Over the last 2 years we have lost so many friends and customers in the grand exodus back to blighty to look for pastures new. Admittedly things have become tough here and we have all had to tighten our belts but having lived in Spain for the past 14 years , I could never contemplate returning to the UK. I love the weather,the people,the culture and being the mother of 2 teenage boys the relatively low crime rate compared to the UK.
So as an open question to you all , would you ever consider returning home and for what reason.

Living alone and getting so ill I would need help has made me think about it. Spending more time with all my family recently also had a draw to go back but not yet ! I am not done with Spain yet

At the moment I don't think I would, I certainly don't want to at present. However, I don't think any of us can ever say with any certainty what we would actually do in certain circumstances, like a partner dying or a very serious illness. Sometimes the way you feel when something like that happens is very different from how you might have imagined you would feel.

Actually the crime rate in the UK is the lowest for over 30 years. Plus with street-level mapping of crime rates on websites like http://maps.police.uk you can choose the best areas.

Yep.

I am going back in September

But only for a few hours whilst in transit before I fly elsewhere.

Also this will be the first time in 10 years.

Hopefully it will be the last time because I have no reason to return to live there.

I'm not sure I believe the figures, I always think they have been massaged! However there are areas of UK, the same as Spain, where crime is not a big deal. However if expats have moved from any of the large UK cities to somehwere en el quinto pino, I'm sure it will seem much better. Personally compared with the quiet area we live, I always find Spain worse, only ever been the victim of crime twice and each time it was in Spain. I've never felt the need to fit rejas,(nor does my insurance company) or fit any security measures at all, nor does my house resemble Fort Knox with security gates, dogs, cameras etc. I do lock the front door at night though.

Interesting you say that.

We have loads of friends who live permanently in Spain (all of pensionable age) and out of all of them, without exception, the only ones who have gone back to the UK have been in a box or an urn or to a nursing home.

On the other hand, those younger people we know who were trying to make a living in Spain, many are going back.

A hell of a lot of crime does not get reported, I would also argue that there is a huge grey area between reported and RECORDED crime, as other Guardian blogs have shown.

True, but that's always been the case, so it's unlikely to have had much affect on the overall findings.

There's been a fair bit of scepticism regarding the improving figures in recent years.
So much so that a couple of large scale surveys were set up to prove that the official figures were tosh.

At the end of the day,the only thing they proved was that the official crime figures regarding the drop in the UK crime rate were in actual fact EXTREMELY ACCURATE.

No, not by choice. We don´t have children or grandchildren there so there isn´t that pull. However, you can never say never.

When we go back to the UK we really can´t wait to get home to Spain. After 9 years here, it´s what we know.

But that happens everywhere, I know in the two cases I've been involved in in Spain, I never reported it. Each time it was a hire car, they replaced it each time, so no point in me sitting in a police station for half a day knowing they won't do anything anyway.

My experiences have been virtually the opposite.

I met many older folk mostly quite a few years ago when I first bought a place in Spain, who all appeared to be as content as Kings.

They'd been in Spain many years, mainly Tenerife, and had no thoughts of ever going back,.....yet eventually they all did,...not because they had to, but as far as I could make out they were drawn back to their roots.

For myself a difficult decision if I had to make it as I still fortunately have the best of both worlds.

I think it would have to be the UK, for two main reasons.

1, I can handle the UK Winters much better than the Spanish Summers.

2, As with the others I mentioned, I feel drawn back to my roots.

I've travelled a fair bit in recent years and spent most of the time in Spain in nice places with great company, without really missing my original home at all.
However now I find I enjoy my time back in my home village with family and the friendly folk much better than I ever have before

It would break my heart to have to go back after 24 years in this beautiful country, but Hacienda may force my exit. I can't fight them, they hate people like me; foreigners of independent means who pay their taxes back home.

Admittedly most of the people we have had to say adios to have been pre retirement age there have been some older friends that through either ill health or financial reasons have decided to return, but not by choice, by necessity , Very sad