Think this reflects quite a lot of us. Rent and living costs are sky high, quality of life isn’t great, but in certain industries it’s also impossible to get the same opportunities elsewhere or get the equivalent culture/entertainment offering.
Earthlings say life on planet getting worse but they cant leave.
I love London, but the housing in this city is brutal, and wages (a national issue not just strictly affecting London) just aren’t high enough.
If I could, then I wouldn’t leave. But if I ever want to own property or to start a family (unless I marry rich), then I’m left with little other option but to move to ensure a better quality of life somewhere cheaper.
Because it’s worse outside (and yes I’ve lived in multiple places outside London, they generally suck)
I’ve lived in London for the past 10 years or so and I’ve loved it but I’m finally moving out at the end of next month.
Am I sad? No I think my time has naturally come to an end, will I miss it? Absolutely.
Having a baby and wanting a better life for him has been the driving factor and affording a bigger place in London is not possible.
I’ll still be commuting regularly so will get to dip my toe every now and again which will scratch the itch.
Noticiable rise In Petty crime but I hope the International financial related crime industry is also doing fine
I’ve lived multiple places in the UK outside of London. I don’t care how bad it gets, there’s no way I’m leaving.
If I leave, then it’s another country.
No matter how bad things get in this city, it’s generally much better to live here than the rest of the country and that will not change. London is a very good insulator of this country’s problems. You think the housing crisis in London is bad? It’s gonna get worse in cities outside of London due to generally poorer wages and comparative lack of housing compared to London. Now of course if you get a high paying job in London or Edinburgh that had the same pay, then obviously that same money will take you much farther in Edinburgh. Thus it makes more sense to live in Edinburgh from a financial point of view. But this doesn’t apply to most people. The cost of living and rent is lower outside of London because those people just don’t make as much money as Londoners.
Then there’s transport, in which London is the best. You move to a place not far away from London and bus services will be far worse and more confusing. Then there’s industries where oppurtunity only really exists in London. London is where the jobs and oppurtunities are at after all. The oppurtunities I know I will get in the city is what is preventing me from moving to the EU. London’s economy is also the best in the country. Also social life, nightlife and general conveniences are much better in London.
London is hard but I don’t drive so I need TFL. I can’t be somewhere that has a train service every 30 mins. I don’t go out much but I like knowing that I have a variety of theatres, museums, restaurants, bars, etc if I want to go out. London in the summer is AMAZING. I love walking aimlessly and seeing the sights. In my field, jobs are easy to get in London. I know people complain about diversity but I love the cosmopolitan nature of London. I can’t see the benefit of moving out of London for me, personally.
Lived in London all my life but have an interview with a Cardiff based company, comparing what you get for rents has me pretty tempted to leave
The price of a shitty studio in London can get me a 2 bedroom flat with views out to Cardiff bay.
I feel trapped in London due to the poor job market elsewhere. If I could get a good job elsewhere I’d be out of here.
Salary is high in London, the paycut if I left is far too big. I also think a lot of places outside London would be far worse when I look at the salary drop.
I do agree that living in London is getting worse but for some reason the crowds keep coming. It’s getting so you can’t walk down the street without people shoulder barging you. You can’t walk in a straight line without people stopping in front of you or apparently changing direction like an amoeba in a Petri dish. You can’t look at stuff in shops without having to shuffle around people blocking the aisles. Going out is getting less enjoyable as the quality declines and costs go up, cafes remove seats so you can’t stick around and restaurants want a 15% service charge. Yet still there’s crowds of people everywhere. Landlords must be loving it with all these people wanting to live here.
Become realistically there are no other comparable options within the UK unless you want to downsize to towny/village life then you have plenty of options. And now with Birmingham (the UK’s second city) going bankrupt things are looking very bleak.
Manchester is such a good option honestly, have lived 5+ years in both and now getting older so moving to countryside but genuinely everything you’d get in London you can get there AND own a nice home and live in a nice area with the peaks on your doorstep.
The answer is simply there is nowhere like it for thousands of miles.
