To relocate up north

Let’s be honest I doubt that any MNetter ever moved up north to any of those deprived left behind areas. It’s just not going to happen. That’s why they get all so tetchy when people joke about having baths in a coal bin and using an outside loo up north. Places like Harrogate, York, Ilkley are full of people from the south. Sadly many of the locals can’t afford to live there themselves. My family is from York. Some younger members are having to move further out to Pock and places because property is ludicrously expensive. Someone showed a terrace earlier for £350k. 10 years ago that would have been a normalish price for locals.

I was going to say if it's the hills and countryside that attract, what about Herefordshire or Shropshire? Roughly speaking, if you draw a line from the Severn to the Humber, N&W of it tends to be hilly (and less crowded).

Liverpool!

The investment is fresh air, health and happiness. You can't put a price on wellbeing.

Fgs why would anyone want to live in a ghastly ex pit village. Decent area = any other posh town down south with less of the poors and certainly no council estates 😂

I did the opposite and moved from the North to East Anglia.

if you want countryside what about North Wales? The perfect mixture between mountains, rivers and the coast.

there are several reasonable villages price wise and you are not far away from Chester and Bangor.

My DS couldn't afford to buy a house in the Midlands where we lived so he moved up to Hull and bought himself a house there. He's a Class 1 lorry driver so they are in short supply so he could get a job anywhere in the country. He took a £6k a year pay cut to move. He's made good friends up there. He's got a lovely girlfriend, got a cat and he's happy. He's been there 3 years now.

I knew you'd live in a statistical empirical abnormality.
Fact
Rains significantly more in the north where Dp lives compared to me in Buckinghamshire.
1100mm vs 640mm-temps are average temp 10.5c vs 14.5c
Transport connectivity is worse than in most of Europe.

Last year it took us 60 minutes or so to drive 40 miles and park up for a concert in Warwick Castle. It took over two hrs to get to Temple Newsam and park up.

One positive for the North is the farm shops are better and so are the fish chips.
Although it was £20 for 2 double vodka redbulls. in Machester when we went out.

I've lived on the Wirral, Shropshire, Ipswich, Wiltshire, Somerset, Northampton before moving to near the peaks. I much prefer the North to the South.

I'm wanting to move from south Devon to East Anglia!

Have a look at Penrith. You can get a nice house for that amount. It's close to the lakes, the Dales and the Borders. Good road and rail links as well.

What a ridiculous over generalisation 🙄

The place was packed full of high quality activities. Not to mention having 3 Waitroses within a couple of miles. 😆

Meh! Forget Waitrose. It's not all that. One of the real benefits of the North is having access to a Booths. My nearest is Knutsford. I only go occasionally but it makes a lovely change.

I second recommendations for Peak District either with Sheffield or Manchester nearby. I live in the North West, in Cheshire, on the edge of the Peak District. Easy access to lovely countryside and Manchester not too far away.

£350k would get you a decent house round here. Not massive but perfectly ok

Tis awful, some of us don't know where our next jug of Bisto for our chips is coming from.

OP - go for it, you sound like you've approached a good time in life without ties, financially ok and young enough to adapt to a new life or even move back again if it does work out as you'd like.

Unfortunately in time you get old. Think about which child is likely to want to be in contact with you and where they live now. Being close to a hospital with a bus or train is a big plus

Really? 😅😂

MeMycatsandmybooks Some of the south is as well! Parts of Portsmouth Southampton and Poole are very deprived areas! Honestly rich and poor are everywhere in UK!

I live in the south in a market town. We are 9 miles from the nearest train station and I'm more likely to see a unicorn than a bus after 8pm but obviously it's grim ooop north.

I know that was abit of a generalisation but the south does typically get sunnier weather. If that doesn’t bother the OP, then i’d say go for it.

Well as a northern lass OP I say go for it!

But it's snowed on one day here this winter. Its been quite warm and sunny all Easter weekend apart from this morning

Friend lives in the south west and they get plenty of wet windy weather.

I don't know why posters are getting so het up about the descriptions of the North

Because they're nowhere near universally true and many would equally apply to the south.

I live in West Yorkshire. We have a huge garden and back onto green belt. There's land for miles.

DM also lives in West Yorkshire and has buses that pass her door every 10 minutes to the two nearest cities in about 15 minutes.

There's plenty of places in the south where you'd think you were doing well to drive 15 miles in 90 minutes. The M25 is at least as gridlocked as the M60.

I think if its your absolute dream and DH is on board, then go for it. But go expecting a change in the climate - we’re southerners (South West) and could not cope with it any colder - just had 6 months of rain/cold so very much looking forward to sunny weather soon. As much as I love snow and think its beautiful (on the very rare occasion we get it), I can imagine it gets annoying trying to live your daily life with it. But you’ve only got one life so go for it if its your dream.

It isn’t until you see a thread about property/lifestyles in ‘the north’ vs ‘the south’ that you realise how truly and completely stupid so many people are.