Area gone to shit, feel forced to move 😪

[Runouttatown]

I've lived in the same London suburb all my life. Until just a few short years ago it was a very nice area, and we thought we'd likely stay for ever, perhaps downsizing when the DC left home. We've spent a lot of time and money improving and extending our home over the years and it's perfect for us, just the way we want it, so would not wish to leave it for a few years yet.

However, the area has been going downhill at an alarming rate over the last 3 or 4 years to the point that we find we now absolutely hate it and want to get out - overcrowded, horrendous traffic, driving & road rage, unpleasant, rude people, lots of crime and antisocial behaviour. HMOs springing up all over, including one at the end of the street, most of which contain single, foreign men, not families. We're overrun with food delivery bike riders (many of whom live in the HMOS) who congregate in the high street, leering at women & young girls and spit disgusting red tobacco on the pavement. The area looks increasingly run down, fly tipping and a general lack of care. It has long been fairly multi cultural (no problem with that at all) but we're now finding that as white british people we are fast becoming a minority, and frequently encounter people who cannot speak any English. I'm sure some will accuse me of being racist but I absolutely am not, I'm just sad at what has happened to our once lovely area and, no, I'm not blaming immigration for all of it, although it's clearly a factor.

I know many areas are the same but there are plenty that are not - I only have to compare our Community Facebook page which is full of posts complaining of the above issues to that of the area we're thinking of going to which is completely different.

We've accepted we now need to move several years before we are ready but I feel so sad and angry about it. Several friends have already moved and others are considering it for the same reasons. The DC are happy for us to move as they hate it too - one at uni, the other working & considering buying their own place, not round here!

If you are in the position to relocate, you are lucky. It's only a house.

Of course they can relocate. But I hate to imagine what things will be like for more suburban areas in years to come when this problem gets worse.

Which London suburb is this @Runouttatown ?

I feel the same about where I live. Grew up here and have lived here most of my life but planning to leave now. Feel like a stranger in my home town.

Op, YANBU but you will absolutely be called racist for not wanting groups of men loitering and spitting everywhere. By people who live in leafy, middle class white villages and cities like Bath/York/Winchester. Good luck!

My childhood street went the same way. There's now 6 HMOs on a small residential street, all filled with transient, foreign men who work in the gig economy and hang around outside looking dodgy at all hours of the day and night. There are often fights in the street, there's been a couple of stabbings, fly tipping all over the place because one council bin isn't enough for 7 separate people.

It used to be a nice multicultural street with kids playing outside. Now it looks like something from a Ross Kemp on Gangs documentary.

HMOs completely change the vibe of the areas they are in, and never in a positive way.

It sounds very similar to my area and to my dad's area OP.

I'm counting down the days to retirement so we can sell up and move to a lovely clean, multicultural, close-knit area by the sea, where the residents are mostly lovely and really look out for each other.

If there is loads of dog poo everywhere too then it sounds exactly like where I live ! (Harrow)

Yawn

God forbid you’re surrounded by (presumably other) white people

I'm not sure this is fair really.

My dad lives in Ilford and the drug addicts, beggars, pimps and gang members are as multicultural as the area itself.

Plus I can't imagine why any posters complaining about it would state whether they're Asian or not, so how would you know?

It sounds like the longer you stay, the less you would get for your home so I'd move sooner rather than later.

YANBU, it really affects how you feel about life in general when the area on your doorstep isn't pleasant.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'God forbid'?

I prefer multicultural areas and what makes you think foreign people couldn't possibly be white?

I think the people of MN benefit greatly from the fact that so few BAME people post on MN with issues they face from white people.

When I went to Stratford I could have sworn like 70 percent of the people in the overcrowded streets were west Asian and talking in foreign languages. I was surprised. I will say, it is frustrating that over half of shop workers and delivery drivers cannot really speak English. But I think, when you get in and shut the door that's your home, outside doesn't really matter. I'm in a housing association tenancy and looking to swap for a house but I am thinking it will need to be in a worse area for someone to want to swap to a flat (my area is lovely)

HMOs are the housing answer we deserve as a nation to kicking the problems of housing down the road for decades.

We all want to sell our property for the highest possible price , but we don’t care to whom or what they do with it.

We don’t want anyone to build near us in case it devalues our “nest egg”

We can’t bring ourselves to actually challenge politicians on the issue, so we just hope we get the most each time we sell, and try and move away from reality.

Britain deserves what it’s currently going through. We are the children of Thatcher’s poisonous attempt to buy an entire generation of votes.

What kind of issues are you referring to?

I absolutely think white people are more likely to engage in certain types of crime - but it would be disingenuous to say this logic doesn’t also apply to non white people.

I just find it funny when white people complain about areas not being multicultural enough for them; while adding to the white population and therefore making it less multicultural themselves

Yes same in my area too, up north. im a home owner and grew up here used to be 100% british residents. homes were well kept people had pride in their surroundings back then. Great community spirt neighbours would sit out and chat together during the summer.
Now its an absolute disgrace. have to weave through abandoned wheelie bins and fly tipped rubbish on every street. windows with a dirty sheets draped up instead of curtains, overgrown unkempt gardens. HMOs is such a shame to see the decline of our once lovely area. Each neighbour now speaks a different language so the community spirt has now gone.

They’re most certainly coordinated. There has been a spate of them in the past few weeks, all started by people who have apparently ‘name changed’ for the thread and all virtually identical.

Thank you. Started to think I was going mad. ❤️

Was always the way some areas go up and some go down. If you don't like it move. Years ago there were areas in London I wouldn't even drive through that are now rather posh.

While YANBU about the various issues you describe, YABU in your assumption that things would remain the same decades after you moved to an area. Change is inevitable, if it wasn’t the issues you describe it would be something else. We live in a semi rural area. People who moved here from elsewhere to live in what at the time were new houses, for “the quiet life”, frequently lament new people doing exactly the same thing (in some cases not so many) years later moving into the current new builds without any sense of irony whatsoever. Bottom line is people don’t like change. Accept it, it’s part of life,
and move.

I understand as it’s happening in my area too. Only problem is, the new area could be exactly the same in a few years’ time. I think everywhere in the UK is changing.

I live in a waterfront area of a small town and it has changed in the last six months or so and I would never have expected it. There are no HMOs in the area either. It’s normally a popular area for retirees and seen as well to do but people could move here now and be surprised that it is not what they expected.