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.

Weston super mare

Commutable to Bristol for jobs, cheaper than Bristol & Bristol airport is closer to Weston

Access to the whole of the SW for walking, cycling etc

£1300 is a low budget for a family home in most places in the UK, unfortunately

West Bridgford near Nottingham is an amazing place to live. You don't get much for your money but it's doable and great schools, lots of sports things to do, canoeing, cricket, tennis, football, sailing, plenty of sports centres and open swimming too. Loads of coffee shops and bars /
Good places to eat, great
Vibe, nice places to shop for food too, close to Nottingham but also
Leicester, derby and not too long on the train to London or
Birmingham
Good luck

I live in a village outside Cambridge, the rent wouldn't get you anything around here unfortunately

@MabelMaybe of course, sorry. You're right.
There's not much in London for that really is there.
Sutton? Abbey Wood? Brent?

Are you British citizens?

Have you investigated whether your plans are possible from.an immigration pov?

Can you practice law in England or Wales if your education and experience to now have been in Oz?

I think you need to secure jobs first.

Thank you for all your replies and to those that have suggested areas to check out, I’ll spend some time having a look at these!

I have started another thread with some further information to points that came up a lot as I couldn’t edit my original post. It seems a lot of people were concerned with issues that I didn’t directly ask about (right to work, payment in advance of rent etc etc). Just because I didn’t post every little detail about our move doesn’t mean it hasn’t been considered. Believe me, we wouldn’t be dragging our child to the other side of the world without some idea of what we are doing! In saying that, thanks for your responses anyhow, it is really difficult to plan things from afar and having some local knowledge is always helpful.

I'm in Wolverhampton OP you would get more for your money here.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151229030#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_LET

You may or may not get jobs in Wolverhampton itself but a commute to Birmingham is doable, the train is about 20 mins and the tram takes longer, a return ticket is about £5 a day. The train also stops at the airport.

Birmingham has everything you are looking for, although your child may develop an interesting accent.

Wolves itself has shops, restaurants, pubs. The schools have improved a huge amount over the last few years.

https://www.locrating.com/the-best-schools-in-Wolverhampton_West%20Midlands_England.aspx

One thing to think about is that most rentals are unfurnished and furniture rental isn't really a thing.

Why have you started another thread?!? You don't need to edit the original post, just come back and answer qs in another post like you just did

I put this on your other thread

Good luck, what an exciting adventure! Look at East Anglia - Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire. You can get a lot of house for your money in those areas and be near big towns, cities and commutable to London if you want as well as near coastline and countryside.

Yes a lot of replies you’ve had on this thread were unhelpful and a thread derail! People just love to feel superior - it’s very strange!!

anyway! Good luck OP ☺️

Thanks, I haven’t ever posted or commented on MN before and wasn’t sure people that had already commented would see my new post. Good to know that they will though.

Just a newbie trying to figure it out (I don’t usually hang out on forums very often) 🤷‍♀️

Not sure why you got the hostility you have, this place can be funny at times.

Where's the other thread?

The OP will struggle in Edinburgh too apart from outskirts.

Airbnb and student lets cripple the letting market. DC pays £800 a month for a room in a five bed flat, no communal space except for a cramped kitchen with a two seater sofa.

I was going to suggest Glasgow (train and airport access) but the nicer parts are expensive too. Again a DC who pays £1,000 per month, private let with the owner landlord but only one bedroom. When looking through agents it wasn't unusual to be ‘68th on the list to view’!

The thing is that many of the issues raised by posters oh this thread are related. These days landlords do have to check the immigration status and carry out financial checks on all possible tenants. There is so much competition for properties now that it is likely to take time to find somewhere suitable.
You may wish to look up right to rent in the uk for information about what documentation you will need https://www.gov.uk/prove-right-to-rent

I notice from the OPs other thread that her husband is a UK citizen. That makes a really bid difference in terms of renting in England. Please note that there are differences in England, Wales and Scotland.

Manchester or Newcastle for excellent transport links outside of London. Your money will go much further.
Liverpool is a great city but public transport isn't quite as good due to Manchester and Newcastle having trams/metro system.
Both have airports too, Manchester airport is bigger.
You might have better job availability in Manchester because you can look over the whole greater Manchester area and in Liverpool & Chester which you can get to on the train.

Thanks, my husband is a British citizen.

Thank you! I hadn’t considered (near) Edinburgh but will look into it 😊