‘What public services have improved in the last 20 years?’ – 23 reasons to stop believing that the UK has gone down the drain

Is it really true that everything about the UK has got worse, or is that just what we’re told by newspapers, TV channels and websites which know that doom and gloom is what gets eyeballs on them?

It seems that it might be the latter and things aren’t completely awful, which the good people of the AskUK subreddit discovered after Charon13_TB posted this:

What public services have gotten better in the last 20 years? Genuine question do you know of any public service or infrastructure that has gotten better or at the very least not gotten worse?

Road network, NHS, public housing, council services, education, higher education, social welfare, social work etc. And this is not to invite for partisan arguments as multiple governments have been in charge over this period, but to share if there are positives and improvements.

And it turns out that the country hasn’t gone to the dogs as much as we’ve been led to believe, as the replies showed…

1.

‘DVLA. Plenty of what you need can be done online and paperwork arrives quickly.’
–Vespa_Alex

2.

‘I had a problem with my tax code a couple of years ago. I was expecting to have to spend hours on the phone going through the same story over and over and over with n different people. And 20 years ago I would have had to do that.

Nope, raised the issue online. It was sorted in three working days and I didn’t have to twitch a finger. Absolutely effortless.’
–Jolly-Minimum-6641

3.

‘Unexpectedly my passport renewal took one week.’
–WestPreference7745

4.

‘On a Thursday I booked a face-to-face visit for the coming Saturday, and my passport arrived on the Tuesday. And I didn’t even get a chance to sit down in the waiting area before they called me up to the desk! I had to tell the passport lady what a fantastic service I received.’
–mrs_shrew

5.

‘Free Wi-Fi in libraries has gone from zero to broadband. That’s a decent improvement.’
–WeRegretToInform

6.

‘Cycling infrastructure is much better, at least in London. I feel safer cycling around than I ever did. London buses are better, too – they used to chug out the most awful exhaust.

And we’re spilling less shit into the Thames than we used to, I believe?’
–squiblet12

7.

‘Social Security Scotland. It’s like they actually *want* to help you, and treat you more or less like a human being. Before this was devolved, the DWP were tortuous to deal with.

People complain about the SNP all the time, but this is something they have done that has really made a difference to people like me with a child with disabilities.’
–CiderDrinker2

8.

‘Tap on and off bus with bank card. Books and papers from library on apps.’
–beehive-cluster

9.

‘In Scotland, ScotRail recently abolished peak fares.

Granted, rail travel is still overpriced compared to other countries, the trains are still often late, and if you work onsite five days a week a season pass (which hasn’t changed in price) still works out slightly cheaper, but it’s a real change that has helped a lot of people and genuinely seems to have encouraged more people to use public transport.

Even small movements in the right direction are rare these days, so I take that as a win.’
–alphahydra

10.

‘Buses are a lot better in many places, the franchising model has expanded to Manchester, is also coming to Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Cambridgeshire, Sheffield, and being looked at in a load of other places. There is literally no consumer-facing advantage of having a mess of different bus companies and it needs to be everywhere tbh.’
–strattad

11.

‘Disability benefits, I fit ceilings hoists for disabled people and the budget recently went from £1000-£3000 before grant requirement. An OT can just say ‘fit this’ and we do.’
–sporops

12.

‘Electricity network infrastructure has steadily improved over the last 25 years.’
–YUNoPamping