To feel our quality of life in the UK gets lower every year?

[Playingvideogames]

Off the back of another thread where I mentioned my childhood homes being bought by my parents for under 300k in the late 90s/early 2000s, and are now all selling for 700k+.

I feel like our quality of life just dwindles every year. Everything becomes more expensive. Housing is low quality, small and extortionate. The weather is awful 70% of the time. Everything feels so overcrowded with fewer green spaces and natural beauty as more housing estates go up. The roads are awful, choked with traffic and potholed. Constant roadworks here yet nothing ever seems to get solved. Customer service is a bit rubbish, nothing really works as intended. More and more rules about what you can and can’t do. People just seem stifled and stressed.

I’m sure people will rush along to say how wonderful the NHS is and similar, but I sometimes feel really envious of people living in places where (although not perfect) they have something reliable to enjoy - great weather, a nice big house, just more space and less overcrowding.

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable but I wonder if you do!

Me? I’ve never claimed a benefit in my life. And I go to work not only for myself and my family, but for the society I and my family live in. I go to work so that there is an NHS if ever I or anyone else needs it, and so that there are free schools for all children, not just mine, and so that there is street lighting and rubbish collection and, if someday I become disabled and unable to work, I might still be able to put the heating on. And so that you can too. You’re welcome.

Exactly see my other thread about the cost of living.

I don't "happily" pay taxes for the disabled and vulnerable and welfare.

I most accurately would say that I do it begrudgingly, because otherwise people might die.

Part of the housing issue surely must reflect changes in society as a whole. In the 80s around 2 in 10 houses had a single adult occupant, it’s now 30%. That’s a huge number of additional homes to be found, driven by an ageing population and people delaying marriage/living with their partner. If so many people are choosing to live alone or circumstances mean they live alone there’s going to be an impact on available housing.

In 10 years there was a 0.8m increase in adults living alone - that’s a huge increase to try and absorb.

And one day, one of those people might be you. Or your child. And then I expect you’ll be happy that you and everyone else paid their taxes.

Agree, and there certainly is a lot of frosty wind making moan on this thread

Thats not what the op was saying

Yes things are a lot worse for lots of people because of lots of reasons. I admit to being more left leaning, but it astounds me how so many people moan about the state of things after voting in governments who have no idea how most people live, have policies that make their friends richer and have privitised every thing via the back door.

I have been a child protection social worker for 20 years, and the devastation left behind by the last Tory government is catastrophic. Central government funding t9 local councils slashed and they having to pick up the bill for our most vulnerable. Placements for children needing corporate care and our elderly were privitised. A placement for a teenager is easily 10, 000 a week and we fight every other LA for it. Of course it would be better to put money into early help support/schools etc but money for these schemes was stopped and all your council tax now pays for adult and children's social care (see above).

Same with housing. Landlords are all now moaning about it 'not being worth their while' due to government changes. The reality it they were allowed to take advantage of loopholes and tax breaks for far too long and have totally distorted the housing market. My DC is paying £900 a month for a room in a terraced, shared house in a Northern city ffs. How can our young people have any future when this is the norm?

As for the shitshow that was Brexit, Cameron's arrogance pushing through that referendum (and at a time when time when people wanted to object to his austerity agenda) and then the self serving egotistical arseholes who emerged in the aftermath..... For many versed and interested in politics, this is when it all went to shit. Leaving the biggest free trading block in the world to appeal to racists and xenophophes because Big Nige was getting a bit threatening. ...

I don't happily do it, I do it begrudgingly. I can't blame a disabled person for being disabled. Or someone having a disabled child.

I don't like people taking the piss. But I accept that's a small amount. I do believe in personal responsibility for those who are fit and healthy.

I just go to work. I honestly think all this virtue signalling has come about through the online world.

People used to just go to work, swear about the tax they paid and feel as though they were never paid enough and the month was too long. No one was wandering about discussing vulnerable people and feeling delighted their taxes were paying for bin collections and grass verge maintenance.

You don't seem to understand basic behavioral economics. What you are doing here is classic online virtue signalling.

If I tax you at 60% order to keep giving your efforts to "the vulnerable"...

How do you think your economic behavior would change?

