How bad is it economically in the UK?

I have a friend who lives just outside London. Home heating and electricity costs have tripled in the last two years in her area; they heat with both gas and coal and their last gas bill was equal to $800+ for the month of December and coal was costing approximately $300/ton. Food costs are astronomical compared to here in the U.S., with bread selling for over $5/loaf and milk at $7-8/gallon. The last time I spoke with her, she said that the BBC had announced that there would be 10,000 lay-offs a week in Great Britain in the near future. So in answer to your question, it doesn't sound any better there than it does here.

Some parts of UK are being hit harder than others by the present credit crunch and economic downturn.

Here where I live in SE London [Greenwich], you'd hardly know there's a recession. The burough is wealthy and most of us own our own homes outright.

The only effect on myself thus far is I'm now getting less interest from my savings, but I have an index linked pension plus the UK State pension, which means I'm okay.

I'm aware however that there are lots of redundancies in the industrial areas and also in the banking and insurance of the City of London.

The truth about any recession is that the vast majority of workers will remain in employment and will hardly notice any change in their lives.

I'll be honest about this. I was born in 1941 and have gone thru' lots of these ups and downs but have hardly noticed and just sailed on as though nothing was happening.

However, for those who are losing their jobs, they do have the wealfare state to keep them going.

People with redundancy money should use this where needed to pay off as much of their mortageges as possible.

Good luck to everyone. . . .it's never so bad as you think.

Crime in UK is on the decrase at present. Burglary is on the up - people out of work breaking into houses to take whatever they can. For those caught there will be no mercy since the UK.gov will throw the book at them and hand down long sentences - maybe 5 years to start then going on up to 8 or more years.

The demand here in UK is for longer sentences, esp for crimes of violence etc.

The UK makes Mad Max look like a documentary!

Just kidding, but I've heard from some buddies over there, and it definitely sounds worse than USA. Now I wonder why I kept hearing economic analysts say that the UK was the quickest to react and made the smartest moves when the major stock markets were crashing. I guess the government reaction was good, but the damage was so severe, that the UK will suffer no matter what they do.

Anybody over there getting worried?

Its pretty much the same here. 2 million people set to be unemployed soon with only 500k jobs available. More firms going bust every day. Housing markets gone dramatically down hill. Price of renting rocketing. Home repossessions up about 90%. Currently I am living with my boyfriend. He works, earning about £12k/year, I'm a student earning nothing (student loan of about £100/month) and we can barely cope with the bills. Having to get more and more loan from the student loan company to pay for food until I graduate. 1 of my friends' Dad has just been made redundant and their family home may be repossessed in a couple of months as her Mum can't afford the mortgage. Basically - it's bad.

bad economically uk

the UK has had zero economic growth for the past 10 years.

I Cr 13;8a

Rev 21:4

Well its nice to know your worried about the rest of us.Things are really bad you know people don't even have enough for a loaf of bread and children are dying in the streets of hunger.If you could see your way clear to lends us all a few dollars it would be helpful maybe have a whip round in your neighbourhood and send us all some food parcels.Thanks

Well as you have just told us with buying your new home there are also many opportunities in a recession you just got to look for them and we the British are notorious for moaning about everything we have been through recessions before and we will get through this one.

If you cannot find a job then look for other opportunity they are there if you look hard enough.

We are sitting on the World Wide Web which is full of oppurtunity if your willing to put the time and effort in.Even in a recession people still have to buy things they are still having children.

Simply awful and I hope that the recession does not turn into a depression. Brown and Darling should raise their hands and surrender and admit that they do not have a clue as to how to deal with the financial disaster that engulfs Britain. They allowed it to happen through poor management of the economy and a need to raise huge tax revenues to fund the inauspicious borrowing they incurred.

you just have to walk up your local high street to see the effects its having in the uk, half the shops are closing down. as for the pound it is devaluing by the day. i said it before mr gordon "save the world" brown has tried to shift the blame on to american but his hand has been involved from day one.

Very bad jobs going every day.