A COUPLE who were “fed up” with city life say they are desperate to return to London after moving to the country.
Barber Jimi Aldcroft, 39, and NHS admin worker Tess, 35, left the capital and moved to Brecon in Powys, Wales, shortly after the coronavirus pandemic.
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Tess, who worked in research at a technology company before moving, believed that if she could survive in London “then of course we could survive in the countryside”. Online Mail reports.
She revealed how, in March 2022, Jim – who is Australian – was “a bit fed up” with his job, and she herself felt her work had “reached its full potential”.
Tess was hired as a receptionist at a local hotel, while Jim began serving beer at a pub.
But the couple was not prepared for the “loneliness” and “inconvenience” of country life.
“There were a lot of things that didn’t make us enjoy the area,” Tess said.
“They weren’t our kind of people. They weren’t very kind.
“We thought Wales was very discriminating. People were nosy because they had nothing else to do.”
Tess said locals would prefer someone “local” to serve beers.
Jim “absolutely hated” being treated like an outsider and felt Wales was the only place where he was “judged because he was Australian”, Tess said.
She added that walking dogs was also difficult in the countryside, with signs threatening that off-leash animals would be shot.
Tess said she was initially relieved to no longer work 70 hours a week.
But the couple could only get jobs in hotels, which required weekend work, and most places were closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Tess said they were “bored” and had “nothing to talk about” and should have moved to a smaller city like Bristol.
Jim found a job in London again in November 2022, and Tess now works as an NHS Emergency Department Flow Coordinator.
Having returned to London, Tess says she loves not having to drive everywhere and loves the anonymity of living in a large block of flats where she doesn’t know any of her neighbours’ names.
Londoners flee the capital during pandemic
During the Covid-19 pandemic, London’s population fell by 75,000, according to the Center for Cities.
This number is equivalent to the population of Tunbridge Wells.
Although people continued to arrive in London from the rest of the country, the change was driven by an increase in the number of people leaving the capital for the rest of England and Wales.
But after the end of pandemic restrictions, the population “recovered quickly” and is now “almost certainly higher than ever before”, according to the CfC.
The number of Londoners moving elsewhere in England and Wales has increased by 30% during the pandemic.
But in 2021-22, outflows from London have slowed compared to the peak of the pandemic.
It still remained 12% above pre-pandemic levels.
According to the CfC, travel to coastal areas and non-urban locations outside the Greater South East decreased again until 2021-22.
“Overall, it appears that changes in final destination popularity across the country were largely transitory,” the blog says.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
