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!

Oh yes, dog poo, and human poo - I kid you not! Yep, I know Harrow, & yes very similar. Harrow is slightly worse than where I am I think, but catching up fast!

Just looked this up and banks own almost no blocks of flats in the UK. Only Lloyds has gone into property ownership on any meaningful scale, and even then it only owns about 7,500 flats altogether in the UK

Oh yes, it's going to be so great when Reform get into power and introduce their own version of ICE to keep our streets pearly white. 🙄

The only reason it feels coordinated is because the same problem is cropping up all over.

Because you've not experienced anti-Semitism, even though you're not Jewish, you don't think it exists?

You don’t support the removal of illegal immigrants?

Poverty doesn't cause men to spit red tobacco in the street while leering at women. And we've never been richer - people lived in far more poverty in ie the 1920s without there being the problems described by the OP

So many threads like this, a few variations on the theme, and all in the week leading up to a by-election which Reform are hoping to win. I wonder what the link might be? 🤔

Agree. The problem is that there is an enormous imbalance in the number of people that don't have any respect for others or where they live anymore.

There have always been dispectful scumbags but now they're starting to outnumber decent people and the effects of their actions is getting more and more visible.

🥱

Why do you think political parties don’t use forums such an MN to further their agenda? They do. They all do.

Don't doubt it but surely you have noticed the massive decline of the UK? It's not made up. Its right there, everywhere. Or maybe you're one of the lucky ones.

Do I support children being rounded up and thrown into detention cells? No.

Do you actually know how many illegal migrants arrived in the UK in 2025 via small boats – now the only feasible route into the country for the undocumented? 41,472.

That's out of a population of 69.9 million.

Meanwhile, the number of legal long-term migrants coming to the UK dropped from 1.299 to 898,000.

Out of a population of 69.9 million.

Overall, 10.7 million people living in UK were not born here.

Out of a population of 69.9 million.

We are not being overrun by migrants, illegal or otherwise, whatever the right wing would have you believe.

Yes, the voters of Gorton and Denton in Manchester will spend most of the week running up to the by-election on Mumsnet reading about community changes in London suburbs.

It's an extremely obvious way to manipulate the outcome of the vote.

Please don't come on here spouting facts. It spoils the "fun" for some posters.

Probably wants open borders. All the far left types living in lala land do.

The official figures are that about 11 million people in the UK are now foreign born. Unofficially it's even higher.

This is a massive increase from about 3 million 30 years ago and is totally unsustainable.

The taxpayer is now spending tens of billions of pounds every year ensuring they have food, accommodation etc. How do you think that's going to work out in the long run?

You think anyone opposing ICE style tactics is ‘far left’? How weird.

Nope, not all. But do I want to see people and children dragged from their beds and chucked into vans by ICE-style agents men and taken to detention centres where they will be denied access to lawyers like what's happening in the States? Or protesters trying to stop it happening being attacked by the same ICE-style agents?

Farage was asked this week if he planned to introduce the same system and he didn't deny it.

But our overall population has also grown from the 58 million it was 30 years ago. You cannot blame it all on immigration.

And let's be honest for a second. People on here are only objecting to black and brown migrants. No one cares if migrants come from Australia or other "white" countries.

The double standards are sickening.

We don’t have that system.
It sounds quite hysterical to think we would have.
Then again, we have the far Left rooting out Jewish and Israeli sympathizers, and Islamists marching in our cities, so anything can happen.

The taxpayer is now spending tens of billions of pounds every year ensuring they have food, accommodation etc

For all 11 million? None of them work? Link please.

We don't have it yet. If Reform get into power, you can bet your house they'll establish an ICE-lite organisation. Farage was asked this week if he intends to and didn't deny it.

I say ICE-lite because thankfully they won't carry guns.

The far left won’t like you making this obvious point.

You never see these bleeding heart types running towards areas where there are large immigrant populations wanting live there. In fact they can’t get out of there fast enough. But everyone else must put up with it.

Litter everywhere, chicken shops on every corner, unkempt houses, bad parking, cars stopping in the middle of the road to have full blown social gatherings while everyone else queues behind, high insurance fraud borne out by premium stats, overcrowding and households where women have never worked.

Not to mention the bigger social and public health disasters such as cousin marriages, FGM, forced marriages, higher rates of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

But saying all this makes you racist. Because apparently all this madness in the name of multiculturalism makes the country better.

Thanks for the replies, pleasantly surprised to see that in the main I haven't been accused of being racist, which, as someone suggested up thread, would've have been the case on mn a few years ago. It's good that one can express concern about the effects of immigration without being labelled racist.

As I said, I'm definitely not racist (I have Asian friends 🤣). Joking aside, a close friend, who happens to be Asian, is even more angry about the decline of the area than I am and rants about it on a regular basis. Same with many of my non-white neighbours. They and my friend are a far cry from the paan spitting recent arrivals I'm talking about here.

I'm not naive enough to think that wherever I move to will be perfect and I know those areas are changing too - I've seen posts on their groups expressing concern about people moving in and the area changing. However, they are not dealing with the issues we are here so I'm hopeful that we'll feel relieved when we've done it, just upset we're having to do it. I will miss the proximity to Central London but will have find new entertainment!