Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Valmy]

It is kind of amazing how many European cities suffer, quite legitimately, from being too popular.

[Sheilbh]

Re pennywise pound foolish - I get there are fixed public sector payscales and the civil service disdains specialist expertise. But this has been doing the rounds today and that salary seems very, very low for HM Treasury - especially in comparison with these types of roles in the private sector because they're really, really important

It is kind of amazing how many European cities suffer, quite legitimately, from being too popular.

I mean it's possibly existential for some - Venice is the most extreme example.

[The Larch]

Venice is the most extreme example.

I recently learned that Venice is trialing a program to lure remote workers into the city. I'm seriously considering to apply... 

[Valmy]

I mean it's possibly existential for some - Venice is the most extreme example.

Yeah that one is so crazy that businesses cannot afford to even bothering catering to locals. Everything is geared to the tourists. So if you live in the city you have to go to the mainland for many basic necessities of life. That is insane.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah that one is so crazy that businesses cannot afford to even bothering catering to locals. Everything is geared to the tourists. So if you live in the city you have to go to the mainland for many basic necessities of life. That is insane.

And also they've had to ban cruise ships because they were causing massive structural damage to the fabric of the city.

I recently learned that Venice is trialing a program to lure remote workers into the city. I'm seriously considering to apply... 

I know someone who did that for 3-6 months over the last couple of years and loved it. Really strongly recommends Venice as a place to live.

Venice is one of the few places it would work because you're largely competing with tourists. I've read about a few places in Europe rolling back digital nomad style campaigns because they worked too well and it's driving up prices/increasing competition for housing with locals. That won't be an issue for Venice.

[Josquius]

Re pennywise pound foolish - I get there are fixed public sector payscales and the civil service disdains specialist expertise. But this has been doing the rounds today and that salary seems very, very low for HM Treasury - especially in comparison with these types of roles in the private sector because they're really, really important

It is kind of amazing how many European cities suffer, quite legitimately, from being too popular.

I mean it's possibly existential for some - Venice is the most extreme example.

Great to see our data is in the hands of only the best.


As to Venice and digital nomads.... Though being young during covid would suck, I'm sad to have missed all these opportunities.
Had remote work been the norm 6 years ago id be all over.

[Sheilbh]

Great to see our data is in the hands of only the best.

It's a cycle too. Low salary (though, I imagine, good pension and benefits package) at the civil service so we need to outsource lots to consultants on projects which cost £100s of thousands. Then civil servants who've done a few years in government can move into the consultants where they earn six figures leading on government projects.

And every few years there'll be a drive to bring things in-house and stop relying on external consultants so much - Cummings tried to set up Crown Consultancy as an in-house within civil service consultancy service (a bit like Government Digital Service, Government Legal Service etc). Inevitably plans got scaled back and it's now been scrapped. Still think it'd be a good idea - but you'll need to pay cyber security experts more than £50k

[Josquius]

Yes. It's in London too.
That's a lower mid level salary. Not even senior let alone head of.

[The Larch]

I mean it's possibly existential for some - Venice is the most extreme example.

Yeah that one is so crazy that businesses cannot afford to even bothering catering to locals. Everything is geared to the tourists. So if you live in the city you have to go to the mainland for many basic necessities of life. That is insane.

Yup, it's highly ironic that Venice, host of one of the world's most prestigious cinema festivals, doesn't have a single cinema anymore, for instance.

[The Larch]

Yeah that one is so crazy that businesses cannot afford to even bothering catering to locals. Everything is geared to the tourists. So if you live in the city you have to go to the mainland for many basic necessities of life. That is insane.

And also they've had to ban cruise ships because they were causing massive structural damage to the fabric of the city.

I don't know if it was because of structural damage or the sheer impact of so many tourists pouring at once into the city and the visual eyesore that were huge ships moving right into the main waterways.

I recently learned that Venice is trialing a program to lure remote workers into the city. I'm seriously considering to apply... 

I know someone who did that for 3-6 months over the last couple of years and loved it. Really strongly recommends Venice as a place to live.[/quote]

Yeah, I believe that for this trial program the commitment is for a minimum of 6 months, which I think is pretty doable.

Venice is one of the few places it would work because you're largely competing with tourists. I've read about a few places in Europe rolling back digital nomad style campaigns because they worked too well and it's driving up prices/increasing competition for housing with locals. That won't be an issue for Venice.

Yeah, you're not really contributing to a rent increase over there. If anything you might even help create a demand for renovating old buildings. It's true that in some places an influx of remote workers has significantly contributed to this, I've been told that for instance Lisbon and cities around it are becoming increasingly expensive to live in no small part due to the combination of touristic flats from AirBnb and remote workers moving in, lots of Brits in particular.

[The Larch]

As to Venice and digital nomads.... Though being young during covid would suck, I'm sad to have missed all these opportunities.
Had remote work been the norm 6 years ago id be all over.

I know people who have been doing it for longer than that. It's not even the norm now, but it's something that has existed for a while already.

[Josquius]

As to Venice and digital nomads.... Though being young during covid would suck, I'm sad to have missed all these opportunities.
Had remote work been the norm 6 years ago id be all over.

I know people who have been doing it for longer than that. It's not even the norm now, but it's something that has existed for a while already.

Oh yes sure. I met some way back when. Those jobs were pretty hard to get previously however. In my industry at least I'd say more jobs than not are remote these days.

[celedhring]

As for digital nomads... just this week a stat came out that 43% of new apartment rentals signed in Barcelona in 2022 were to foreigners. This in the city that already has the highest rent price of any large Spanish city.

[The Larch]

As for digital nomads... just this week a stat came out that 43% of new apartment rentals signed in Barcelona in 2022 were to foreigners. This in the city that already has the highest rent price of any large Spanish city.

IIRC Málaga is also having lots of issues with wild rent increases due to remote workers moving there.

[Tamas]

Good thing the UK has left the EU otherwise this could be an easy option for Brits.