People have moved further out for generations. My grand mother lived in Islington and moved to Hayes. Her daughter moved to Uxbridge & one of her children moved to Wokingham. I think it’ll always be that way. The city is amazing but it does eventually push many out.
In the past few years, I have seen quite a lot of my
friends leave (largely due to their inability to secure decent rental properties) which made my life much poorer socially. I try to look for new friends but it gets harder as I grow older.
It is also much harder to go out for music and art events as everything is so bloody expensive.
The city feels very busy due to post-covid tourism. That is understandable and nothing can be done about it but it makes enjoyment of some of the parts of London difficult.
We are not planning to leave for the time being but life in London does feel noticeably bleaker these days.
Lived here 7 years and intend to leave by the end of the year. The plan is to live abroad, don’t think I could live anywhere else in the U.K…
This sub keeps coming up ever since I opined I was thinking of moving here…. maybe the phones really are listening to us.
Anyway, me and my gf had a chat about it. I like London, there’s a lot going on and cities have a bubbling atmosphere like when I was at uni. I currently live in West Cumbria which er, doesn’t have a lot going on aside from walking but it’s where work is and there isn’t much in London unless I go into Whitehall which I’m not sure I want to do.
The downside of being here is offset with the cost of living and housing costs. I couldn’t think of anything worse than permanently renting in one bedroom apartments for half my salary with no ability to ever buy. Up here, I can be mortgage free in 15 years in a 3 or 4 bed house in a nice part of the country and can spend my money visiting places. There’s a lot of Londoners who are moving for the same reason.
If London were cheaper and I had a job opportunity, maybe I’d consider it. But its so expensive everytime I go down and american style service charges on everything is a turn off.
As someone who has currently left London to work in another country…. I would encourage everyone to take a break if you can.
I can’t wait to come back. It’s not perfect, but it’s one of the best cities in the world. I think when you’re in there too long you start to become blind to the overwhelming positives of it.
It’s almost like we grow up here and it’s our home..
21 comments
Think this reflects quite a lot of us. Rent and living costs are sky high, quality of life isn’t great, but in certain industries it’s also impossible to get the same opportunities elsewhere or get the equivalent culture/entertainment offering.
Earthlings say life on planet getting worse but they cant leave.
I love London, but the housing in this city is brutal, and wages (a national issue not just strictly affecting London) just aren’t high enough.
If I could, then I wouldn’t leave. But if I ever want to own property or to start a family (unless I marry rich), then I’m left with little other option but to move to ensure a better quality of life somewhere cheaper.
Because it’s worse outside (and yes I’ve lived in multiple places outside London, they generally suck)
I’ve lived in London for the past 10 years or so and I’ve loved it but I’m finally moving out at the end of next month.
Am I sad? No I think my time has naturally come to an end, will I miss it? Absolutely.
Having a baby and wanting a better life for him has been the driving factor and affording a bigger place in London is not possible.
I’ll still be commuting regularly so will get to dip my toe every now and again which will scratch the itch.
Noticiable rise In Petty crime but I hope the International financial related crime industry is also doing fine
I’ve lived multiple places in the UK outside of London. I don’t care how bad it gets, there’s no way I’m leaving.
If I leave, then it’s another country.
No matter how bad things get in this city, it’s generally much better to live here than the rest of the country and that will not change. London is a very good insulator of this country’s problems. You think the housing crisis in London is bad? It’s gonna get worse in cities outside of London due to generally poorer wages and comparative lack of housing compared to London. Now of course if you get a high paying job in London or Edinburgh that had the same pay, then obviously that same money will take you much farther in Edinburgh. Thus it makes more sense to live in Edinburgh from a financial point of view. But this doesn’t apply to most people. The cost of living and rent is lower outside of London because those people just don’t make as much money as Londoners.
Then there’s transport, in which London is the best. You move to a place not far away from London and bus services will be far worse and more confusing. Then there’s industries where oppurtunity only really exists in London. London is where the jobs and oppurtunities are at after all. The oppurtunities I know I will get in the city is what is preventing me from moving to the EU. London’s economy is also the best in the country. Also social life, nightlife and general conveniences are much better in London.
