Facing low pay and rising rents, a quarter of young Brits weigh UK exit

Facing low pay and rising rents, a quarter of young Brits weigh UK exit



by tylerthe-theatre

38 comments

  1. Most of the developed world like Australia. New Zealand or Canada actually has a worse housing crisis than the UK

  2. I wonder what might have caused depression of wages and increasing competition for houses. It’s almost like labour supply and housing demand have both grown a lot. Very strange.

  3. Where can we even go? They took away freedom to work in Europe. Unless you have family connections or a highly skilled job, you aren’t going anywhere. Housing crisis is worse in some places too.

  4. Then they will find out it’s an epidemic across the developed world.

    It’s almost like we operate under a global economic system that prioritises capital growth for the largest multinationals.

    Editing to add that governments have also outsourced their services and sold off a lot of assets in pursuit of economic growth which has left them beholden to these large multinationals.

  6. Grass is always greener mentality among the youth. It’s always been there. Social media and the seemingly constant bad news about the UK makes it appear the rest of the developed world is doing better has increased it.

  7. But where do you go?

    Other English-speaking countries in the developed world actually have strict immigration standards and are off-limits for most expats, except for Ireland (under the Good Friday Agreement.)

    We kicked ourselves out of the European Union because our countrymen and right-wing press complained so hard about Eastern European immigration that we ended up with Brexit, so Mainland Europe is mostly off-limits too.

    The only places you could realistically go are in Africa, South Asia or South-East Asia, and that’s if you’re willing to do TEFL.

  8. Its almost as if the rich keep hoarding all the wealth and everyone’s fights for scraps while blaming each other.

    And certain people profit of that.

  9. And they will make the most of the EU freedom of movement, being able to relocate to another EU country without a visa. Oh, wait…

  10. I moved to the UK from Ireland a few years ago, things arnt perfect but I like it here.

  11. Foreigners want to immigrate while native Brits want to emigrate. Replacement theory is real.

  12. So Brits want to leave the country for the same reason others enter the country.

    I wonder if they will receive the same reception abroad

  13. I have left the UK for Hong Kong. My salary here is higher than it was in London, my company covers accommodation, and I’m paying on average about 10% in tax. Life here is good and I can accumulate wealth.

    Hong Kong is also incredibly safe – there are very few illegal migrants and no refugees. 90% of the population are Chinese, so it is still a homogeneous high trust society.

  14. Can’t recommend it enough, I left the UK three years ago as a 22 year old graduate and I am earning around 1.8x what I would be earning in an equivalent role in the UK with little to no difference in cost of living.

  15. It’s easy to uproot your life and go live in a semi developed country 

  16. And go where? They can’t all become estate agents in Dubai.

  17. Well don’t go to Canada, just spent 10 years there and it’s worse. Wouldn’t wanna live in America. Australia is pretty far away. If you can speak the language maybe Europe would work but pretty much everyone I meet these days from other countries are complaining about the same thing

  18. I needed to read this. I have been getting more and more depressed and distant living in the UK.

    I am not even young.

    I actually have a pretty good quality of life. But recent events and changes have made me feel increasingly isolated and I feel a complete lack of worth.

    I am crushed by the realisation that my only use in my life is to work, make other people money, and die likely before I reach retirement.

    Even if I make it to retirement I will have nothing. My pensions are likely to be worth fuck all so poverty is all I have to look forward to if I am ever allowed to sit down.

    It’s getting very hard to find motivation to do anything.

    This has made me realise that it wouldn’t change if I went somewhere else. My value is mute

  19. Nothing will change if the ultra rich aren’t taxed, and we are ruled by them so good luck.

  20. Cant blame them however, unless they have a in demand skill set i dont think the grass is greener on the other side.

  21. This has been said since I was a youth, the UK is failing, move to USA / AU / Canada / Europe / Wherever. Brexit didn’t help (I mean, really, really didn’t fucking help) but this place is still a good place to live.

    We are without a doubt the music capital of the world, we have reams of culture, the people are by-and-large nice (as long as they aren’t Social Media brainrotted or fallen into the conspiracy hole) and the weather, thank fuck, is temperate.

    The main issue I’ve always found is people focus too hard on the ££ and how much £££ they can make, it’s almost always the first thing that _ever_ comes up in conversation and it’s almost always from those with eyes set on London. There’s plenty enough other cities out there booming.

    Personally? I love it. People are constantly doom & gloom but I’ve come to understand that most people chat absolute fucking shite (especially online).

  22. Well that would be a staggering increase on the current rate of people leaving the UK. Last year 77K British born people emigrated. This would boost that number to over 1 million.

  23. I worked abroad as a graduate trainee many years ago, can’t recommend it enough.

  24. You can see how deeply entrenched ideology is on this platform. You read any of the top comments on most posts and it’s like you’re attending a junior communist league inauguration.

    Predicament: educated British people are leaving the country.

    Answer: capitalism

    Predicament: knife crime

    Answer: capitalism

  25. Can they please tell me where are they going? Because none of this is UK specific- these are global issues. 🙄 😂

  26. Have my own home, but am still due to be leaving the UK in early 2026. The optimism has faded from the country. Decades of poor governance. No brave pioneering leaders to fix them.

    I have no idea how people who are in their early 20’s are managing it. I’m in an incredibly fortunate financial position and it’s still far from comfortable.

  27. Just wait till they find out that their passports aren’t worth shit, because the older generation fucked them out of EU citizenship.

  28. where would they fly out to🤔
    US? hmm…Canada? Ausie?
    HK wouldn’t count as alternative…then Japan? Korea?

  29. So where are they going that isn’t like that?

    The rent vs salary disparity in Bulgaria is far, far worse.

    I lived there a few years ago and it was possible. It’s not now.

  30. Can’t blame them. We are the sick man of Europe again.

    The main problem is that other Western economies are struggling, too. Not in the same way, not to the same degree, but still struggling.

  32. Not sure this stat means much. Easy to “weigh” something. Far from a serious intention to do it.

  33. Paramedics move to Australia in their droves, where they’re paid well, given relocation packages and ambulance services actually take their employees wellbeing seriously rather than treat it as a tickbox seen to be doing exercise 

  34. That’s it, I’m off to New Zanzibar, where everything is perfect.

    Wait, getting told ‘New Zanzibar’ doesn’t exist.

  35. Love the top comments gaslighting not to leave because everywhere is worse than the UK, apparently. I know so many family’s that have moved to France, Spain, Australia, Thailand, USA & planning to leave myself included. The inheritance swap will see most young people leave the country, they would be stupid not to. £450k for a dogshit council house is absolute disgrace and no one should ever pay these prices. 

  36. So where are they going to go? It’s not much better anywhere else?

  37. I saw the writing on the wall and emigrated from the U.K. in 2015. Good luck, it’ll be a bloodbath.

  38. Well we don’t want to make any drastic action in any direction to make this not happen. There’s like 100 fixes to this that could be implemented and they just can’t pick one because the answer is awful.

    But the current and trajectory is awful, so just pick one, or have half your youngest abandon ship and watch half your culture disappear.

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