People leaving London and now the UK for good

[Musicaldilemma]

We are in Outer London. Ten sets of friends have moved out of London to other parts of the U.K. over the summer. Now many other families are in the process of emigrating to The Middle East, various part of Asia, 2 NZ families who have been here 20 years trying to go home and 3 Aussie families (1 parent Australian). It is definitely much more than usual. It seems everyone who is rich enough and able to is trying to leave the country for good. It got me thinking to when I was a young successful professional - I think I may have tried to leave too. I am worried we are going to end up with an unhealthy, elderly population with all the young, successful people propping the economy back gone. I think the latest rounds of news have broken quite a lot of people I know who have international options, it looks worse than immediately after Brexit. Is it just my friendship group and the people I know at work? (Lawyer?) Or are others observing this too?

Hurtful? Get a fucking grip. It's thanks to people prioritising irrational feelings like these that we are in the mess we are in, with our own government now telling businesses to relocate to the EU, and the financial services industry (which provide 80% of the country's tax take) unable to see how they can continue to trade. Where, exactly, is this country's income going to come from now, to enable it to continue the glorious trajectory you clearly think we are on? You can kiss goodbye to any hope of a state pension, NHS, and god knows what else within the next twenty years.

And perhaps our fishermen should also emigrate to the EU. That is the only way they'll be able to continue to earn their living now, given that their "sovereignty" amounts to no more than the ability to catch fish and then dump them in landfill. That's what taking back control looks like.

And, no, I'm not "ashamed", as someone has suggested that anyone with a grasp on reality should be. The people who voted for this should be ashamed. They are still not able to articulate one single benefit of Brexit, other than sending foreigners and middle class professionals packing.

Over the last 3 years we saw a lot of non British families leave our primary school. But since Brexit last year, not seen any change. But with work I've seen a few younger colleagues move out of London during covid. It seems to have advanced pre existing plans to move out.

The population of London grew by 50% to 9 million in the last 20 years. I'd like to see it shrink back to 6 million, with more employment distributed across the UK and less overcrowding.

@BigWoollyJumpers

Don't worry - Lots of young and highly educated families from Hong Kong are on their way here. It's all perspective, which way you move, where you feel you will be happier and healthier, and your children will grow up in a better environment.

This 🤣 and they'll all be buying houses for themselves and some for their kids too.

I'm Kiwi and I'm sticking it out in the UK. I miss NZ, I miss my family, but I prefer the standard of living here and the long term financial prospects are better and so I'm staying. Other expats I know are doing the same. I've known only 2 returnees in 2 years and both moves were family related.

We tried it out 2 years ago. Spent a few months in our favourite place in France, checking out options. Then came home. I'm not happy here re Brexit, the state of the country politically and societally etc, but my child needs her extended family.

I don't know anyone planning to leave - all high earning professionals.

DD's generation, just started working in London, are not moving out or back to their home countries. Quite a lot are from overseas and all desperate to stay in the UK. All well qualified individuals, so good news for UK PLC.

I certainly have noticed more people I know bailing out, some after living here happily for 20 years or more. All professionals. Brexit certainly hasn’t been a reason to stay. I have a horrible feeling over the next decade it will be like rats leaving a sinking ship. ‘Cool Britannia’ of the 90s feels a long time ago now.

Where I live in London, every house that is sold is filled with new people thrilled to be there. Just a bit younger than the last lot.

I think it's a normal thing - you get to middle age and want out of the city.

TBH I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be. Youth unemployment is rife in mainland Europe. America and its guns and politics? No thanks. Australia miles away from anywhere? No thanks.

But I know it's fashionable to diss the UK on MN so you go, Glen Coco.

The grass is always greener!

@Louiselady500

The grass is always greener!

It certainly is at the moment. Our family in Australia are leading normal lives, everything open, kids going to school & having a life. Surely it’s understandable that people would be considering it?

In my sector, academia, I know of one professor that jumped ship but that was about three years ago, so not many recently, to be honest, even if they did, there's a queue of exceptionally well qualified candidates for every job, probably 100 per post so I don't think there's as much of a brain drain at the ground level. There may be some very elite scientists who are thinking of going elsewhere, not sure many will though as funding climates are terrible in Europe, probably better in China and possibly US depending on specialty/area. I don't see it though, even though everyone moans endlessly about how awful it is here. I do think it's awful, Brexit is awful, but I'm not sure that many want to jump to mainland Europe given the problem with jobs/funding, and now UK can apply for EU funding still I think there won't be a mass exodus.

am worried we are going to end up with an unhealthy, elderly population with all the young, successful people propping the economy back gone.

Nice bit of ageism there. ‘Elderly’ people are also successful.

