Upbeat or downbeat? I asked last month whether the mood where you live is energised by enterprise or demoralised by public-sector retreat — or both. Replies poured in while the news mostly got worse. Governor Carney warned that ‘the UK cannot help but be affected by an unforgiving global environment and sustained financial market turbulence’ as shares took another dive. BP and Shell announced profit falls and job cuts. The Brexit debate took off, but the migrant benefits row overwhelmed any sensible discussion of economic pros and cons, on which voters must so far be utterly confused.
Then again, it wasn’t all bad: like-for-like retail sales surged by 2.6 per cent last month; domestic gas suppliers cut prices by 5 per cent and a new Shetland gas field came on stream that could fuel two million homes.
This mixed picture was reflected in your reports — and well summed up by a medical man: ‘My private patients generally tell me business is going well, but many I meet in the NHS seem to be finding times hard.’
It seems that if where you live is anchored by private-sector success, you’re much more likely to be on the cheerful side of the divide. Solihull, thanks to Jaguar Land Rover, is ‘quietly prosperous, resolutely comfortable, untrendy and obscure’, while nearby Kenilworth sees ‘signs of resurgence of the corner shop’. Along the M4 corridor, Reading with its business parks is ‘relatively buoyant’; Swindon benefits from Honda and Nationwide even if ‘our local authority struggles to keep the streets lit’; Tisbury is ‘an oasis of feelgood’ with a thriving high street and ‘a garage where they fill the tank for you and check your tyres just like old times’.
Up in the smoke, a Southwark resident enjoys the borough’s rising-affluent hipster tone, while complaining of ‘litter, incompetence of local bureaucrats, constant roadworks and an inability to get an appointment with your preferred doctor for up to four weeks’.
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