Moving to the UK - location advice

[wisteriahouse]

Hi all,

My husband and I will be relocating to the UK next year from Australia. We have a seven year old son and will be looking for jobs upon arrival (husband works in IT, I am a lawyer).

We have been looking at different locations to settle including London and Leeds. Our requirements are excellent schools, good transport links (we will be using public transport only), local shops/pubs/restaurants/high street. Our budget is around £1,300pm.

Coming from a “new” country, we are looking forward to immersing ourselves in the history and culture and would value having these options readily available without having to venture too far away. We enjoy going out for meals, walks/bike rides, enjoying the outdoors, swimming etc. We are hoping to travel around Europe on a regular basis (mostly long weekend trips) so convenience to an airport would be a plus.

Any suggestions would be welcomed! It’s so hard to plan things from the other side of the world and we don’t want to drag our son around while we decide on an area as we want to get him settled in a school asap.

Cheshire is beautiful, if in East Cheshire you won't be far away from the airport, easy train into London from Macclesfield. You will have to up your budget though depending on where you are- Macclesfield can be cheap, but not the nice bits. The surrounding villages are beautiful there but without a car at all might be a bit too rural.

Nice parts of Leeds and Manchester cost a lot more than that for family homes - I seem to remember reading that rents in Manchester in particular are increasing above inflation and are becoming less affordable than London vs local salaries. If you wanted a flat though, there's loads of building going on in both cities so that might be a more sensible option. Loads of law firms in both cities (I don't know about specific fields) and plenty of high quality IT jobs. Schools in both are generally good but depend on the area - you pay more to live near good ones, as is the case everywhere.

Hi OP. I can highly recommend the surrounding villages of York. York is a beautiful city and very safe. There are towns too further west such as Selby and market towns such as Howden & Snaith, all easily commutable to Leeds and more reasonable to live price/safety wise.
The UK is pretty good for accessibility to cities in general and there are plenty of airports around. We lived in QLD for a while and really missed the ease of getting anywhere and everywhere that you have here.
Good luck with the move

Regardless of the low budget available for housing, if I were moving to the UK as a blank sheet of paper, I would want to be far away from London, and far away from the spill over of over-inflated housing and over crowded suburbs. It's so expensive.

The UK isn't that big, it's easy to get main line trains to other places. There is culture and history everywhere.

I would look at Leamington Spa, Harrogate, York, Newcastle, Bath, and surrounding areas for towns and cities which are good sizes without being huge. Leeds is a great shout for somewhere bigger. Yorkshire is fabulous.

You won’t get anything in London, but look around Southend, Rochford, Benfleet, Raleigh, Eastwood, Westcliff because the commuter system is really good and you get to live close to the sea ☺️. Max one our into London. Also Cholcester, wickford, laindon any of those areas in Essex.

Cambridge would tick most of those boxes apart from the rent.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stony_Stratford

Commutable to London, Birmingham and Manchester at a push. Plus Milton Keynes on your doorstep. Luton airport approx 30 minute drive away.

Stony is an ancient market town and very vibrant still, despite the COL

It depends what you mean by IT. In-house developer / IT support person? Or working for the likes of Oracle, HP, Microsoft, Dell, SalesForce, Google etc.

If the latter, the majority of large IT companies are based in London or the Thames Valley - between London and Newbury, with a lot of smaller IT companies because they need the same skills.

There is good transport through the Thames Valley into London but it isn't cheap. Renting in London is a very very expensive. £1,300 will only get you a scruffy 1-bed shoebox. Try Slough, Winnersh, Newbury, Theale for better value and easy access to the IT market. Something like this. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150985931#/?channel=RES_LET

Plenty of walks, lovely countryside, good schools and a reasonable town centre, but it isn't a city - about 20,000 people.

If you want city life on a rent of £1300 a month, Leeds or Sheffield will be a much better bet.

It's important to define the meaning of 'affordable rents' and 'local salaries'.
The median salary in London is only 10K more than Manchester (£700 take home) . But rents are disproportionately higher in London. A 1-bed studio costs about 1.5K in zone 3, but you could get a 3 bed semi for that amount in Altrincham. These are similar distances to the city centre (although I appreciate London doesn't have a 'centre', most places themselves are centres in their own right. Having said that even Altrincham has local stuff going on).
You can get lower rents in Oldham, Droylsden etc but these are unfashionable areas.

The other issue with London IMO is that while the ceiling is high, salaries aren't necessarily higher across the board, or at least high enough to mitigate the increased expenses. If you're in a highly paid one, great, otherwise not

To practice as a lawyer in the uk you would need to take exams in the uk. The details are on the link https://www.bplr.com.au/london-legal-jobs/#:~:text=look%20at%20this.-,Lawyers%20from%20Australia%20are%20entitled%20to%20requalify%20as%20solicitors%20in,their%20professional%20qualifications%20and%20experience.

