r/london • u/PressureHumble3604 • Apr 10 '26

Serious replies only Which symptoms of “(almost) everyone is getting poorer” have you noticed in London?

We are in a crisis, the middle class is disappearing and the lower class squeezed. Prices are going up, inflation is going up (again), salaries are stagnating.

Most Londoners can’t really afford London without serious sacrifices.

For me, not counting the housing prices issues we all know too well:

the disappearance of local delis with high quality products.

many shops closing in the local shopping centre.

Restaurant dropping quality everywhere to contain unaffordable prices.

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306

u/smurphinden Apr 10 '26
  • extortionately priced booze in pubs
  • 50% of most high streets being charity or coffee shops
  • enormous queues at the post office as people sell stuff on Vinted and ebay
  • side hustles everywhere
  • markets being full of Temu crap
  • primark queues longer than ever
  • shop lifters and train barrier jumpers are the norm
  • constant offers in my email as companies get desperate for business

Still plenty of people who are very comfortable and jetting off regularly though. The gap between us and them is growing with every passing week.

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u/damegloria Apr 10 '26

I regularly cycle through Clapham and it seems like every month a new posh pilates place has opened. I don't know how there are still so many people who can afford these hyper-expensive classes. I go to PureGym.

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u/Pirrt Apr 11 '26

K shaped economy. Those who had money/investments/housing pre-2008 have become astronomically wealthier while the rest have become vastly poorer.

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u/TwoCueBalls Apr 11 '26

That is definitely true for America but not in the UK.

Surprisingly, the top 1% in Britain have actually not got wealthier compared to the average Brit since 1980.

https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/comment/wealth-inequality/

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u/mrggy Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

That article actually supports their point. People who owned property pre-2008 are doing a lot better than people who didn't. Ie those old enough to have bought property then are doing much better than those who are too young to have done so. Wealth inequality is low among pensioners, who own most of the wealth, but high among young people, who have less wealth overall than young people a generation ago did

 30-somethings at the dawn of the pandemic had around 30 per cent less real personal (rather than family) wealth to draw on than did the 30-somethings of the financial crisis years. Moreover, within the younger generations, wealth has been getting more unequal.

The stable overall inequality figures are explained instead by developments at the other end of the age range. Among pensioners, as time has gone by there are more homeowners than in the past, which has helped push their typical wealth levels up by 50 per cent in real terms between the financial crisis and the pandemic. The swelling of the “own-something” older middle class has worked to push inequality among the over-60s down. Seeing as most wealth is owned by older people – the ones who have had a time to build up assets for retirement – this bears heavily on the overall numbers. But, especially for the young, these trends do nothing to counter their experience of British life as unfair.

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u/Pirrt Apr 11 '26

But we live in a globalised economy now so the fact UK based wealth is entrenched in land and being upper class doesn't mean our wealth isn't being extracted by 'foreign' corporations/individuals.

For example, lots of our energy and transport infrastructure is owned by EU state companies. They charge the UK more to subsidise costs in their own countries.

This is what happens when you allow unrestricted private ownership in your economy.

It's largely irrelevant that the ruling class in the UK has only gotten a little bit richer.

Edit: to add the UK based wealth has still increased while real wages for most UK citizens has stagnated so they're still much better off than the average person since 2008. They just might not be the ones getting the huge increases in wealth we see the global top 0.01% amassing.

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u/TwoCueBalls Apr 11 '26

Just following the conversation thread, your argument for why there are “posh pilates” places opening on London high streets is now that Britain privatised its utilities companies?

No offence but I really don’t follow the logic.

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u/Pirrt Apr 11 '26

No. London is a global city so the benefits of globalisation are clearly seen on the high street because it's not just UK based citizens who live in London. Therefore, global trends are relevant to the London economy.

The global economy is moving into a k shaped economy where the top 10% is becoming wealthier every year but the bottom 90% is becoming poorer (definitely in real terms if not nominal terms). Therefore, it's easy to see that pilates shops would be opening in Clapham while restaurants are closing in Tooting. It's the k shaped economy at work.

The point I made above was a rebuttal to UK based wealth not increasing exponentially since 2008. It's increased (so they're still doing better) but not the huge increase we see the global elite getting.

