To wonder where are all the poor people in the South East supposed to actually live?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I rent privately, self contained space but essentially a lodger - ground floor flat. It looks like the family will need their place back sharpish due to illness, so I've started looking at rentals again.

Fed up. I've seen some horrific shitholes of studios and they're still hugely expensive. I'm in London zone 2, and looked at moving further out but it's still expensive. For a studio, Croydon is not significantly cheaper than London. Nor is Brighton, where I have family links to, hence looking there. Brighton is also close enough to be able to come to London for all my hospital stuff, as I'm an outpatient of Guys and Thomas and Moorfields plus have ongoing appointments trying to figure out fibromyalgia and gynae problems.

Weary of house shares now in my thirties and there are aspects of my health that make sharing quite stressful when it's a bunch of strangers. I don't want to share a bathroom and I don't want to share a fridge where I store my extensive medication. I guess maybe an en suite room, if I bought my own fridge for my room would be fine though.

Obviously I could well end up going somewhere like Manchester or Birmingham or Glasgow, or elsewhere, if I get really stuck - but that's just me as an individual, just one person.

There must be thousands and thousands of people in a similar pickle, including families with small kids in school. Leaving London and the south east of the country can't be the solution for everyone too poor to pay the market rent? Not everyone can up and leave?

What will happen regarding the whole unsustainable rental situation?

Rightmove is next to useless for finding decent London rentals, as the properties tend to get snapped up before they even hit the site.

There are cheaper places in the South East. Margate, Hastings, Ramsgate, Dover, Medway towns, Littlehampton and Bognor come to mind.
Medway is easily commutable. Then I suspect there are cheaper places around Woolwich, Tilbury, Peckham and Gravesend.

the government needs to pursue and economic policy that isn't so London centric. We need some really strong alternative cities - people talk about Birmingham, Manchester and Leed, but London is massive in comparison. The government could improve transport between the a couple of northern cities and have an economic strategy combining their strength. Then people won't all have to live near London.

I know that some individuals can move to cheaper areas and find good quality employment, but for instance nearly 3 times as many people live in London as they do in the whole of Wales.

Can you look at moving out of London then? Because your wage isn't enough to live the lifestyle you need given your health issues.

If you don't have DCs to keep you in London and you aren't able to earn a high income, it's best to leave. It's great to have had the experience in your 20s, but by the time you are in your 30s, you really shouldn't be setting yourself up for a lifetime of struggling.

Try further out. Debden, Romford, Ilford. Places on good national rail links into London or zone 6.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-53081295.html

Walthamstow, 5 mins from tube

Hiya Love. I have fibro too and after a very long life in a rather nasty job but accommodation was free, I am out on my bum in the rental market in the South East... I totally am with you on the utter consternation over the prices.
The people I work for are after the money they can get from renting my flat, I hope they enjoy the electrics and plumbing.
I am terrified actually as my health is v. crap. ( medical term).
If you want to Pm me feel free and we can moan together. I live with me best mate but we are gutted looking around. No doubt we will be shafted almost straight away...

I am definitely going to look at all these suggested areas because I need to get sorted out. Mumsnet is a great pool of knowledge and ideas.

However, yes I'm wondering about the wider situation too. Because there must be so many people in variations of the bind I'm in.

I know how supply and demand work and how they affect pricing. That's a reductive answer though. It's much more complex than that if we look at what it means for civil society as a whole, when the shape of a major city changes as it's doing right now.

AChickenCalledKorma the problem is though that no one is building reasonably priced family homes. I just attended a council meeting to oppose a housing development. They want to build 300 houses on a one lane rural road, the vast majority will be 3 story 'executive' townhouses. Nothing genuinely affordable or suitable for families. The only way to sort the problem is for councils to build housing so they can build suitable properties but no council has the money for that. Just building more houses won't sort out the problem at all, it just generates more money for developers.

It is lovely that MNers are helping the OP find flats, but long term, living in London isn't really sustainable for the OP, unless she's prepared to accept a low standard of living.

