To move away from london but where to?

[Hotmad]

I've got a little baby girl now and I don't want to bring her up in london, I love london but I feel she would have a better childhood out of london.... Do you think this is fair to say?
Where In UK is nice to live for young family life that doesn't get affected by flooding or near an airport.
Is it reasonable to think I could find somewhere affordable with the requirements above?

Come to Tyneside/Northumberland!

Why do people seem to think London is a bad place for children? It's so diverse and has everything possible

Today we started the day in Richmond park with the kids on bikes for a few hours. Then headed home in the centre, went into the v and a museum briefly, then they climbed trees in Hyde park. We are now at friends waiting to head out to dinner at a restaurant we have never been too as so many. Hardly a terrible life.
Within half hour they can choose to go sightseeing or strawberry picking. They can help on community farms or shop in harrods. Wear wellingtons or stilettos, eat 101 cuisines, make hundreds of friends, explore a new corner each week

Op are you just moving out due to cost rather than lifestyle? Do you need to be able to commute easily to london

In fairness Artandco you can do all of the above in many of the other towns and cities mentioned here, except for the V and A, but then most towns and cities have their own museums.

Why do so many people in London think that outside London, which they snobbishly call 'the provinces', to be barren wastelands with no culture, restaurants, museums or parks?
We get all of the above and we can afford to buy a house.

I left London and now live in the same city as GreenLandsOfHome . I have no regrets (and I say that as a dyed-in-the-wool Londonphile).

Fantastic beaches, parks and countryside within 10 minutes, lots of interesting activities for children (most of which were prohibitively expensive or impossible in London), excellent schools and property prices that don't make you despair (gone from massive mortgage to mortgage-free).

Two large hospitals here too so plenty of demand for nurses.

I'm still able to get my London fix as there is a direct train every 30 minutes, and the train journey is apparently set to decrease from 3 to 2.5 hours.

Well I want to offer my child the best possible home and I don't think I can do that in london, I simply would not be able to afford the 3 bedroom house with nice garden on a nice street etc in london.

Newcastle. Next to the coast and nice countryside but a decent sized city. Because it's in the arse end of arse it's not that close to other large cities it tends to have everything and the theatres/concerts etc are good. Lovely hospitals, on the East Coast mainline, handy for Scotland if you don't mind a single carriage road nice restaurants and nightlife, cheap as chips.

Waves back at Catnip

Dh is a Londoner. Both him and his sister moved to Swansea (as adults) around 12 years ago. Dh came first as he had a mate living here and when he settled his sister followed a few months later. 5 years ago their dad followed and now they're all here.

You'd have to drag dh back by his toenails to get him living in London again. He loved the life when he was there...but not as much as he loves living out of London. He still loves to visit and we probably go 3 times a year for a long weekend or sometimes a week. I enjoy it too, but by the end i'm more than happy to come back and see the sea and the mountains!

What about reading?

London is a disaster. Bristol or Bath is nice

London is great but I found that despite having 'everything' at our doorstep we didn't take advantage of it because we couldn't face the crowds, traffic and parking issues. Later we were poorer (recession related) and found London a very unforgiving place (rent very high, LL and letting agencies all out to squeeze you, high childcare costs, etc etc). London is fantastic but mostly if you're at the higher ends of the pay scale. We will always go back to visit and may one day go back to live but only ever if we can buy in SW or TW.

My family ended up abroad but if we were back in England I'd try around York personally but not sure what your budget would provide you with there.

You need to come to Lincolnshire, probably some of the cheapest housing in the country, grammar schools and very friendly and down-to-earth people. We have lovely countryside and are not prone to flooding. Nearest airports are East Midlands and Robin Hood airport. Trains from Grantham to London take 1hr 15 mins. Job done!

London and surrounds is extortionate. We're in the south-east at the moment but planning to move up north in a few years for that reason. A good friend of mine moved to Newcastle a year ago and raves about it.

Lancaster - check out that garden!

Lincoln

Manchester - amazing kitchen

Disclaimer: I have never lived in any of these places.

Sorry op but I don't agree y friend lives in the sticks and cries all the times and could only dream of moving back down

It's very pricey were she lives the schools always have staffing issues and new young teachers don't want to live in the middle of nowhere, she has to drive her daughter every were as the buses only run every hour and just to go down the road it's miles away

Also her daughter is board shitless and I a planning to move in irish her dad next yes yes you guessed it he lives in London there is pretty much nothing to do bar hanging round the fish and chip shop

*why don't you try the suburbs you don't have to move out to the sticks to be out of the hubbub

I would focus on size of city & diversity and the difference in propert you could have on an NHS salary. So somewhere decent sized probably north of Birmingham eg Nottingham/Sheffield/Leeds. All have easy access to lovely countryside, museums, motorways. Teaching hosps too if you want to advance your career.

If you want city , sea, countryside and to be within 1.30 hrs of London, and a house for 150K ..try Portsmouth or Southampton and maybe Bournemouth (though its a bit further) ..

Brighton and Sussex areas will be too expensive (except perhaps Worthing/ Littlehampton )

But Hastings may be worth a look , but is on the end of a slow train..

I live on the IOW.... cheap houses and lots of seaside but not that many jobs ( though as a nurse you'd probabaly be ok) .. but I do believe the schools are considered to be absolute horrors here,, ( I dont have school age kids)

There are some great places that you buy a house for that budget along the M56 or the M62 corridor. There is a lot of different options and its easy to get to any of the major cities along it. Its easy to live in a more rural place and work/play in the cities when you want.

South Manchester is more expensive, but has a reputation for being extremely nice - a lot of places you may struggle with that budget, but there are places you can do it if you are prepared to go a little less fashionable.

North of Manchester tends to be cheaper, but there are some lovely places. There are some really nice places further East too.

Leeds is a great city and I love some of the areas around Halifax (eg Sowerby Bridge).

Outside that I also like Cardiff - it does have a lot going for it, for similar reasons.

The thing to do, is basically to look at the motorway network and pick!

As many have said Fusedog, not living in London does not equal living in the sticks. Other cities exist. Some even have buses.
See what you could buy in ipswich: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-28221624.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45007472.html

Try again
See what you could buy in ipswich: www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-28221624.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45007472.html

Monmouth, Ross on wye - both near nice countryside, good schools, safe towns, stunning countryside, easy for day trips to the seaside. You could work Cardiff or Gloucester.

Plymouth?

I lived in Ipswich for five years - loved it!

Constable countryside, decent social & cultural life (it was pre-kids), easy access to some lovely coastlines, shops OK, Norwich or London reasonable commute. I never heard any horror stories about the schools.

Like some other posters I'm starting to get a bit that people think outside of London automatically means in the sticks! Places like bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Cardiff, Sheffield, bath, Southampton etc etc are by no means in the sticks! Even smaller towns are not actually all in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do. I think there is a lot more to do in somewhere that is a city in its own right than there is in the outskirts of London or commuter belt. For example I live in bristol and there is really a lot more going on here than somewhere like Enfield, Bromley, uxbridge, St. Albans et al.

Now this popped into my inbox today.
I can personally vouch for this house as we were about to put an offer in when they took it off the market for personal reasons.
Very close to a good school and in a nice area.
m.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/32171713

Agree with the suggestions to move to the North East. Newcastle and Durham both have lots to offer and a 3-bed house with garden would be feasible on a £150k budget. Newcastle hospitals some of the best in the country too.