London is hard but I don’t drive so I need TFL. I can’t be somewhere that has a train service every 30 mins. I don’t go out much but I like knowing that I have a variety of theatres, museums, restaurants, bars, etc if I want to go out. London in the summer is AMAZING. I love walking aimlessly and seeing the sights. In my field, jobs are easy to get in London. I know people complain about diversity but I love the cosmopolitan nature of London. I can’t see the benefit of moving out of London for me, personally.
Lived in London all my life but have an interview with a Cardiff based company, comparing what you get for rents has me pretty tempted to leave
The price of a shitty studio in London can get me a 2 bedroom flat with views out to Cardiff bay.
I feel trapped in London due to the poor job market elsewhere. If I could get a good job elsewhere I’d be out of here.
Salary is high in London, the paycut if I left is far too big. I also think a lot of places outside London would be far worse when I look at the salary drop.
I do agree that living in London is getting worse but for some reason the crowds keep coming. It’s getting so you can’t walk down the street without people shoulder barging you. You can’t walk in a straight line without people stopping in front of you or apparently changing direction like an amoeba in a Petri dish. You can’t look at stuff in shops without having to shuffle around people blocking the aisles. Going out is getting less enjoyable as the quality declines and costs go up, cafes remove seats so you can’t stick around and restaurants want a 15% service charge. Yet still there’s crowds of people everywhere. Landlords must be loving it with all these people wanting to live here.
Become realistically there are no other comparable options within the UK unless you want to downsize to towny/village life then you have plenty of options. And now with Birmingham (the UK’s second city) going bankrupt things are looking very bleak.
Manchester is such a good option honestly, have lived 5+ years in both and now getting older so moving to countryside but genuinely everything you’d get in London you can get there AND own a nice home and live in a nice area with the peaks on your doorstep.
The answer is simply there is nowhere like it for thousands of miles.
People have moved further out for generations. My grand mother lived in Islington and moved to Hayes. Her daughter moved to Uxbridge & one of her children moved to Wokingham. I think it’ll always be that way. The city is amazing but it does eventually push many out.
In the past few years, I have seen quite a lot of my
friends leave (largely due to their inability to secure decent rental properties) which made my life much poorer socially. I try to look for new friends but it gets harder as I grow older.
It is also much harder to go out for music and art events as everything is so bloody expensive.
The city feels very busy due to post-covid tourism. That is understandable and nothing can be done about it but it makes enjoyment of some of the parts of London difficult.
We are not planning to leave for the time being but life in London does feel noticeably bleaker these days.
Lived here 7 years and intend to leave by the end of the year. The plan is to live abroad, don’t think I could live anywhere else in the U.K…
This sub keeps coming up ever since I opined I was thinking of moving here…. maybe the phones really are listening to us.
Anyway, me and my gf had a chat about it. I like London, there’s a lot going on and cities have a bubbling atmosphere like when I was at uni. I currently live in West Cumbria which er, doesn’t have a lot going on aside from walking but it’s where work is and there isn’t much in London unless I go into Whitehall which I’m not sure I want to do.
The downside of being here is offset with the cost of living and housing costs. I couldn’t think of anything worse than permanently renting in one bedroom apartments for half my salary with no ability to ever buy. Up here, I can be mortgage free in 15 years in a 3 or 4 bed house in a nice part of the country and can spend my money visiting places. There’s a lot of Londoners who are moving for the same reason.
If London were cheaper and I had a job opportunity, maybe I’d consider it. But its so expensive everytime I go down and american style service charges on everything is a turn off.
As someone who has currently left London to work in another country…. I would encourage everyone to take a break if you can.
I can’t wait to come back. It’s not perfect, but it’s one of the best cities in the world. I think when you’re in there too long you start to become blind to the overwhelming positives of it.
It’s almost like we grow up here and it’s our home..