THOUSANDS of Poles are fleeing the UK and returning home to a nation that is now booming.
The Polish economy is growing so fast – by 4.9 per cent last year – that it is set to overtake Britain’s by 2030.
3
3
In January Monika Kowalewska and her software engineer husband Gregory, 33, left their three-bed, £1,000-a-month rented home in Cambridge after 18 years and now live in the Polish city of Gdynia for a FIFTH of the cost.
Saleswoman Monika, 34, said: “The speed at which prices are rising in England is scary.
“Our bills were about £500 a month and we used to spend £100 a week at Morrisons.
“Since we returned to Poland we’ve hardly been to the shops. Prices are so low we can order all our meals on delivery apps.
“The trains are so cheap you can afford to travel first-class.”
The couple were among more than a million Poles who took advantage of EU freedom of movement laws to settle in Britain, making them our second largest foreign-born population.
Poles previously made up 23 per cent of EU migrants in the UK, and about 10,500 Poles worked in the NHS, its fourth largest non-British nationality.
Poland’s capital Warsaw has become a tech hub where Google and Netflix are among the big US firms setting up offices.
Most read in Money
There are now Facebook groups, forums and blogs about Poles returning home from the UK – and it is also the fifth favourite place for UK pensioners to retire to.
Residents Dorata Amtolok and her daughter Victoria, 18, pay £200 a month to rent a two-bedroom flat.
Their utility and TV bills total £70a month, and Dorata, 45, earns £1,000 a month as a cleaner.
But when they lived in Peterborough, Cambs, she worked up to 50 hours a week for Amazon, her pay after tax was £1,275 and her bills were double.
She said: “My sister moved to England first and I thought it would be the land of opportunity, but it was the most depressing place I’ve ever lived.
“Peterborough’s town centre was like a scene from The Walking Dead, there were so many people smoking drugs.
“I love being home because ordinary people have a good quality of life in Poland.”
3