Burgess hill, Hayward’s Heath, lancing, Littlehampton, Horsham, southwater ?

Another option would be somewhere like Folkestone that has the HS1 link - it's about 50 mins to London and you could pay half of your budget for a 1 bed flat or get a 2-3 bed house for about £900.

Blame: the tories for creating right to buy; labour for encouraging huge amounts of immigration without first ensuring we built the infrastructure to cope with the new numbers; the tories again for cutting benefits; and the whole lot of them for not pushing investment in one or more northern cities. Basically all the people who already have their own family homes and usually a second home in their constituency too (or many second homes, in the cases of the vomitworthy blairs)

Have you looked at other towns on the south coast other than Brighton with good transport links to London? Places like Worthing and Goring by Sea are just 10mins further by train and less expensive.

PS. I wrote to my MP asking him to help those in dire need by applying to Government to cap the rental market in the South East but he just said ' ha silly! Fuck off!'. Well almost that.

Is the work you do available in Manchester? I wonder about moving away as in the transition period you can get to London quickly it's just ££ unless you can book in advance etc?

• sorry, all people who - ie the MPs

I know you don't want to move too far, but if considered moving to Scotland you could buy a newish flat for £59,000 - around 4 years rent in London.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52684692.html

Plenty of one beds in Barking and Dagenham for under £900.

It’s nimbys. It drives me crazy.

Fly over the country, people! I did it today and it is basically field after field after fucking field. Why aren’t there more houses?!

We need the green belt crap gone and organised national/local park spaces to take their place. The green belt is dated and wrong.

OP if you are prepared to live in a studio flat there is a lot of choice in London Zone2/3 within your £800-1100 budget.

Some examples:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-62623336.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-70679804.html
<a class="break-all" href="http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-64209013.htmlwww.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-52977780.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-64209013.htmlwww.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-52977780.html

It costs about £4k per year for a Brighton to London (bridge) season ticket and the commute can be very tiring and fraught (lots of strikes, power outages this year) so you need to factor in the commuting costs and how tried/stressed it could make you when considering moving further out.

I agree the price of housing in London and most of the SE - renting or buying is ridiculous.

Glad someone upthread has mentioned south east London nr Kent border - we’re zone 4 but have a good life and a family house and work in central London.

Look in Woolwich, Plumstead, Erith, Thamesmead, Abbey Wood, (these areas are about to become much more expensive with arrival of Crossrail but still affordable for the moment) Dartford - and as others have said, slightly further out to Rochester, Chatham etc.

There are plenty of poor people - but also middle income people - living in London - We’re just not doing it in Zone 2(!!) or in one of the traditionally trendy middle class areas...

Yes as I said in my OP, I'm open to moving anywhere else.

It needs a lot of consideration and research. For example - I use an insulin pump, as an adult it is tough to get this funded in a lot of parts of the UK.

I am not prepared to give up my pump, it has improved my diabetes control and quality of life dramatically.

My diabetes team are the best in the country for adults with type 1. Again, I'd be very reluctant to leave them. I have had too much experience of poor diabetes care in other hospitals.

I think 10 years from now it'll be very different. Already things are moving away from landlord. You used typo be able to just pay tax on your rental profit (ie. The rent MINUS mortgage). Now you pay tax on the rent full stop so if you're charging 1,000 p/month and your mortgage is 900.00, you used to pay tax on 100.00 but now you psy tax on 1,000. Will really stuff a lot off landlords (good!) though not all. Also Brexit and the likely economic fall out will affect prices. So, a different world in 5-10 years.

I rent in Oxford (or near to it) and that is very expensive as well. I read somewhere that living in Oxford is as expensive as living in London but without any of the London weightings. Although that is not much comfort to you OP.

I pestered the local letting agents constantly and found a flat outside the area I was looking in. I do not drive and this place has limited public transport and a real PITA for a landlady but it was all I could afford (and still takes more than half my salary in rent).

I think what I am trying to say is that there is no easy answer and sometimes we have to think well outside the box when it comes to housing.

Oh and very good luck in your search