What things are cheaper in less expensive areas?

[Brunaaa]

Aside from the obvious things like housing, council tax, eating and drinking out(?), what other things are cheaper in less expensive areas of the UK than the South East?

Are groceries cheaper? Train fares? Water electricity and gas bills?

I've only ever lived in London and the South East, so I'd be interested to see how the house of living compares!

NHS Dental treatment won't be any cheaper in a poor area, as it is charged on a pre set nation wide fee scale.

Wales may have some reduced or free treatments, they used to have free prescriptions, but I don't know if that still applies.
Private dentistry may well be cheaper than in SE England.

Cars are cheaper in the north of the country and Scotland. My husband is car mad and changes his cars faster than some people change their underwear. He buys them from main dealers (usually without seeing/ test driving) a lot cheaper than he could in the SE .
When he comes to sell them he loses almost nothing and has made the occasional profit .

In the North, we have shops like B&M, Heron Foods, Home Bargains which sell household stuff, food and loads more and are cheap.

Do they not have shops like B&M,s ,Home Bargains ,Herons etc in the South East ? Im in the Northwest .

Childminders/nursery!
I paid £30-40 a day for my now 7 year old son, and prices haven't increased that much. Couldn't believe the price in London of £120 a day that I saw recently!
Lancashire

Not travel. I would love London's heavily subsidised public transport system. Not council tax- I was shown various council tax bills yesterday and marvelled at how much more I am paying in a non salubrious area than many much richer ones.

Childcare tends to be cheaper, probably because the cost of renting/ buying premises is less.

Luxuries also tend to be somewhat cheaper- the price of a pint, a meal out, a haircut or beauty treatment.

I live in the south west and housing and household and insurance is usually cheaper than in London. I pay £3000 a year in council tax and have no options of using public transport. I have to drive everywhere I want to go.

Also, salaries are in line with the
Midlands and the north not with the south east.

A few posters have said hairdressers, but that hasn't been my personal experience (comparing the south east with West Yorkshire) - I've found that I've paid the same price in both places. Also, the swimming pool is about 50% more expensive in the "poor" area I visit, and I think that's probably because the council can't subsidise it as much??

But taxis - my god, yes. In my "poor" area, the taxis are an amazing third of the price that they are in my "rich" area. Car repairs are cheaper in my "poor" area. Antiques and vintage stuff are a lot cheaper in the "poor" area.

I know my friend is about to pay £50 per day for nursery in Yorkshire, that’s in a market town. It’s a while ago but I’m pretty sure petrol was slightly cheaper where we live than in London near MIL. You can though not at the moment get a dry haircut for £6 in my town. The last time I went to a nice salon it was £50 for a cut and colour on the South coast my sister paid £100.

Definitely agree with beauticians and hairdressers. Also, our local refurbished independent cinema is £3.50, even weekend evenings.

Childcare, especially holiday schemes. £250 down to £70 for a week, and that’s not to mention some council run schemes that are £25-30 (people get up and queue for them from 5)

I notice hairdressers are cheaper outside London/home counties.
However I wouldn't expect transport to be cheaper.
I was amazed at how expensive bus fares were when I moved away from London (although still in the south east)

Supermarkets have different deals. I worked in London in a 'poor' area and the local Tesco had an offer. A colleague who commuted from an affluent area wanted the deal and went to her local Tesco and they didn't have it. She was very put out and phoned their customer services and they told her they have different deals in different locations. She was not happy.

I used to travel from London to my home town to get my hair coloured and cut as even with the train fare it was cheaper.

I've lived north and south and the north is definitely cheaper generally.

Well I haven't lived in England, so can't compare, but can compare urban vs rural if that helps? I'm from a small village in the NW Highlands but have lived in a Scottish city for a couple of years.
In the village the houses cost more than they should, but about the same as the city. The difference is that the wages are far lower in the village, as there isn't a great deal of industry except tourists unfortunately (hopefully improving). The houses cost far more comparatively to the wages. This is because of second homes putting the prices up.
You can't easily rent a house here because people make so much more money doing holiday rentals, so you can either buy (unlikely on your low wage with hugely inflated house prices), wait on the exceptionally long social housing list, or live with your parents and pay rent to them.
Public transport is almost non-existent in the village, so you need to run your own car or get taxis = more expensive than the city. Distances are too far to walk. Bikes are doable but you need good fitness as very hilly.
Food shopping is much more expensive in the village because there are only Co-op stores nearby so no 'cheap' shops available. The nearest Aldi/Lidl type thing to me is nearly 100 miles. I can't get groceries delivered, although this is improving so there may be a cost saving there. But if you do that you support jobs in Inverness, and people in your own village might lose their jobs in the nearest Co-op, so there's a down side to you saving money on groceries that way.
Hairdressers are cheaper than the city.
Life in general CAN be cheaper in the village, depending on your interests. There is no cinema, swimming pool, etc, so you can't spend money there. Then again, going to the cinema costs a lot more (200mile round trip).
Electricity, broadband etc is usually more expensive due to lack of competition. Last time I changed my broadband there were three companies serving my area. I am much luckier than people in the next village, who get to choose BT only, and can have a whopping 2mbps download on a good day.
Delivery charges from companies advertising 'free delivery within UK' can often be extortionate. Apparently the Highlands is not part of the UK.

I know these are specific area problems and not what you asked for exactly. But I just wanted to point out that cost of living is not a sliding scale based on north/south/east/west, but actually varies depending on a lot of factors.

I moved from SE to NW a few years ago. To have wardrobes fitted here was a lot more expensive than in previous house. My hairdresser isn’t really any cheaper, some are but just like anywhere, you get what you pay for. Takeaways I’d say are about the same. An interesting one is train station parking, usually a LOT cheaper in SE. There was an article in one of the Sunday papers about it. Weybridge at the time was £4 a day, Doncaster £10 a day.

Meant to add when I lived in Luton a weekly parking ticket on the station was £23.10, where I live now it’s £60!

I live in the south east and most of the station parking that I know of around where I live is £7-8/day. Luckily I live close enough to walk!

Petrol!

I would love London's heavily subsidised public transport system

In normal times it's self-funding, including paying for capital investments like Cross Rail.
It's a myth pedalled by other areas of the country who can't seem to organise their own travel system, so claim London's is subsidised.

Houses
Childcare
Hair dressers etc
Eating out
Drinks in pubs

Apparently, our local Sainsburys is the most expensive in the UK (SE commuter town), suggesting groceries do vary. We also have a lack of budget supermarkets nearby, and far less pound shops etc than in PILs local town.

We live in London but once had a night out for a friends birthday in Birmingham.
I couldn’t believe it when the barman charged me £10 for 2 big flamboyant cocktails! I kept telling him I’d ordered 2, not 1 and he was insistent £10 was the price for 2!
The Uber on the way home was significantly less than it would have been in London as well

Building work! I’m in London and it makes me weep when I see posters here say they managed a kitchen extension and full house refurb for £60k... in Yorkshire.

Here in London it’s more like 4 times that.

buying a house is definitely cheaper up north i live in west yorkshire and the street i live in are all two bed semis 1940s and ceiling price is 135k each down south especially london i wouldnt even get a bedsit in a bad area for that, council tax is £1350 a year i dont know how that compares to band A anywhere else, food i shop aldi so not over expensive to start with on average £50 a week for two adults and four cats, utilities i wouldnt think would be much cheaper here, tradesmen definitely cheaper average rate is around 80-100 a day

Taxis, in my experience. A journey costing £3 where I live (north) costs twice as much where my parents live (south). The pandemic might have changed, that, though. I haven't used a taxi since early 2020.

Petrol is cheaper up norf