I agree OP. We are relocating later this year. Yes nowhere is perfect but the UK is clearly going down the pan, even if people refuse to admit it.

Only the better off people

Just to add, at the beginning of last year, my wonderful brother who has no children, single and not a massive user of government services, worked for his local LA for 30 years since leaving school had a catastrophic stroke. We thought we would loose him, he spent nearly 3 months in ICU (nursed by amazing nurses all from the Philippines- plundered from a developing country). The medical and nursing care he received was exceptional and I doubt would be any better any where else. When really needed, the NHS is world class and is there, no health insurance needed. I used to be a cardiac care nurse and then worked in pediatric oncology as a social worker. This is what our taxes pay for. You never know when/if needed but all of us benefit and in 2026 we should understand that paying toward a more equal society in lots of ways.

I'm glad your brother pulled through and was treated well by the NHS.

Couldn’t agree more - I lived somewhere where ‘all’ people pay a lot of tax - ( Denmark) however the benefits to society were big, lots of very good quality social housing, NHS type healthcare, very reasonable child care, no council tax, good infrastructure, - I can imagine the response here in the UK , ‘I’ve not got young kids’ - ‘I don’t need social housing’ etc . However their view is also that you are all expected to work and contribute unless you actually physically cannot or are between jobs - hence the childcare at £280 a month. I met very few women who were SAHMs at all and not that many that did less than 9 to 4pm every day - the system here has made it that if your household income is pretty modest and particularly if you have kids and private rent that it really doesn’t pay to do much paid work

I've consistently voted against mass immigration due to these problems, but that's democracy.

We now need to deal with the situation we have, which is the need for 5+ million homes. Our young people aren't having children because they can't get on the housing ladder or qualify for social housing.

The people that voted for mass immigration need to own the consequences, rather than bleating about the environment and the impact upon the view from their kitchen window.

Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise I was writing an essay on behavioural economics. I thought I was explaining my personal attitude to work, taxation and the welfare state.

Let's not forget there are MANY people in the UK doing VERY well off the backs of the rest of us.

Money is flowing up, not trickling down. Just look at bonuses and profits.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/10/wessex-water-bosses-extra-pay-uk-bonus-ban

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/06/ftse-100-ceos-earn-more-than-average-worker-yearly-pay-by-noon-on-6-january-2026

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/17/record-salaries-for-uk-chief-executives-as-pay-rises-for-third-year-in-a-row

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/garden/2096301/network-rail-staff-receive-165million

No, you were criticising people that were behaving completely normally economically speaking.

In reality, its your personal economic views that are upside down.

You know, it’s possible for selfishness to be normal.

All of this. Bringing private profit into essential services has been utterly disastrous for public finances, because it’s the tax payer that ends up paying inflated costs because no one should be homeless/lack care/be unsafe at home. Providers have local authorities over a barrel, and the consequent impact is that children are left for far too long in very poor circumstances and the eligibility criteria for services is so tight it’s almost impossible to get what’s needed.

It also makes it’s very difficult to implement early intervention or preventative work, because that takes resources from people who are now in critical need, but may not be if supports were provided sooner.

I think too the government subsidising low wages is counter productive, as is creating a situation where minimal work opens the door to a host of benefits. I don’t know how we fix it now, because any change brings outrage from whatever group might be impacted by cuts but we can’t sustain what we’ve created.

We thought we would loose him, he spent nearly 3 months in ICU (nursed by amazing nurses all from the Philippines- plundered from a developing country).

That's quite unusual to have ICU nurses from the Philippines. They usually perform more basic nursing duties. To have multiple Filipino ICU nurses, is very unusual. To have an ICU exclusively staffed with Filipino nurses seems like an immigration miracle.

Your experience isn't relatable to me. I earn more, the mortgage is paid off. Our house isn't nig, but it's plenty big enough for us, and we made a conscious decision to stick with that in favour of paying the mortgage off quickly.
We do nice things, have time to enjoy outdoors with the dogs. There's so many absolutely stunning places in this country once you move away from the cities and urban areas.

Costs of things are higher now, but we don't personally feel the squeeze.

But I think you can choose to gravitate to the negative or focus on the positive things in your life.

If you add ten million people to the population within the space of twenty five years, you are going to have a housing crisis, basic laws of supply and demand.