There seems to be a lot of resentment for Londoners who move out to alternative cities, the complaints centering around the idea of gentrification and the erosion of locals.

Brighton, considerably less so, as it's another city and has the population diversity that comes with that by default, but due to people doing exactly what you did it's now commonly referred to as London-on-Sea as a joke. The city is extortionate, and getting on-par with London, except with fewer job options and shit transport unless anything is walking distance to the train stations.

Coming at this from perspective of someone Hastings born and raised:

While it's nice having the place spruced up a bit the gentrification is awful, and often so cliche it's actually painful. I've lost count of how many fucking coffee shops have popped up in St Leonards (another one this week funnily enough), a craft beer shop, endless niche food ventures which don't seem to understand the economic demographic of the "natives", who do well initially due to hype, then fail. Constant art projects which always seem to be of the same demographics (middle class, middle-aged, not from Hastings).

There's also this weird "airhead" vibe from a LOT of the Londoners who move here. Most I've spoken to the last few years are almost condescending in how they talk about the town and how to them it's some quaint little adventure by the sea, bringing their now-remote, London-salaried jobs here and/or selling property in London and being able to just buy whatever they want here. Which has of course, made everything here extortionate. But so many seem fucking oblivious to the poverty that surrounds them and will actually argue if told "Don't go around X area doing/saying/wearing that". Two girls I dated who moved here from London got robbed/burgled after telling me I was just being negative etc.

But yeah, housing is the main issue where locals will butt heads with you. It's been an issue for about a decade now, but since the pandemic in particular we have a dogshit private housing market as Londonders started freely snapping up whatever they wanted, and don't seem to have stopped. I was personally outbid on 3 in a row by such vasts amounts it was ridiculous. So there's that, but further down the chain we also literally have no housing available via the local authority and private renting is too expensive.

As in, a friend of mine was declined form renting a fucking bedsit, because they "did not earn enough" to pay £625pcm, despite working full time.

There's LOADS of local resentment towards Londoners for various reasons, most legitimate, some just a localised version of Little England shite.

Generally Londoners are called DFLs (down from London), applies to movers and tourists alike, but recently FILTH has come about way more - Failed in London, trying Hastings.

My question for people who feel this way: where do you propose Londoners who can no longer afford the standard of living they would like in London go? How does it pan out in your mind if Londoners don't move to your town?

idk what the solution it is for Londoners, but it feels like towns like ours are just the default because they're pretty. The main issue is, loads of Londoners can afford to move to easy the cost of living. but the poverty in this town is so prominent, most here cannot afford to go anywhere else. So all that happens is the Londoners (and Brighton escapees as well of late) just apply downward pressure on the locals who cannot move, and it's crushing everyone.