Best Essex location for family 👪

[Italianplaygroup]

Looking to move to Billericay or Brentwood and require house for around £400k budget...
Also must be toddler and 11 yr old friendly excellent schools.

Recently read up that Billericay is on the way down as a town and facilities for kids terrible?? I'm mortified:( any advice on specific areas of each of the above move to would be amazing help. Thanks millions.

Both areas are fab. Brentwood have the better schools I'm told.

Hi, I live on a village just outside of Brentwood. I really like it, schools are really good. I can’t compare to Billericay as I haven’t lived there but do occasionally go there for restaurants (pre covid). Probably depends what your expectations are and what you are hoping to get with your budget?
If you are on Facebook you should join the local community groups (definitely one for Billericay and one for Brentwood and also look for ‘Shenfield, Hutton and surrounding areas’ or something to that effect and ask some questions there to try and get a range of opinions x

Brentwood is lovely but you may struggle to get much for 400k near the good schools. The surrounding villages are nice too. Bishops Stortford on the edge of the Essex border may also be worth a look - excellent schools.

I’ve lived in Brentwood all my life and want to move away!

Bad stuff:
It’s become heavily congested with traffic, it’s over crowded, the town is full of nail bars, hairdressers and barber shops and the crime rate is rising.
Property is really expensive too.
The Sugar Hut 🙄

Good stuff:
The schools are good, there are nice parks (Weald, Thorndon and King Georges)
Easy commute into London.
Crossrail (one day )
People are generally friendly.

I am guessing you want to be close to London but Tendring is considered one of the nicest areas in the UK if you are interested in looking there. From what I know both Brentwood and Billericay are both fine from my (brief) experiences of the areas

Thank you. So what's the difference between Shenfield and hutton. Seems to be lots on market in hutton....

Hutton is nice, Shenfield has a high street and the train line, Hutton is right next to Shenfield and has a few little shops but no high street, Hutton is only a few mins drive from Shenfield and an easy walking distance to it too depending on how far along you are. There isn’t much difference but I would assume houses get more expensive going towards She field due to the rail links.

Anyone know what the Wash Road area of hutton is like?