to ask you where in the UK we should move to on?

[GirlInTheDirtyShirt]

I've been an expat for 10 years (all my adult life). I'm self employed as a writer so can literally live and work anywhere, but DH works in construction and where we live now (Southern Europe) there's no work for him. We're looking to move back to the UK so he can work there, plus I feel the UK education system is better than what we have here, but the question is, where?

We have a toddler, so I'd like somewhere that's nice to bring up children. I like cities rather than rural remoteness, but I want a house rather than a flat as I work from home and want some space. I like the idea of having lots to do and see and perhaps places where I could make friends through things like toddler groups or whatever. I'm not looking for naice leafy suburbs, but nor am I looking for gritty inner city living (I used to live in central Nottingham, so that's coloured my view a bit). I suppose I'm looking for vaguely middle class-ish safe-ish places with low crime.

Our household income would probably be about GBP3k a month until DH gets properly established (and having seen rental prices I'm a bit concerned this might not be enough, tbh ).

Is there anywhere you think we might be able to move to that would work?

I have no family and no ties to the UK at all, it'll be like moving to a whole new country, so I'm open to any suggestion at all to help me narrow down my search!

Birmingham Literature Festival
Library of Birmingham

Forgot to say: Bham is in the middle of the motorway network (M5, M54, M6, M42, M1, M40) so your DH can easily travel to construction sites in all directions.

I will be on RightMove for the foreseeable future, by the looks of things! Tons of places to look at!!!

I don't suppose anyone knows how much household bills are roughly ish? For say, a small 3 bed semi? I have no clue how much to budget for gas, electricity, water, internet etc - is a figure roughly equal to the rent payment enough? Say about GBP700?

We use a website called Love Money to budget our finances - it also has decent figures to compare our spending with average so should be worth a lool

Bath. Beautiful, cultural great state schools. Lots of writers here for you to be friends with!

Apologies for late reply OP!!

In Birmingham itself Harborne is lovely!! And very very desirable. But can be quite pricey as the QE Hospital is now built and open so lots of consultants, doctors etc.

Lots of quirky terrace houses which are gorgeous but most of Harborne is on road parking unless your house is mega bucks. Bearwood is also improving lots where people are wanting to live in Harborne but can't quite afford it.

Moseley is nice too.

Solihull is lovely and has excellent schools plus you train links and M42 on your doorstep.

Moving out the other way Stourbridge and Hagley are nice as well. Hagley has an excellent catholic high school which is in high demand.

Out in Wolverhampton, Tettenhall, Wightwick and Codsall are really nice. Jaguar - LandRover are opening a new plant called I54 and moving a lot of their middle management there so those villages will be in high demand. Wolves is good because of links to M6 for Birmingham and the north plus Virgin trains to London.

Wolves also has good schools as well - Wolverhampton Girls School is a high performing school plus if independent schools are you thing, then Wolverhampton Grammar is a good school too. You also fall under the Telford catchment area for schools and they are pretty good.

The Midlands is fantastic because you have the amenities of a city, transport links but amazing countryside nearby

I definitely second Senua on the Birmingham choices.

Bournville is defo worth considering but I found when house hunting not many came up as a lot of the houses are owned by Cadbury workers

Kings Heath and Kings Norton both also pretty good.

Shirley is nice if you can't afford Solihull.

You need to be looking at a rental at about £1000 on a £3k income- which is quite limiting in many of the places named.

Shrewsbury. Beautiful town, pretty central with good transport links. Good schools and a lovely feel.

Bristol is dire! Very unfriendly and rubbish schools. Lived there for 12 yrs and very happy to have left.

I live in a very leafy suburb of nottingham it's one of the top ten best places to live in the UK - don't tar us all with the same brush! Love it here.

99% of residents in notts are not affected by gun crime as it is drug warfare that happens on their own territory ... Like in many cities in the UK.

Just because it gets forgotten, but Norwich is lovely, artsy, plenty going on, easy access to the countryside/seaside, reasonable house prices, safe...
its probably not everyone's cup of tea, and its a bit of a pita to drive out of Norfolk(some might say that is part of the appeal) but less than 2 hours to London on the train.

I live on the South Coast, Central.
I'd highly recommend it and perfectly doable on £3k a month.

The Coast is near by, New Forest, Historic Dockyard. Bournemouth and West Witterings beaches just a short drive, and a shingle beach (Southsea / Lee on Solent) just minutes away.

Big towns / cities close by and London just 1.5hrs on the train.

I love it, but I've always lived near the sea and would dream of living further inland

Wouldn't ^

Norwich is amazing. We live in the city. Gorgeous, historic and very arty and hip. There's a huge arts scene here.

West Bridgford, Nottingham, is a lovely place to live.
If I moved to Nottingham and couldn't afford The Park (which I could 't, i don't think!) it would be West Bridgeford.

Mind you I would love to live in Brighton. It's got it all going on. So hip and buzzy, like a friendly London!

I think your 700 budget is more than enough for utilities etc.

For a 3 bed semi in Nottingham we pay
60 a month gas and electric
20 water
100 council tax
30 phone and internet (120mb connection)
20 home insurance

ToBeeOrNot that is fabulously helpful, thank you! And a lot cheaper than I'd thought.

Here in Spain we pay €250 a month gas and electric (uninsulated Spanish homes let all the heat/cool air out and I think our energy prices per unit are higher than in the UK). We also pay €45 a month water, for water that you can't even drink, so that's just shower and washing machine. And €80 a month phone and internet.

I actually did a big online shop yesterday here and then plugged in the exact same shopping onto Asda's online shopping site and it came out 20% cheaper! I'm amazed because I had the idea that the UK is more expensive, but I'm not sure it is, to be honest. I actually can't wait to come back now!

There's more to notts than west bridgford! I live the opposite side of town, we have the nature reserve. Beeston and Chilwell are getting the tram and there's a new shopping development in Beeston town. There's some nice little cafés around here.

Or for a more villagey feel try Breaston or Draycott. I'm not surprised you've been put off by St Ann's but it doesn't represent Nottingham at all.

www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Cheltenham-named-101-Best-Places-Live-Britain/story-20816856-detail/story.html

I live in the South West and love it!