To ask your advice on where we should move to

[mylittlesunshine]

My DH has the chance of a job move which would mean he would be working in London. This would mean us relocating from Midlands area, we are in the process of looking at places and are getting stuck so hoping someone can help!

We have a little boy so we were wanting to move somewhere nice with good schools and not too much of a commute for DH (ideally no more than an hour) he will be based Stratford area so I was thinking Kent or Essex?

If anyone lives in these areas and could give advice on areas to look at/avoid I would really appreciate it. Are there other areas I should be looking at as well?

Thanks!

I live in Leigh on Sea in Essex which is nice. Somewhere like Rayleigh is about 40 mins from Stratford on the train and there are loads of nice places around as well.

Avoid Barking and Dagenham, but Hornchurch is nice in Essex.

Essex. It's so easy to get to Stratford from any town.

It may be too expensive but you can also do East Hertfordshire direct to Stratford in under 30 minutes on the train.

Colchester in Essex has good schools and is an hour or less to Stratford.

Essex.

Upminster has some excellent schools, community feel, good transport links (on m25), is still part of London, can be at stratford within 20 minutes but not a direct train.

Gidea Park, Shenfield and Brentwood are all on a direct train route to stratford. Would take up to half an hour to get there. All have good schools and are nice areas. Brentwood has a good highstreet.

Pretty much anywhere in Essex is good for getting to Stratford.

Realistically it depends on what you can afford. Upminster, Brentwood and Shenfield are ok price wise for London, high for Greater London and expensive compared to the rest of the country.

Hornchurch and Gidea Park would be cheaper alternatives.

Essex. Some parts of Epping and Loughton are lovely, also Buckhurst Hill.

Thank you all so much, that's great for getting me started! It's so hard when you are not from the areas to know where to look.

It's a fair old trek from Kent to Stratford so I'd avoid. Places around East Hertfordshire and Essex borders (eg Stansted / Bishops Stortford) are reasonable value with

Sorry... Great schools.. really good schools, in fact...

Pricewise, unfortunately, these areas are poss more pricey than the Midlands but you probably know that!

Yeah we've noticed we are going to be paying about 400 quid more than what we are currently per month, I also need to factor in commuting costs such as parking and trains... The joys!

I'm surprised it's only £400pm extra, whenever I watch a housing type program on TV houses are usually half the cost of East Herts.

Some parts of Chelmsford are nice, certainly lots of new housing there and a decent city centre.

You definitely need to factor in commuting costs as they can be really high.