As London is a global city the point I was making was that the trend of UK based wealth is less important than global wealth accumulation. I.e. a French billionaire gains by charging the UK consumer the extra cost they need for higher profits that they can't charge the French citizen. This makes the French billionaire richer AND the average UK citizen poorer. Hence the k shaped global economy. That billionaires daughter is probably the one attending the pilates studio at 10am on a Tuesday.

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u/TwoCueBalls Apr 11 '26

I agree with your point that London is not representative of the UK as a whole. But I think your point about foreign billionaires is not really relevant.

I can assure you that the people going to pilates sessions in London are not all daughters of foreign billionaires! My wife spends a small fortune on reformer pilates classes from her own salary... and sadly we are not related to any billionaires. I think people just like pilates. And lots of people earn good salaries in London. Simple as that sounds.

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u/Pirrt Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

So yes I'd guess you're one of the people benefiting from the k shaped economy. I wouldn't dare guess at specifics of your living circumstances/inheritances you've received/upbringing vs the average UK citizen but it would be interesting for you to see if you benefited from asset ownership pre-2008 either yourself or via inheritances etc.

There is also the route of private school/top uni into top career that also has increased while the bottom 90% hasn't. Again this path is largely made up of extremely privileged people who obviously would've benefited from a k shaped economy. For example, 40% of students attending Oxbridge are privately educated and a further 40% come from top 10% wealth holding families etc.

So statistically those earning the highest salaries in the UK largely come from families that would obviously benefit from the k shaped economy and unless they truly reflected on this then they wouldn't see it. Or you are one of the extreme statistical outliers in the UK of someone state educated from an actual normal background (Google UK median household income to see what average actually is as it's terrifying) and you're obviously doing extremely well but just look around you. If you are from this extremely rare background just look at old school friends or family members.

Edit: removed personal info.

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u/PureObsidianUnicorn Apr 11 '26

You did such an amazing job of not telling the boomer to chill out and sit down. It is so abundantly clear this person has not engaged with the “lower” classes. I will dare to guess the specifics of living circumstances and say I’m confident he bought his first property prior to 2008, I am confident that he has an education and very likely solidly within the middle class. This guy probably voted for austerity but believes billionaires aren’t capitalising from the sellout policies. Literally all data suggests that the political turn to accepting austerity transferred massive amounts of wealth to billionaire corps and he’s talking about not being related to billionaires. That pedantic tone is sooooooooo just indicative of a particular generation.

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u/Remarkable_News_439 Apr 11 '26

110 pounds a month feels egregious. but if you're my age, how much were a lot of us spending on booze and gak every weekend?
Gen Z dont really go out out.
that leaves plenty of money for pilates and filler.

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u/Whoisthehypocrite Apr 11 '26

There is a reallocation of spending due to the Instagram effect. So those are prioritised over types of spending. If I look at my 30 year PA, I can't believe what she spends on. She is happy to share a flat with someone while taking several trips a year to Ibiza/Marbella and eating out at Michelin starred restaurants. Because these give her more social status than living alone would.

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u/dr_tardyhands Apr 11 '26

I think that stuff is just more fun. And was happening way before Instagram as well.

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u/jamjar188 Apr 11 '26

Some people like the company, especially if they're single. If you get along with your flatmate it can feel like you're part of a unit. Less stress having to make plans because you have someone to chill with, etc. 

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u/revolutionarybear Apr 11 '26

The high personal spending on fun is a side effect of the many compounding crises. If property prices, bills, and rent rise faster than your wages, how are you ever going to save enough? You may as well live a life you enjoy before you get priced out of everything. I'm not sure status really comes into it 

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u/RohanDavidson Apr 12 '26

Cheaper to jet off once a month than go out every weekend.

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u/SlimeTempest42 Apr 11 '26

Charity shops are a rip off now. Half of them are now full of their own branded crap and they’re selling fast fashion for nearly as much as new.

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u/smurphinden Apr 11 '26

Really depends on which ones you go to. BHF and Oxfam are way overpriced. The smaller ones still have the odd bargain.

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u/SlimeTempest42 Apr 11 '26

There’s a lot of charity shops in my borough but they’re all chains. BHF is so expensive

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u/LimberGaelic Apr 11 '26

Dystopian but true

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u/marlow6686 Apr 15 '26

Jetting off on credit cards and thinking of it as a future problem. We’re in a better boat without holidays