What is it really like in the UK these days? We hear so much about the financial situation and hardship but most of our relatives seem to say it hasn't affected them much at all. So is it all a big fantasy fed by the newspapers or is there really a lot of visible poverty?

In my (wealthy) part of (south eastern) England.... no real difference. Hubby's an architect, just as busy as ever. Builders are busy. My clients maybe take a little longer to pay, but our profits are virtually identical to this time last year. Restaurants are just as busy. No one I know has lost a job. In fact with mortgage rates the way they are over here (I'm just remortgaging at 1.99% for 2 years), most people have more disposable income than they have ever had, though most are I think saving rather than spending just in case the bad times do happen.

No idea if the same is true in the rest of the country.

Incidentally, if anyone knows of any good quality, reliable builders/carpenters who are at a loose end and would be happy to work down south who'd like to build us a garage/studio (c£50k) once we have planning permission, send me a PM.

Another in the SE (Cambridge) here and it looks pretty good to me. I am staggered at the amount of disposable income people seem to be splashing around (unless they are all up to their ears in debt of course and spending because there will be no tomorrow a la Daily Fail). There are plenty of people shopping at Waitrose and Farm Shops (our preferred options) and our 6 year old car is one of the veterans on the road (and it isnt an Audi or Merc either!)

My friends and family who want work are all in work, as are their kids who are old enough to be wanting to work either permanent or casual. The retired ones are doing very nicely thank you, several with a couple of time shares in exotic locations and regular trips to Europe or the States (or the Galapagos or Japan or Thailand to mention just one of my mates!).

Services for my aged and not too well parents have been nothing short of amazing in the 2+ months I have been here.

Customer service I have encountered has been extraordinarily good (including having a public servant call me back with the answer to an apparently trivial question).

I think people should stop reading the Daily Fail and there should be the same sort of (head in the sand) positivity that passes for Australian journalism these days.

Edited to say, nowhere I have been in the last couple of months can even close to comparing with the number of beggars I counted in Sydney in July or in Melbourne earlier in the year. Even Canberra has more beggars than Cambridge (and fewer Big Issue sellers and that is a big surprise to me)

Well I live up here in t'grim North, and believe me the shops are pumping.

I spent a few hours yesterday at an Artisan's market, lots of stalls selling jewellery, food, drinks, hand made crafty stuff and most sellers had sold out by the time I left at quarter to four.

http://www.theartisanmarket.co.uk/

I then went to a nearby department store, the tills were ringing all over the place, then to Sainsbury's with trolley loads of goodies for lots.

That's what it's really like, sure there are grim parts here just as there are in Australia, just that I don't choose to live in them.

Nobody I know here is unemployed or living on skid row, the Daily Fail seems to live in an alternate Universe.

I've been living in Oz for 2011 but back in 2010 it was not as grim as it can be portayed on BE and in the media. No one I know of was unemployed, restaurants were busy, and there was no sign of recession.

The main difference I noticed was the ability to get a good pay rise every year or move been jobs commanding a bit of an increase. In my field these things have not happened for a few years. People tend to be staying put accepting the inflationary pay rise on offer - sweep statement of course.

I came to Oz for the pay rise and a change of scenery. Will be interesting to see what pay rise comes around next year.

I live and work near Leeds in the UK for a well established (25+ years) building company and it's tough to win work at the moment, it has been for a while. The prices that some builders are quoting for jobs are so low that it's impossible to compete and there is a constant worry of being laid off. Whereas the firm I work for might quote £30k and barely make any profit, possibly even a small loss, someone else will quote £18k. Small businesses and foreign workers are pushing prices down and several other large buliding companies have already closed down. We've heard several cases of cheaper builders doing a poor job and maybe in the long term the bigger firms will be ok again but short term, there's a feeling of always being on the edge of going under.

Interesting about your annual pay rise experience. It was a similar story for me in that I received a just below inflation rise for my last few years in the UK - and I understood that I was one of the lucky ones because some in my department received no pay rise at all.

Absolutely you're right. In fact I knew of some companies doing 10% pay cuts just so they could avoid laying of people.

Isn't that right sister,i hated London until i moved too/returned from all be it Brisbane,love it now but will still go back to oz me thinks,i like oz,def different area though,hated the racist shit kickers of brisbane

From my trip last year and where we went:
London - booming, full of tourists (weak GBP), costs reasonable but not cheap, touristy things very expensive, poor customer service, average food in restaurants.
Surrey - same as ever, house prices stable or rising in parts, some friends still doing okay, others struggling.
Berkshire - same as ever, house prices stable, our friends are still doing okay but not as well as previously.
Merseyside - Terrible. Run down, many shops and pubs closed down, high unemployment, lots of social problems, house prices falling. My brother is keeping his head above water but that's it.
Liverpool - Buzzing, lots of development, friendly people. I liked it.

Generally:
Train services have improved drastically and are pretty good.
Roads are chock a block as usual. Non-Motorway and peak hour driving was hard work.
Customer service is generally average.
People are mostly miserable and very negative.
Quality of food in restaurants and pubs, apart from a few exceptions, was poor.
The consumer experience was generally better than here - luckily I don't live to shop as many on BE do.
Overall it is cheaper there but not by much.

It's not for me.

Are you referring to Oz or UK? ..... could be either

UK

You forgot "Weather is shit"

The fact is that with record low mortgage rates a lot of people have more money to spend. The much talked about "austerity" and big cuts haven't actually started yet. I believe they kick in next year.

The interest rates are a big thing. I know people who are paying very little on large mortgages - good luck to them. I believe that the worst is still to come for the UK. In fact, I think that for many Western countries (not just the UK) this is as good as it's going to get and their best years are behind them.

How can Loserpool be buzzing but Merseyside terrible?.
For the most part Liverpool is Merseyside.... but don't tell them that in Southport.