I've lived in quite a few places in the UK - the Midlands, London, the North and now I live in Scotland. Hands down Scotland is the best. I'm not sure if you are aware, but there is a lot of political tension and unrest in England right now - lots of rioting all over. It is mostly because they do not want any more immigration. We don't really have that here.

I am near Edinburgh, which is simply stunning. Thousands of bars, restaurants, entertainment venues etc. It's too expensive to live in the Centre, but if you go 20 minutes North (on the train), you will find lots of seaside towns, that offer amazing value for money housing wise, excellent schools, excellent bus and train links into Edinburgh. Lots of people who live here commute into Edinburgh for work.

Look at Dalgety Bay, Dunfermline, North Queensferry. Plenty of IT roles and solicitors. Lots of parks and forests. Also, the airport is just 14 minutes away by car or you can park for free at the Ferrytoll park and ride, and hop on the Jet747 bus that literally drops you at the airport!

University Education is FREE in Scotland, so if your child did want a higher education, that's a huge consideration. Both my children benefited from this - both got a degree for free. They are both now in professional roles. In England, a degree costs you about £30,000.

Definitely worth taking a look at!

Liverpool / sefton (crosby, formby, southport) although southport is obviously a bit longer commute to get into Liverpool City centre but great schools and never ending history in Liverpool region plus in Sefton beaches almost on your door step, countryside and city

Oh I totally agree, I had just seen a few comments saying "London is crazy, go up north" but that's not a silver bullet, property seems to be unaffordable everywhere, albeit different degrees of unaffordable.

@MiddleAgedDread I live near Bathgate in the central belt (West Lothian) and I can get into The centre of Edinburgh (Waverley) in 30 minutes and about 45 minutes to Glasgow Queen Street from our local train station (7 minutes walk from our house).

My exact location wouldn't suit the OP without a car as buses locally for us are not very good, but plenty of places outside Edinburgh could provide what they are looking for, as long as they are near a train station.

Rent of £1300 absolutely doable here. But I also agree with other posters, they really need to have jobs before they arrive (or at least one of them does) before they consider renting, because they are unlikely to get a rental without a job - or the funds to pay at least 6 months in advance

You’ll need job offers from employers that can sponsor before you can get a visa. You won’t be able to get a rental property without jobs and a significant amount of money up
front.

In terms of schools, you will be reliant on the time of year you live and where has spaces. Deadline for primary admission applications is January for the following September. You can’t apply without an address so you will need to see what local schools have spaces when you move.

I guess for the OP it's not really about affordability alone but value for money
OP wants to live the high life. Meals out, regular holidays, etc. While she wants 'history and culture' that doesn't seem to be the main priority, more holidays and all the outdoor stuff.

What would she gain from London/Thames Valley?

Public transport is good within London, true but most of these outdoorsy places will be using national rail not TFL anyway. No different from other places. Even beauty spots close to London like Essex and the Cotswolds don't have great public transport compared to the city. Which is why most of my mates who live there own cars anyway.

Of course it all depends on their jobs. If they earn 250K combined in London Vs 80k elsewhere then London might be a consideration. But 60K combined (the median wage each) Vs 90K in London? Dicey. 30K more gross looks great on paper but will quickly be eaten up by taxes and rent.

OP, if you Google UK after tax salary calculator you'll be able to see your projected take home pay

Northern ireland will get you more for your money and you have country side seaside and city/town living all with in a stones throw, There are law firms here that also have international offices including australia eg Herbert smith freehills.

And the IT sector is one of our fastest growing sectors

Sometimes it’s best to find an area you like BEFORE job and house searching….

Poor Op wanted some location ideas for inspiration!

Not a lecture in getting a Visa (she is a lawyer ffs. I expect she knows this already!) and it’s also possible for OP to have dual citizenship of the UK but not have visited before (a lot of my Canadian and Aussie friends have British parents but have never been here!)

Why is your rental budget £1300 if you have two well paid careers? Can you afford to increase it as it will be quite limiting.

But there's no point in that @Takemetothemountainsnow - what if you find an area you like but there are no jobs?

Daft.

The visa is important because anything other than permanent residency/citizenship will significantly impede the job search. Especially outside London.
Many specify permanent right to work for a permanent contract so don't want people on spouse visas, young person travel etc.

Also, unless OP and her husband have enough wealth to pay rent upfront /live independently, it's very risky to focus on areas and settling before even having a job.

There's a thread here from an IT person who couldn't get a job for a year, I work in the field and there are plenty more in the same situation.

Also @Takemetothemountainsnow OP might not realise r.e visa because all these people technically have the right to work in almost any job.
It's just employers that don't want to hire them. That's not written anywhere officially

True @OneCoolPearlOP good points well made!

Not all employers can/will be willing to resister as a sponsor. There are all
sorts of issues and it’s not just about having a skilled job.

What about Glasgow? Much cheaper, great culture , beautiful countryside on your doorstep and the best people in these islands.