefit, the landlords/ people with property investments benefit most though. The working population picks up the bill. Why would I be happy with that, considering I am a worker?