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?

Working remotely could be an option for some people even without a EU passport, for example, Estonia has a remote workers visa.

Some UK employers aren't keen because of tax and other reasons, but others don't care and are quite happy for people to work outside the UK. After all, it makes no difference on a practical level whether I zoom from Hampshire, the south of France as an OP mentioned, Berlin or Auckland.

I love London & think it's a fantastic city however the volume of people, traffic & air pollution is annoying.

I also think we are in for some tough economic times. I'm in my 30s & doubt i will see a state pension or the nHS in its current model & this was pre covid.
I think it's really hard for young people now. Take a 21 yr old, big uni debt, then land a job, start saving for a deposit & a pension whilst paying high rents against backdrop of wage stagnation & shocking interest rates to help with saving.

No, most of the people I know here in London are British / London born and are settled and rooted here. I think much of what makes London such a special place to live is shut and on hiatus at the moment and the big negative (a small home) weighs more heavily as we all spending so much time there.

DHs law firm have said 5 days in the office will never return more like 2-3 days.

We know four families that have moved in the last couple of years. New homes now in UAE, Germany, Japan and Iceland.

We’re leaving London and moving to Canada due to Brexit. DH is French Canadian and a doctor. I’m Belgian and an accountant. Thankfully DT’s don’t have U.K. passports. DD moved to Brussels in September and DS starts his first job in Singapore this autumn after finishing his Masters. A number of DH’s colleagues are leaving the U.K. (and the NHS) and moving to jobs in South Africa and Australia.

GCAcademic
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

80% of tax receipts from financial services? It was 10.9% in 2018;

The tax contribution of the UK financial services sector hit a record high total of £75.0bn in the year to 31 March 2018...The figure is an increase of 4.0% on the tax contribution last year (£72.1bn) and equates to 10.9% of all UK tax receipts.

According to some estimates, a quarter of the financial services sector’s annual revenue comes from business related to the EU.

The EU will have to come to some arrangement with the UK on financial services;

the relationship works both ways: London is the world’s leading financial centre, with no European alternative able to match it on efficiency and cost-effectiveness. PricewaterhouseCoopers emphasises that many European businesses rely on the UK to fulfil their financial requirements.

The UK-Japan FTA was a boast to our financial services sector as well - growth expected there.

@wellardwoof we are currently living in London.

We have a nice enough 3 bedroom flat here but I am starting to really dislike the area- definitely more "coming" than "up" despite how it originally was sold to us!

So much fly tipping, shit on the pavements, dodgy dealings going around...

Yet our flat is work £500k, we are in a triangle of some of the "best primary" options in London, very near Blackheath...

boost

Yep.
Also a lot of EU ctizens have left too. Most of them have been living in the uk for 10+ years and were really nicely settled.

Im not surpised that british people are doing the same. They've done it for generation each time thinsg were hard. They left for sunnier places (Whether it was australia etc...). This is even more the case for people with good training...
If I could I would have moved away too (but 2 teens in the middle of GCSE and A levels made it impossible) 2.5 more years.....

Working with schools..families moving out of London to the north of England and Scotland.
Cleaners and caretakers, always in such short supply and a struggle to recruit, many are Eastern European...they have left due to Brexit.
Languages teachers have returned to Europe.

Professional colleagues outside of education are returning to their home countries.

Retired colleagues who planned Spanish retirement and own abroad, can't do that either.
Our own plans to buy property and work abroad are on hold because of current uncertainty.
My DC's who were encouraged to apply to The Netherlands for university are also awaiting updates before being able to make a decision.

Don't see any benefits for 'our little island' ...in fact the one thing we could have done, which was to keep COVID out...this government didn't manage either.

@Clavinova, honestly whether the financial services are doing this or that really does NOT matter in this case.

The reality is that people are escaping britain and london and don't see the country as somewhere with a futture (or one with a nice one). So they are becoming immigrants instead.
Whether you agree with them this is the case or not is not here no there. That's how many profesionals see things. That's it.

I have dual NZ and UK citizenship and so have my DH and children. (We got their citizenship by descent application approved at the start of brexit). I am not doing anywhere. I don’t think I will leave to go back to NZ unless we are at war here. (NZ feels safe and I can’t see anyone attacking it).

My family is from Hong Kong and I know a few HK kiwi Chinese coming or looking at coming here instead of going back to NZ. One already got a job in London in fintech.

Fwiw my parents did the same. EU citizens, retired.
They looked at think and thought the situation was too unstable. They didn't want to take the risk to have to move back to france in a rush and being older than they are/were.

They took 'the safe route' even though it also meant not seeing their grand children and daughter as often.

the relationship works both ways: London is the world’s leading financial centre, with no European alternative able to match it on efficiency and cost-effectiveness. PricewaterhouseCoopers emphasises that many European businesses rely on the UK to fulfil their financial requirements.

Are you sure...even PWC have loads of offices in The Netherlands...English speaking, bilingual workforce, easy transport links....

As someone who lived in that area for 13 years, I find it hard to believe that people are ‘emigrating’ to the Middle East. They’re much more likely to be going to work there for a few years, or else they’re natives returning to their country of origin.

Oh good, this island is far too crowded the more that leave the better for the rest of us.

Lots of kids from abroad have just joined my son’s mediocre/shit secondary school. It seems a really odd time for families to be moving here IMO.

@Grumpasaurus I feel your pain, prices are ridiculous. I'm lucky that I have a lot of equity & good jobs but why do I want to pay more than a million for a small terrace with no off street parking.

Looking forward though - if Scotland votes for independence and other ''parts'' of UK follow - will England then become a new dynamic, rich, progressive, low tax small centre where everyone wants to be in a few years or will if spiral down in to a big black hole? However Scotland cannot really afford to go independent now and it's debt would be above the European Union limit to join.

Well this is home. We don't have the option to move away with elderly parents close by who need us. I feel a loyalty anyway. I have European friends who have gone back and I don't blame them but agree with useofweapons we have to do the best we can.

I don't feel hurt by many of the things said on here. Millions of people would like things to change it's shameful the underfunding of the NHS for instance.

I believe things will change with the next generation.

Seeya 👋

We need a few less people on the island.

We need a few less people on the island.

Do we though? I thought we needed immigration as we have a ageing population, and a shrinking income tax paying one.

@janj2301

Oh good, this island is far too crowded the more that leave the better for the rest of us.

problem is that all the ambitious go getting ones will leave and only the 'undesirables' (ie those who make you feel the UK is too crowded) will be left

@janj2301

Oh good, this island is far too crowded the more that leave the better for the rest of us.

Hmm... it depends who leaves though. If those who leave are the doctors and nurses, this will make things harder for people still in the UK. Same with the fruit pickers, carers etc....

For some jobs, there will no difficulty at all to replace them. For others, it is clear that the UK is already struggling wo them.