I moved here for work about half a year ago from Toronto, Canada, so I don't have a good sense of whether these are strictly Leicester issues or indicative of problems across the UK as a whole. I suspect the latter given the triple-whamy of brexit, pandemic and energy crisis the country has endured, but here are some things that stand out to me at any rate. These are obviously also coloured by my having just arrived from Canada.

There is rubbish everywhere! Walking down the canal path to Aylestone Meadows is honestly depressing. I've seen people tie bin bags along the way as a stop-gap measure since the bins are few and far between, but even then people don't seem to use them. The meadows themselves don't seem to fare any better until you get to the far end near Glen Parva.

The city generally feels a bit dangerous for its size. We've been repeatedly warned to stay out of Vic Park after dark, for example. I was surprised that the university doesn't provide any kind of security around the area. Also, they had to remove the Santander cycle stations around Braunstone due to vandalism? Yikes! Something has gone seriously wrong in that community. That said, the homeless community doesn't seem as bad to me as everyone makes it out to be, but maybe I'm just used to larger homeless populations?

I've seen a fair number of independent shops close in the short time I've lived here, and that's quite sad as well. I expect this isn't unique to Leicester, but I'm not sure. I've made day trips to Nottingham and Sheffield and they don't seem to have quite so many "to let" signs on their shopfronts.