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?

@MarshaBradyo how do you envisage the bounce back? I do think remote working will remain not at 100% but much higher than before. I also think a lot of people have realised how much they fritter away & wont necessarily go back to how they used to spend. I won't be.

@wellardwoof

People have always moved out of London to find cheaper housing - and other people move in to replace them.

No one is denying that but the population of London is now predicted to decline for the first time in decades.

Which is long overdue, I thought we had tipping point ten years ago!

I don't understand why people say we don't want doctors returning to their home countries as then the NHS would be in trouble. Why can't we train our own doctors here like other countries do? It's incredibly competitive to get into medical school, why can't we open a couple more or expand the existing ones?
Cheaper to poach doctors from poorer countries like Eastern European ones and India I guess. Which the Left seem to think is desirable.

Which is long overdue, I thought we had tipping point ten years ago!

It depends though doesn't it. You don't necessarily want doctors, nurses, police, teachers etc leaving.

I am seriously considering moving abroad, I have always thought about it but never seriously.

The brexit vote pushed me to think about it more and the absolute ineptitude of the government and the handling of covid and failure to understand the impact repeated lockdowns is having coupled with the attitude of a lot of British people mainly brexit supporters does make me think this isn’t the place I want to raise my baby.

We are also very outdoorsy and active and I think we would be much better suited somewhere that places a lot more emphasis on this. There are a lot of things I really dislike about the UK the only problem is it’s hard leaving family and friends behind that is the only thing that pulls me back. But we know of 4 other families recently who have taken or are planning on leaving the UK. One friend from France who had been here for 15 years just couldn’t stand the thought of staying after brexit as she felt like she wasn’t welcome here which is incredibly sad.

@FiveFootTwoEyesOfBlue

I don't understand why people say we don't want doctors returning to their home countries as then the NHS would be in trouble. Why can't we train our own doctors here like other countries do? It's incredibly competitive to get into medical school, why can't we open a couple more or expand the existing ones? Cheaper to poach doctors from poorer countries like Eastern European ones and India I guess. Which the Left seem to think is desirable.

Because it takes 7+ years to train a doctor, 3+ to train a niurse. There just isn't time to train them.

IF the UK was deciding to start training all the doctors they need, then there would still be the need to ave a stop gap for at least 10 years, if not more.
As it happens, the UK has opreferred to spend the money training british people (which is expensive) but to just rely on other counties doing so. It has always done so in the last 20 years I've lived here.

As soon as I can, I'm leaving. I love England, just not enough to stay.

@wellardwoof

Which is long overdue, I thought we had tipping point ten years ago!

It depends though doesn't it. You don't necessarily want doctors, nurses, police, teachers etc leaving.

No, but there may be other benefits. And if people in general leave in large numbers, then fewer of those key workers will be needed.

I sometimes read posters saying their area is too quiet, has no young people etc. Those areas might also benefit if England is less London centric.

I don't know what will be left in central London after a few more months of this- even Tier 1 is pretty restrictive and most people still WFH. Many businesses will have to shut permanently, the hospitality and leisure industry will be gone. WFH is here to stay while we're social distancing.

@MarshaBradyo, I'd go to France because that's where my parents are.

However I don't see that as 'moving back home'; for the simple reasosn that I have lived longer in the UK than in France and even longer out of France altogether (20 years in the uk, 18 in france, 10 overseas plus a couple of years in other places).
Plus apart from my parenst, no one in my family still lives there (they've all moved somewhere else years and years ago lol).
So as far as I am concerned, I will be starting from scratch building a totally new life as if it was let's say Quebec.

We're losing the best people. And will be getting back the retired people. Lose lose. Mainly due to Brexit I think. There's so little hope for the future.We're stuck with one of the worst governments in the world, for the foreseeable.

[quote wellardwoof]@MarshaBradyo how do you envisage the bounce back? I do think remote working will remain not at 100% but much higher than before. I also think a lot of people have realised how much they fritter away & wont necessarily go back to how they used to spend. I won't be. [/quote]
I think spending will bounce yes. We saw a bit last year and had some growth even with light restrictions and not great consumer confidence.

I also think businesses will return, esp client services where offices / location and pitching to win means people put in effort. As we are able this will mean not by zoom.

Hard to envisage but with vaccine rollout not too far. (As long as a vaccine busting variant doesn’t get us)

Those areas might also benefit if England is less London centric.

I agree that's a good thing.

@TonMoulin

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

Everyone is free to move if they feel like it. What's the problem?

Overall I go with JVT’s analogy of unsprung springs. When we can we’ll go a bit nuts. Imo

I also think businesses will return, esp client services where offices / location and pitching to win means people put in effort. As we are able this will mean not by zoom.

I just can't see back to the same scale. Office space will decline further (it was already reducing) & perhaps smaller hubs set up.

Pre covid I would never have considered living further than Z3 but we are going to move out in the next few yrs. Just hope we won't be priced out of whatever we want!

So the law firms will be cutting salaries, in return for the employees providing their own office space, and paying utility bills and for 24 hour wifi? The employers are laughing all the way to the bank, aren't they?

@Yohoheaveho

problem is that all the ambitious go getting ones will leave and only the 'undesirables' will be left

Ok, these brilliant 'go getters' most likely have lived in the UK out of convenience to make the most of the lucrative opportunities on offer. All of a sudden the picture is not so glossy (in their eyes) so they want to jump ship and continue milking the system somewhere else.

Let's hope these other countries welcome them, their unjustified massive egos and wealth destroying ideals with open arms.

They won't be missed. Grabby haters who enjoy scoring own goals rarely are.

@wellardwoof

I also think businesses will return, esp client services where offices / location and pitching to win means people put in effort. As we are able this will mean not by zoom.

I just can't see back to the same scale. Office space will decline further (it was already reducing) & perhaps smaller hubs set up.

It’s probably sector dependent. If you work in teams a lot sharing work and do lots of client meetings it’s a pull towards the usual.

But I can’t really talk about other sectors.

We were always planning to move to NZ eventually (DH is Kiwi) but we’re now seriously considering moving a lot sooner. The way we’ve handled the pandemic in the UK - and in Europe too really - has pretty much made our minds up.

@wellardwoof totally!!! We feel the same!

[quote trulydelicious]@LunaHeather

I imagine she was thinking more about people who have left to get more space after lockdown hit so badly

Wait until the usual UK bashers see the thread and jump in full force to rip the country apart with their hurtful comments[/quote]
well the bashers can fuck off out of it if the uk is that bad