Considering a move to Scotland from South of England

[Kerria]

I'm in a real stew over what we do next. We currently live in a beautiful but ridiculously expensive village in the South East (BUCKS) of England (£400,000+ for a 2 bed house). We are about to build a small, one room extension on our little, not very exciting, 2 bed council house so our daughter can have her own room. She currently shares with her little brother. She is in year 8 (the very end of) and my son is in year 3 (also end of) and we are having a wobble about it all.

My husband is a self- employed plumber but really 95% of his work is bathroom refurbishments which works well here as there is a lot of money in the area. Of course if we moved to Scotland, he could continue the same job but we are worried if there is the same demand for his trade. He is booked months in advance here.

My Dad is planning to move back to Scotland following 2 strokes and I'm worried about him being up there without help as well as considering if Scotland would just be better for us in general. He is going to be in the Dunblane area. If we do move too, we'll benefit from a house that's ready to go with enough space, hopefully for English family visitors too. However I'm stuck on where I should be looking. A drive of about an hour from him would be ok, we need to consider what is around for our kids, especially the teenager although our 8 year old won't be far behind. We are used to a train into a city (40 mins from London), a decent shopping centre within a half hour drive and easy access to the likes of Screwfix for husbands work. Dundee is very appealing but I'd love anyone's opinion that has made this move from a similar place to us and an idea of areas. I am also wondering about my daughter transferring schools at this age and what it would mean for her. Her birthday is may 09 so I think she'd be going into S2 in Scotland.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

my DD is Dec 09 and yes she will be in S2 come august, options are often chosen at end of S2 ready for S3, I think moving once courses start for national 4's would be difficult, my DD's school start S2 syllabus in May after exams so the S3 syllabus may start as early as May 2023 for your DD so you would really need to be in Scotland by then, your DH may not be booked up so far in advance or earn as much per hour but you will need less money as housing costs lower, plenty of people get new bathrooms and heating systems done so I can't imagine he would be short of work, the only thing is that a lot of rural scotland does not have gas so heating is electric or oil based

a quick glance at rightmove suggest 300K would get you a 3 -4 bed semi detached just one example
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/123708977#/?channel=RES_BUY

stirling is not far away from Dunblane and has toolstation screwfix check springkerse industrial park

Firstly to put your mind at rest. Your husband shouldn't have any difficulty with getting enough work. (Currently doing a self build in Galloway and believe me a good plumber is booked up for ages here).
Secondly look into some of the small towns and villages in the train routes in Fife. That way you can get into Edinburgh easily and have easy road access to your dad in Dunblane. Aberdour is a beautiful small town with rail access and a beach from my memories. If you want a bigger town Dunfermline is good.

I'm central Edinburgh where house prices aren't much better than most of the South East but you don't need to go far for out for them to drop significantly. If you're used to being within easy reach of the city then I'd look around the train lines. The Stirling / Dunblane / Doune area might suit you as that's within striking distance of both Edinburgh and Glasgow, and likewise many people live in Linlithgow for the same reason.
I don't think your husband would need to worry about work, it's practically impossible to get good trades at the moment!
Definitely move before your daughter would go into S3 and they start the Nat5 curriculum.

Comments about availability are fair, and I understand why you want to be near your dad. I have visited Dunfermline in winter and it seemed a good place. Be prepared for earlier darkness in winter.

Lots of great places to live within an hour of Stirling.

Bo’ness has decent transport links but the train station is in the next town - you do however get a lot of house for your money, worth a search.

I forgot the link www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/123923957#/?channel=RES_BUY - I have friends who live in this estate and it is lovely.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. My husband is more bathrooms/tiling/refurb and isn't gas registered so that side of things isn't an issue but it's great to hear he'd still have work. If all else fails, he could do some warehousing or driving until we get on our feet.

I'm probably the one who will struggle the most if I'm honest. I have great pals here and it makes me feel really sad that I'd leave them behind. Of course I'd make new ones and Scotland is a super friendly place. I was born in Edinburgh though I've lived in England since I was 4. I have family there and in Clacks but they're all oldies so really we'd be making a new life somewhere we feel comfortable. Pals here say I'll miss the semi decent weather too 😆My Mum who is also disabled lives down here but she is being pretty useless about admitting she needs a damn good clear out (seriously, huge) and to get her place sold and move into a level property either in England or back in Scotland. I'm an only child, they're divorced and there's only me to take care of them both.

We'd all benefit from a decent house as our budget barely buys you a shoebox down here. I'm just weighing up if that benefit is materialistic, but I've just felt so irritated these past few years with having no room to swing a cat/put a clothes airer up/ tripping over my vacuum as there's nowhere to store it. On top of all that, I've not worked for the past 8 years in order to be a sahm and I'm now feeling that I need to get busy for my own sanity.

On a side note, do you any of you Scotland dwellers know the current average % for overs over? Trying to get an idea of what a sensible offer is at the moment.

Ah, what to do?! I'll have a look at all the areas suggested, thank you all for your help. If anyone has made this move, I'd love to hear from you too.

%over is very area dependent tbh. East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire and Edinburgh have been crazy (15% over home report) but might be calming now. May well be a bit catchment dependent too.

My impressions after moving from England just over 2 years ago:

1. You will need blackout blinds in summer. Even in Glasgow it barely gets dark in midsummer but obviously dark a long time in winter.

1. Weather is more extreme. I wouldn't say there were that many extra rainy days but wet days are properly wet rather than a bit damp...

1. There's a lot more access to community sports centres than in England.

1. The central belt feels absolutely tiny distance wise - avoiding rush hour it's under an hour from Glasgow to Edinburgh and Stirling is between the two. Dunblane isn't far north of that. The vast majority of the Scottish population live in that area. People living in Stirling, Denny, Falkirk areas often work in either or both between them. Even at rush hours the traffic is much better than equivalent distances in Bucks...

There's a lot of demand for competent trades, definitely.

I think it’s a good idea to cast the net wide.

The stirling market is really competitive. Low stock availability and they move fast. Plus you don’t get that much for your money. Lots of houses that are sold off market.

Central will be good for your husbands work/transport links but not somewhere I would move my whole family for.

If you want to be an hour away from your father, close links to Edin and have slightly better weather- then Fife could be what you are looking for.