Which city would you relocate within UK?

[Kaizen92]

Hello,

It seems that my title is quite vague and unclear.

Let me explain: my husband and I have different areas of expertise career-wise, but our jobs mostly allow us to work from home or visit the office twice a week.
, We have travelled and worked in several different European countries before having a baby.

We are living in Nottingham as husband got a job here also had a baby here. Now, he has a changed his job and now he goes to Manchester and commutes there twice a week. I work from home and occasionally need to commute to Scotland once a month.

We are parents of a nearly 3-year-old child, and it's time for us to settle in an area with good primary schools primarily.

We have contemplated extensively about where we should settle and envision ourselves in the next 4-5 years (we can't plan further ahead than that). We want to live in an area or city where we can easily commute to London (in case of future opportunities) or to the northern part of the UK (as I have connections there).

While we are not particularly attached to Nottingham and don't have a large circle of friends here, we don't mind leaving this city. However, Nottingham's central location is advantageous as it takes only 2 hours to reach London and Manchester.

There are numerous pros and cons to consider when deciding whether to stay here or move to another city (like Manchester). However, our main concern is always about the possibility of great opportunities arising elsewhere in the south. Therefore, choosing the next city should allow for easy commuting and be centrally located to minimize travel time. Nottingham seems to have an edge in that aspect.

Our priority, like every parent, is our child's education and ensuring they have a stable environment to study and make friends.
What are your thoughts on this? For people like us who can work from home and change jobs frequently, which city do you think could be a good fit for a base location?

Or perhaps I'm just overthinking everything?

Given the rising cost of living and soaring property prices, making this decision sooner rather than later has become a topic of discussion in our household. We thought it would be valuable to seek perspectives from others on this matter.


The main question are:

1. City which gives us god commutable distance and great transport link to commute within UK if we change our jobs in future.
2. Not crazy big enough like London, have great schools and kid friendly places outdoorsy etc.

[mrgrimblesgerbil]

York? Small, pleasant, lots going on in it, close to other big cities with more cultural life etc, fast trains to London and Edinburgh. No good if you need to fly regularly to northern Scotland though (unclear from your OP).

[Kaizen92]

@mrgrimblesgerbil

York? Small, pleasant, lots going on in it, close to other big cities with more cultural life etc, fast trains to London and Edinburgh. No good if you need to fly regularly to northern Scotland though (unclear from your OP).

York hmm never thought about .not frequently just once in a month. How is the property market situation there in "good area for schools"?

[Sportbilly79]

What about Cambridge? It’s obviously a bit further south but it’s a lovely city and close to London.

[NotFastButFurious]

Newcastle - towards the coast e.g. Whitley, Tynemouth area. On the metro into the city centre and trains down the main east coast line to London and Edinburgh. Not too far to an international airport, northumberland just down the road and the beach on your doorstep.

[Abbyant]

Liverpool? I’m biased as a native but it’s got great links to London and Manchester , it’s friendly and the schools work hard to support children, there’s culture and community.

[ballpithell]

Cambridge

[HMW1906]

Like PP I was going to suggest York. It’s on the mainline Trainline between Scotland (Edinburgh and Aberdeen stations I believe but could be wrong) and London. Pretty city centre, I think it has lots of child friendly places locally.

Alternatively Doncaster, I live in Doncaster and I like it but it does have its good areas and bad areas (like pretty much everywhere). The city centre isn’t great I admit, I only tend to go there if I’m taking my 3 year old to the theatre (there’s often child friendly shows on) or to the library (it has a train museum in it). If I’m going shopping which is rare I go to Meadowhall Shopping Centre which is less than 30 minutes drive or Lakeside Outlet just out of the city centre although I’m more of an online shopper these days anyway. There’s plenty to do with kids either in Doncaster or the surrounding area (I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old and we’re always doing something). The train station is also on the Scotland to London line, takes 1.5-2 hours to get to London depending which train you get (the 1.5 hour journey doesn’t stop again after Doncaster until London whereas the 2 hours has a few more stops along the way. Think it took us about 3.5-4 hours to get the train up to Edinburgh a few years back but it was a direct train so not too bad really. Leeds airport is less than an hour away or East Midlands is about 1.5 hours although we tend to head to Manchester which is about 2 hours away.

