What is the UK like to live in now?

[Arianasande]

Im originally from the UK. I currently live in Spain and I have done for the last five years. I work in student services. I interviewed for a job in the UK last year, didn't get it but she told me she'd keep my details on file. They just rang me this year and asked me would I like to do an interview again as the job has become available again.

I said why not and did the interview. They've offered me the job. The job and benefits are really good, and it's in a nice part of the UK. And part of me would like to go back. I wanted to go back to the UK for a year. I love Spain but sometimes the language barrier can be hard. And I wanted to live somewhere where everyone spoke English again for a while

However im also really nervous about going back to the UK.

What's making me nervous is that there are lot of English people working here in my school in Spain, and they are always telling me how awful the UK is now. That they hate it,that it's awful.

I know I won't really know until I decide to make the move. But I just wanted to know how do you think it is living in the UK now?

They would say that. I always find that with expats, to justify why they have moved. Personally I love where I live in the UK (Southern England)

Myself and my family are happy living in SE UK.

It depends on salary & how much local rents are.

Weather can be a bit shit, especially in winter but other than that it's great and although we complain about the weather I'd take that over wildfires and the ridiculous heat waves now common in other parts of the world anyday.

Was the pigeon called Steve by any chance? I’ve been training him for months to steal bread from unsuspecting humans emerging from their underground dwellings into the murky mornings (he’s an early riser). He went out this morning and hasn’t come back.

I love living in the UK! I’m originally from a southern EU country myself but love the opportunities and the people in the UK.

I would never live in a country if i didn’t speak the language well though - so I can understand that you might struggle to with that.

They’re probably saying that to justify their own decision!!

If it doesn't work out in the UK, can you go back to Spain . This is something I would consider seriously as since Brexit it extremely difficult to get Residencia and a visa to work. We've lived in Spain for 5 years too and I wouldn't go back to live in the UK, we go back often to see family but that's enough for us .

I am an immigrant to the U.K. and have lived here over 20 years and would say there have been a lot of changes good and bad overall but it will really depend on where you live and what your salary is.

If you are likely to be SE based, it’s phenomenally expensive to live on a single wage.

There’s more openly right wing, xenophobic and general intolerance and anger rhetoric than there used to be.

Most places feel a lot more crowded.

Trains are wildly expensive and unreliable compared to a few years ago.

Food and eating out are more expensive but this seems to be a national issue.

As a single woman moving back with no local family you may find making friends more difficult. You have to dedicate yourself to building a social life in the same way you would date or find a job.

Yeah, its not a third-world country or anything like it! That's obviously just exaggeration, regardless of where you live. But there are obviously differences depending on where you are relocating to - there have always been some rougher cities/areas, and there still are and always will be (as is the case in any country).

I live in Cambridgeshire in a nice-ish area. House prices are expensive, but always have been pretty high around here but my friends and I have all managed to buy our own homes. Rent is very high here now though, and would cost far more than my mortgage if I were to rent my house instead.

DH and I both have decent jobs and bring in a good income. Kids use the local state school - it's not fantastically amazing but 'Good' ofsted rating and has loads of clubs and cultural events as standard, which is important to us. Cost of living has certainly been felt in day-to-day costs, but thankfully due to our incomes we can still afford things without too much concern. The local areas to us have loads of parks and open spaces, council run libraries are still open and provide lots of sessions/clubs for local kids for free, and whilst our local town high-street has certainly seen better days (lots of shops closed in past 5yrs) it now has a busy cafe and restaurant scene that we enjoy, and a great market at weekends (food and crafts) which gets busy.

Negative for me is NHS - we can still get a GP appointment, but we have to call at 8am each day and join the phone-queue which takes forever with absolutely no guarantees you'll be seen that day. For some reason they 'can't' offer appointments later in the week - you MUST call at 8am each day and join a hunger games-esque queue to see who wins the appointment that day! However, I have private healthcare as part of my job package so we tend to use that mostly now (it covers my family), and contains private GP appointments as part of the insurance cover. If I didn't have it through work I'd pay for it myself as I think its a very worthwhile thing to have if you can afford it. Waiting times for procedures and hospital based care is awful in our area.

The UK is made up of four different countries so it depends where you're actually talking about

It depends where you are, it’s mixed.

Surely speaking the local language is a major advantage for you in the UK compared to Spain?

If it’s a nice area you’ll be fine. I live in a poor area and it’s awful. Fly tipping and litter everywhere. Drug dealing and aggressive begging. HMO housing with tenants frequently changing. Migrant men gathering on streets and creeping girls out. The UK is a real have and have nots at the moment.

This

Having been to two European countries recently it’s very sad how much the UK has deteriorated in comparison

I agree, that's not right, but that's not everywhere

To describe the UK as a "third world hell on earth" is absolutely ridiculous. I've been to several "third world" countries and the UK is nothing like them. To be honest, the people I hear referring to the UK as third world are usually Reform voters who don't like seeing brown people.
I think many of us have seen a decline due to austerity and underinvestment. Some town centres look very shabby and run down (a lot of the people look pretty shabby too!). But like everyone else has said, if you're comfortably off you'll have a good life in the UK. Nearly everyone I know is happy here and has a nice life although, I'm obviously aware that many people live in dire poverty.

There's a lot of right wing rage at the fact that we have a Labour government and this is being manifested as a lot of talking the country down..It's a crime ridden third world hellhole and all that nonsense, when in fact crime is down significantly.

The cost of living is high but that's probably the same everywhere.

The worst thing, and this is getting a lot worse, is there is almost a mass hysteria about immigration. Farage and his ilk is using this to their advantage and you see a lot of crap on social media about 'Labour deliberately importing illegals'. This has now resulted in a mass movement of people waiting the St George's cross on roundabouts , road crossings, shop fronts and the like and hanging flags everywhere, even in the sorts if towns you wouldn't expect to see that kind of thing

The media is utterly obsessed with immigration and the first thing on every news broadcast is some breathless dramatic crap about small boats as if anything had changed from the day before.

You can't get a GP appointment with less than 6 weeks wait, which is, of course being blamed in immigrants.

So while the country is probably pretty much as you left it (an economic basket case from the effects of Brexit) the endless moaning about immigrants is extremely tedious and getting worse.

an economic basket case from the effects of Brexit

erm....(cough...cough)...France 😀