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?

I’d say this is pretty normal in London, I was born here, family have lived in London for hundreds of years. People move here when they’re young from the rest of the UK as well as overseas. Make some money, have some fun then when they want to have kids or kids reach secondary age they move back. Pushes the house prices up everyone moving here, wish the government would properly invest in the north like they keep saying they will then there might be less movement in this direction.

London‘a history is ver y interesting and I would highly recommend a trip to the museum of London by the Barbican once it opens again. London actually had a very high population in the 1930’s maybe as high or higher than it has now. So populations have always fluctuated. The Romans created London so we should be thankful to the Italians for it’s location and name

People will always be leaving London and others moving to London. That is just the way it works.

Brexit and Covid has just given people that probably would have left eventually an extra nudge.

I''m looking forward to Hong Kongers moving to the UK to make up the numbers. I know a family who are planning their move. They'd be a great asset and have young children, which is what we need.

Loads of new HK families joining dds school next year. Lovely.

We bought our property just before the interest rates went super low & the value went up lots in 2014/2015. Not changed much since then particularly one you factor in stamp duty but it was already an expensive area.

How old are you op? I also was a lawyer and most of my lawyer friends had left London by age 35 - either to commuter towns; Bristol; a couple went to the middle of nowhere & had completely new careers; several to Dubai or back to Aus. I don’t think the pattern is anything new.

The ones who stayed are the super successful ones who are now partners in top firms

In London about 700,000 migrant workers have left since Covid began, which is about 8% of the population and the biggest population drop since WW2. On top of that very many British people have left or are planning to in the next year or so, myself and several friends included. I do think that if things change some of the younger ones will come back, for some of the older ones like me it has just speeded up a process that might have happened anyway. But if working from home becomes more the norm even on a part time basis, there will be a permanent shift.

I heard recently about someone whose London landlord actually tried to put the rent up at this time. They decided to leave rather than pay the increase. He couldn’t let it and after an empty period with no income has now had to let it out at a significantly lower rent than they were originally paying. I wonder if he may have been badly advised by an agent who wanted another finders fee.

As for leaving the UK, I won’t because of family ties, but if I didn’t have them I would seriously consider it. Brexit and the attitudes to Covid have made me feel fairly cold toward large sections of the British population.

Migrants workers will leave when their is no work

They or others will return once we open up again

A lot of London based migrant workers work in hotels, restaurants, cafes, entertainment etc.

@trulydelicious

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

I don't get it. They should be ashamed

Maybe because it's a fucking shit show!

Brexit, Boris.....

It's just too much.

I'd leave tonight if I could.

[quote trulydelicious]@GambasPil

Let’s be honest, we’re witnessing the final stage of the UK’s slide into anonymity and obscurity

You sound like a keeper[/quote]
Having read that back I was slightly over the top I admit!

People come people go...

I'm in tech.

We can work anywhere.

And because of Brexit, for international businesses anywhere but here is better.

As countries open up after Covid and have access to the EU, they'll be very attractive options for smallish tech companies.

Everyone I know is weighing it up.

100,000 dead of covid. 30,000 this month. 20,000 next month. No end in sight because our government is so wedded to the idea of being anti-establishment buccaneers, disruptors, and mavericks that they refuse to do anything properly, and have been gambling with our lives for a year.

No other countries are like this.

Well, 190 of them aren't.

The U.K. will still be in tiers and going back into lockdown when the rest of the world is living their lives.

@OverTheRubicon

This is also how I feel about my mixed race family.

Dual European nationalities here and we left in December. Combination of factors, Brexit, Covid, declining health service. We've kept a house in the U.K. so we have an easy option to return.

I've lived a lot of countries - the Uk is as good as any imv. Better than most.

I look forward to the next few years/decades - we need to stop the commercialism, we need to get greener, we need to be more independent as a country, we need more equality - this is a chance to change things.

People leaving will open up jobs for others which will be needed. Thinking of graduates and people moving up organisations

It’s no bad thing right now. I’d rather people just left than made a big deal of it so once this is stage is over we can just move on.

@BlueThistles

People come people go...

Exactly

Those of us who wanted to leave due to overcrowding etc might still want to leave, I do. But now the prices outside will be higher.

But if London's population reduces, maybe I'll be okay to stay...

So all swings and roundabouts. I do get low because it's hard to plan, but I also have the elderly parent problem which means planning is a bit pie in the sky anyway.

I look forward to the next few years/decades - we need to stop the commercialism, we need to get greener, we need to be more independent as a country, we need more equality - this is a chance to change things.

I think these changes would be fantastic & are needed. I'm just not sure there is the will for them to happen.

I live in the North of England and work for an international business. We had 15% of the EU staff in our department leaving (not just the company but going back to their home country). We already struggle to replace them (specific skill set and being fluent in 3 or 2 languages. Gonna be interesting how we will are gonna recruit moving forward...

I don't think I'd choose to live anywhere else in Europe tbh. All countries have their problems.

You’ll know when things are really bad when refugees are leaving the UK, crossing the channel in small boats, to get to France.

@MinesaBottle

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.

We'd go there if we could.

I'm not sure they'd have us. But then again, everywhere wants tech hubs because they're such a boost to the economy, so maybe...

We were looking at a Brexit induced move to Sweden before covid - but of course that's out now. Denmark, Norway or Finland perhaps. It depends where the boss feels most "wooed" I expect. His favourite was the Netherlands pre-Brexit.

Pre-covid!