[1HappyTraveller]

Manchester
Good schools in Trafford;
Easy access to south by rail;
Not too far from other cities either - despite being in the north it’s relatively central within the UK.


Leeds
Easy access to North and South via rail;
House prices not extortionate.

[Luhou]

Sounds like Chester would be perfect for you. Great commute to Manchester. Good connections to London. Very family orientated. Loads of other cities to enjoy within an hours drive. Also not far from north wales coast

[Churchview]

Bath. Very beautiful, good schools, great parks, lots going on, access to country and good train links to London. Expensive though.

[garlictwist]

Leeds is pretty much half way between London and Edinburgh. Good access to countryside (Yorkshire Dales, Pennines, North York Moors, Lakes if you want to travel a couple of hours). Quite green. Good rail links.

[PTFswife]

York - I live here. Great schools. Two hours to London by train, two hours to Manchester driving or train, two and a half hours to Edinburgh. Small city but safe. Yorkshire moors, dales, coast all an hour drive. Property is going up but still more affordable than some of the bigger cities.

[PurpleOodie]

Leeds ticks all your boxes in my opinion. You should make a shortlist and go spend a weekend in each place to see how you feel about them.

[PurpleOodie]

I should add that I regularly commute from London to Leeds and Manchester and if I was to move ‘up north’ I would pick Leeds over Manchester.

[MrsSkylerWhite]

Lytham?

[PTFswife]

and re school areas - if you want private school then St Peter’s and Bootham are both in the north of the city so areas like bootham, Clifton green, Rawcliffe are good. If you want state then Milford school is excellent and south of the city. Traffic in York is a pain in the butt so choose a place closest to where the school is. Avoid Tang Hall as an area.

[MrsSkylerWhite]

Oh, sorry. See you said city. Lots of people who live in Lytham commute to Manchester.

[LiterallyOnFire]

You've been posting about this quite a bit haven't you OP? For more than a year? Or are the similarities a coincidence?

[londonmummy1966]

York or Newcastle would be the obvious choices - on the London Edinburgh line and both have direct trains to Manchester - 1 hr 30 from york and 2 hrs 30 from Newcastle.

[Squishymarshmallow]

Lots of people saying Cambridge but I wouldn't recommend. It is very expensive (equivalent to London), has few things to do with terrible traffic. It has city status but the size is more of a town. It is commutable to London but to go to Manchester (or most major cities!), you'd have to get a train down into London then back out again. It does have a nice river for kayaking or punting but few nice walks due to flat countryside.

[CallmePaul]

Bath, Winchester, Lewes, Chichester,

[Andthereyougo]

York. So much to do, great communication links. And the people are so friendly.
Edinburgh. Expensive but my favourite city in the UK.

[Thekatzenjammerkid]

York is massively expensive and struggling to accommodate pupils at local schools as there’s been such a big influx of people from elsewhere so rels tell me. Surely recommending the same old places just exacerbates the problem for locals.
There are other places in the North that might not be as photogenic and ‘naice’ but have equally good links, cheaper housing etc

[Kaizen92]

@Sportbilly79

What about Cambridge? It’s obviously a bit further south but it’s a lovely city and close to London.

Isn’t overly expensive? We are currently earning manchester & Nottingham salary.

we want a place good for kid education and easy to commute to north and south, if an opportunity comes.

[Kaizen92]

@LiterallyOnFire

You've been posting about this quite a bit haven't you OP? For more than a year? Or are the similarities a coincidence?

I just came to this platform, Many people might have posted on same topic.