Tuesday, December 11, 2012

"Croydon abandoned by middle-class"

Forget for a moment about today's inevitable news that native Brits are officially a minority in what was their own capital city - it's what was reported last week that struck me :

"One of Croydon’s biggest private employers has said that it could be forced to move out because middle-class workers do not want to live in the borough.

Mike Webb, chairman of insurance company Allianz Global Assistance, warned that his firm was struggling to maintain its pool of 600 staff because of Croydon’s negative image. He told a business summit aimed at promoting the economic renewal of Croydon that the middle-class talent pool from which his company recruited was leaving the borough at such a rate that the firm could be forced to leave within two to three years.

His warning that they may quit comes on top of Nestle's announcement earlier this year that it was moving its Headquarters to Gatwick. And in October another major employer, department store Allders, was closed down after administrators were called in.
“Croydon has been a fantastic place for us and we would like to be here for a long time,” Mr Webb said at Develop Croydon last Thursday. “The key issue is how we are going to continue to find these people because we see a large drift out of Croydon of the middle-class who have traditionally been our employees. If they are not here in two or three years, we won’t be here.”

Mr Webb said that the firm had long-standing links with the borough and that, traditionally, most staff lived locally. However, he said that the public’s perception had worsened after last year’s riots and added: “We need to be making the case for Croydon and its strengths more positively.” Mr Webb told the Standard that his company was committed to staying in Croydon for the next three years, but might reassess the situation if the trend continues. “When I said middle-class people, what I meant is white-collar workers,” he said. “Not necessarily graduates, but hard-working and enthusiastic people.”

Croydon was, well within living memory, one of those London boroughs like Ealing, Bexley Heath, Dulwich - shorthand for safe, dull, conformist suburbia. Gone.

The laurels are speckled in Marchmont Avenue
Just as they were before,
But the steps are dusty that still lead up to
Your Uncle Dick's front door.

Pear and apple in Croydon gardens
Bud and blossom and fall,
But your Uncle Dick has left his Croydon
Once for all.


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ironically as someone living in Bromley I couldn't afford to move to Croydon (not that I want to).
The cheapest 3 bed house there is more than mine would sell for.

Ryan said...

I was horrified when Croydon had those riots. Just 20 years or so ago Croydon was a lower middle class town - one of the better places to live if you wanted to avoid living in the center of London. It was surrounded by genuinely "posh" areas like Carshalton.

Clearly people are moving out, presumably to the countryside. So who is moving in and how do they afford to pay for this housing? I'm guessing that it is London trying to find housing for the ever growing numbers of immigrants and the underclass that are buying the houses. Local councils and private landllords. They are buying at the market rate - which is set by those who want to sell. The middle class have found a way to get some of their tax back it seems!

This is what happens here in Swindon. Just opposite me we have a house where recently a large Islamic family moved in. The house has four double bedrooms but was extended to add two more double bedrooms when they moved in. Strangely they have no money - old cars, clothes from Primark or the market. I saw the head of the family working as a shelf-stacker in House of Fraser. How can such a family afford such a house? They don't - the local council bought the house and pays them housing benefit. They bought the house at whatever the market rate was. This means, of course, that we can't even price ourselves out of the league of the immigrants because our local council (Conservative mind you) is pricing the immigrants back into our area. Lovely.

It's obvious this must be happening - immigrants getting £7 an hour selling £2.80 Starbuck coffee able to afford a home anywhere in Britain? Give me a break - we are paying for it! In reality they are getting paid £15 per hour but half of it is coming from the taxpayer!

I give it ten years before the whole thing goes "boom". We simply can't go on like this. 4million more immigrants and their children being paid for by those already here on top of the 4 million we have just had? Taxes on those really paying for it all will go through the roof. It won't be just the underclass of High Wycombe burning down the houses of the local Muslims using Molotov cocktails - it will become something of a British weekend past-time. Politics as we know it in the UK is 10 years from coming to an abrupt end. Well done Labour!



AgainsTTheWall said...

Croydon to be twinned with Detroit?

Anonymous said...

Twinned with Detroit ?
A wormhole to Mogadishu more like.









bodo said...

"I give it ten years before the whole thing goes boom"

The riots of 2011 had a frightening 'end of civilisation' feel about them - something I've not felt before in Britain.
Just as worrying is the wilful blindness about just WHO was rioting, and how we got here.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX because middle-class workers do not want to live in the borough.XX

So, the public transport links have not reached Croydon yet??

Or are all the car parks simply too small for all their 4x4s?

Anonymous said...

Nice report showing the root of the problem:-

http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/decision-makers-reflect-diversity-Croydon-s/story-16847192-detail/story.html

White flight. People getting out before the prices drop through the floor.

cheap umrah packages said...

It's obvious this must be happening - migrants law getting £7 an time advertising £2.80 Starbuck coffee able to handle a home anywhere in Britain? Offer me a break - we are investing for it! Actually they are getting paid £15 on per hour basis but 50 % of it is coming from the taxpayer!

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