And as for leaving London. Who can blame them? London isn’t the centre of the universe. My young successful Millenniall moved back home because he was sick of London rents. He’s still successful and young in the North.

A move away from London centricity is what this country needs.

I'm not observing the leaving the UK (though I would not blame anyone for doing so given the worst government in history and Brexit), but am observing people leaving London, all of whom I know do not expect to have to travel to an office five days a week at any time in the future.

My cousin and her wife left the UK due to brexit having a huge impact on her wifes career.

A friend moved to Australia in February as he had much better career prospects, I’m very jealous when I see him leading an almost normal life.

I knew a few people in medical research who have moved to Germany on a permanent basis.

We are aiming to sell up, buy a small base in the UK and move in the next 5-6 years. Just about had enough of being back in the UK we've given it 20 years and been taxed into the ground for all our hard work.

Not sure where we are going! We may just try a few places for a couple of years at a time. We've both lived in SE asia and have family in Australia, my DH has also lived in Canada.

I feel we may just travel for a while just to shake off the Britishness!

It's interesting because I have colleagues & neighbours who all just left in the Summer. Some were planning it for some point but others never had intentions.
I work in a school & quite a few parents are moving out of London

There was a recent article about it because we are toying with leaving (would never consider it before).

Oh & DH & I are Londoners born to immigrant parents so don't have any ties except to London which puts me off. Our dc have European passports so I will encourage them to leave if they want.

"During 2020, London leavers bought 73,950 homes outside of the capital. New research published by major London estate agency Hamptons shows this is the largest number in four years. This is especially significant as the housing market was even closed for seven weeks during the year due to COVID-19."

"During the first half of 2020, London leavers purchased 6.9% of properties sold outside of the capital. This equated to 24,480 sales. Throughout the second half of 2020, this number increased to 7.8% and 49,470. In the second half of the year, London leavers bought £18.4bn worth of property outside of the capital. This is more than in any full year from 2008 to 2013.
Additionally, on average, London leavers are moving further away from the capital than at any time in the past 10 years. With the prospect of working from home regularly, London leavers are looking to move further away. Location preferences are changing as commutability isn’t as much of an important factor as before."

It makes sense the affordability issue, rise in remote working, Brexit

We are leaving!

More driven by Brexit to be honest, thought covid has given us the chance to reflect on our lives and what we want from them!

@Grumpasaurus London or UK?

@Flaxmeadow

People get a weird and spooky kick out of being pessimistic and bashing the UK, everything British and their own people on MN

Yes, especially middle class liberal progressive professionals. Maybe after Brexit they're have trouble getting servants?

Ha ha. i do find it rather strange that people would prefer to live somewhere like Dubai, but each to their own.

Last weekend the Sunday Times said about 1.5 million people had left the EU because of covid-related job losses and Brexit. I would like to think that would mean less house-building.

The person who said but people want to live in the countryside - if it's all concreted over, it's not countryside.

I do know one person who left immediately before the turn of the year - he decided about 10 days before the Brexit deadline that he was moving to France. But he's single without dependents.

That said, both DH and I can work from home and if I'd known school was going to be remote learning for the foreseeable, we could have got out and gone to Germany - although I thought the borders were closed and am still not quite sure how my friend managed to get out. He just said he was entitled to move under the Withdrawal agreement and so they let him in with negative covid test.

I think it’s only anecdotal though

My experience in expensive area of SE where people are generally highly paid is no one has left the U.K.

That includes doctors, company directors, academics and skilled craftsmen

Also, the grass isn’t always greener

Just about had enough of being back in the UK we've given it 20 years and been taxed into the ground for all our hard work

taxed into the ground in the UK Are you serious? Nobody is taxed into the ground in the UK, especially with this government. Anyway, I'd rather well-off people leave if they begrudge paying into the system. Good luck in Monaco.

I am a lawyer too and am seeing the same phenomenon as the OP but I work for a very international firm so it might not be representative of what people are doing at large. We are a dual nationality family and are ourselves considering our options. For the moment we are staying put and seeing how things are going to pan out but if we are going to be edging towards a world of general WFH / recurrent winter lockdowns / very difficult international travel / Brexit recession and London becoming grim etc we will probably move to the South of France to be at least somewhere more sunny on the seaside and close to my family. I think people will do what makes the most sense for them depending on their jobs and whether you can do them remotely and their family circumstances- if you have other nationalities or speak other languages it opens doors.

Last weekend the Sunday Times said about 1.5 million people had left the EU because of covid-related job losses and Brexit. I would like to think that would mean less house-building

Doh I meant

Last weekend the Sunday Times said about 1.5 million people had left the UK because of covid-related job losses and Brexit. I would like to think that would mean less house-building.