Just spent a few days in the counties and I can't believe how rich the majority of people are down there. House prices are unbelievable how can anyone afford to live there. All the pubs open and every other car is huge 4x4. ?
I have lived in Oxfordshire for 48 years. House prices are high and despite continuing high levels of housing development, continue to rise. However, there are plenty of pockets of deprivation across the county in all the larger centres of population. Many families will struggle to make ends meet. However, there is obvious wealth in existence as there are a number of fee paying schools in the county. Some very expensive. Most families need two full time workers some with second jobs to make ends meet. I lived in Abingdon for 25 years. Over the last 50 years there have probably been more pubs closed than remain open. This mirrors the rest of the country. The cost of running a pub means that they struggle to compete with the price of alcohol in the supermarkets. The area has many high skill employers in both the public and private sectors and certainly in Oxfordshire many people commute to London even with an annual season ticket at £6000 per year. The county has not suffered from the legacy of the former coal, steel industries and other traditional industries which the north and midlands has struggled to replace.
I lived in Gloucester for over 20 years, just to the south between the city and Painswick. Obviously not everyone was rich there and there were some run down parts of Gloucester - Cromwell Street being a prime example of course. But then you have the Cotswold pretty villages like Bibury and….Barnsley. There are scores of them and it really was a great place to live, as was Buckinghamshire when I moved there. Obviously there was no great industrial element to the area, apart from the Forest of Dean which produced coal on a relatively small scale. The thing is though there are rich and poor areas all over the country - north, south and everywhere in between. It’s just the way it’s always been, and always will be.
Parts of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire are affluent and have lots of money. Parts of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire are as rough as parts of Barnsley - I nearly moved into a house on Blackburn Leys in Oxford that had a riot outside about a month later (we lived in Abingdon for a year in the early 90s). Last time I visited Abingdon, some of the pubs and the nightclub we frequented had closed. Lots of technology companies and high skill employers - one of the big government research labs is off the A34 (although government scientists are not well paid) at Harwell. Lots of people struggling too. 26% of children in Oxford are below the poverty line. Even in the beautiful Cotswolds region, that figure is around 20%
I went to an Alan Mullery Soccer School in 1983, which was in Abingdon IIRC. Had some coaching from Bryan Robson, Mark Lawrenson and Chris Houghton, and others that I can't remember. That's all.
I have lived in Gloucestershire for over ten years now. House prices have been hugely driven up by marketing as second homes and holiday lets. In the honeypot locations, this can account for up to half the properties. What this hides is the hidden poverty of rural deprivation, those who work on the land earning wages which are pretty minimal. There is also the usual property issue for young folks looking to set up homes and to stay in the area. If you are looking for rented property, some of the stories are little short of obscene. No single parents, or couples with only one income. No pets. Often up to a dozen people looking at just one rental property and that may be in appalling condition, as there seems to be little incentive for landlords to maintain any reasonable sort of condition, because it is a landlord's market, not a renters. Some of the stories i have heard are just very poor. Folks being given notice to quit a rental property in which they have lived for at least ten years, just so that the landlord can re-let property at double the price, especially if it is in a nice area. Really disgusting property going for astronomic rent. The legislation on no-fault evictions should help, but cunning landlords anticipated it and evicted people before the election. There seems to be a lot of new building going on, but it is mostly attached to the nicer towns and villages, as the developers know they will make the best profits there. I cannot see enough affordable housing, part purchase, or housing for rent being included amongst these. Meanwhile the town centres of places like Cheltenham and Gloucester are becoming more and more like ghost towns with shops leaving and closing. Its a hobby horse of mine that planners should try to repopulate town centres to stop them becoming urban deserts. Rant over. Whatever happened to the good old council house? Oh, yes. I remember. Was this a good idea?
Comes as no surprise to me mate, the South of England might as well be a foreign country. So much for BoJo's "Levelling up".....
I lived in oxford from 0 to 4 . My parents were offered hoise for 60k in 1979 couldnt afford. Worth 700k now would of been am ace inheritance
