Leaving London

[Sonotcivil]

Hi in a serious mess about this, I'm so confused on whether to leave London or not.
Background : grew up in small insular town in lincolnshire. Left at 18 and moved to London working with the civil service.
I'm now 24, in a relationship on about 35k a year in the civil service.

My issue is I want to start a family in a few years time and London is just so expensive. Me and my partner both earn ok money but renting in London is he'll, and would struggle to get a mortgage and the I don't want to be in my eyeballs in debt worth millions the.
However I love all London has to offer and think it could be an amazing place for a kid to grow up and live.
My job restricts me to some cities if I move, it can be Norwich, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Cardiff or Edinburgh.

Any help appreciated

There is a whole world outside of London! I lived in London for years, now live in the south-West by the sea in a gorgeous development. A flat is £150k! Houses down here are going from £125k depending on the location. The air is a lot fresher too, eating out is cheaper etc.

My pay is lower than London but DP is military so his pay stays the same. I would love for him to do a London posting though in the future so we would have a couple of years of living in London and not having to pay London rents.

I went to London on a work trip recently and being crammed into a tube train made me realise that I don’t miss it that much. And people look so angry and miserable.

Hi all thanks so much.
I do need to decide in the next few months, as the civil service are creating regional hubs in all those cities mentioned, and if I go to one of them, I have a higher chance of promotion then within london.

I will look at some of the cheaper and more up and coming areas, but as well I think I do need to look more into Leeds and Manchester.

Anymore advice welcome.

Length of time, from the day we started ttc, to coming home with first baby from the hospital...
= ten years. To the week. Just saying.

You don't know what life will bring you - I'd second the poster who said work hard get brilliant at your job for 6 years. Try and get promoted and try and buy somewhere if you possibly can and even if a studio in zone seven hundred. Have a baby in the tiny flat if all goes well ,and make the decision about where you want to live when the baby is one or two?

I only mention our fertility issues because of all sorts of other things happening in those years. Promotions. Redundancies. Parents ill, partner ill? other relatives dying. Legacies. Important family weddings abroad that cost a packet. I just couldn't have made a decision in my mid 20s that would have stood up against the random stuff of life !!

I know that deciding to leave before starting a family seems daft, but i feaar i will be renting here for life while elsewhere i could own my own home and still get back to London.

It's just so hard to choose, pay through the earth for housing in london but be in the cultural hotspot of the UK and where the government (My employer) is mainly based so i have access to higher ups etc.
Or move to a more affordable city which has a bit less going on then London, but still keep my career going just not at the exciting rate it's going at the moment.

I do need to decide in the next few months, as the civil service are creating regional hubs in all those cities mentioned, and if I go to one of them, I have a higher chance of promotion then within london. - that seems a good reason to go!

Also civil service, we moved to outskirts of one of the N cities. Bigger house, so less worry about children making too much noise, able to have lots of their friends round. Lots of stuff in walking distance and good local schools, so they were able to spontaneously go and visit friends - we never had to provide a taxi service. City centre with culture and museums 30 mins away. Easy access countryside nearby and the Pennines about 45 mins.

Yes, London has more culture - but as long as where you are has enough for your needs, it doesn't matter if there's all this other stuff that you'll never get round to going to.

@MereDintofPandiculation. Wow very similar circumstances then... did you move from London?
I think i'm worried that if i move i may regret it for mycareer, as even though there's high chance of promotion if i move, the government is london centric.

anymore help appreciated

I would definitely go, and if it were me I would choose Edinburgh.

It's a long way off now, but free university education is a huge advantage, and the Scottish school system is very good.

Stay in London for a while yet. Yes, it’s expensive but you don’t sound ready to leave. We considered selling up and moving out but the commuting costs and time outweigh any advantages to it. Several full time working male colleagues barely see their kids.

We have a Labrador and a child and live in a small house in a villagey leafy part of zone 4. Today we went to the London marathon, passing by the Tower of London, yesterday we walked in Epping forest. At the Easter holidays we went to all the Greenwich museums, to Rainham Marshes RSPB reserve and RHS Hyde Hall. It’s a great place to live and my son is having a much better childhood that my country upbringing.

It’s expensive, childcare costs are high abd we have no family nearby to help out. School places are sought after. Pollution is an issue but I think this will improve and you can be somewhere more leafy. If you love it, stay and see how you feel if you have kids.

thanks guys. Yes it is just the cost that is making me want to move out, like most places in london are easily above 500k for a house and if i had thatbudget in say leeds i would beloving life.

Whilst a commute might be affordable, I'd advise against too big a distance between you and your (eventual) DC. I moved out of London when my children were pre-school and now work ten minutes from their school, and their GP and their friends etc.

Hilarious. That is a good point, shorter the commute the better.

You keep on asking for more and more advice - what do you want us to say? We can't decide for you.

Well yes I do keep asking for more advice seems as this is what I asked for .
I know no one can decide for me to but it is nice to see what other people think would be the better idea. Thank you for being oh so helpful.

Runs you're comparing city vs countryside but the OP is looking at moving to a city. Apart from seeing the Tower of London you can still do comparable things in other cities.

In Yorkshire we have the Dales, Peaks and Pennines, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, three National Museums and a fourth in reach, an annual international cycle race, countless smaller museums, country houses, gardens and nature reserves, even London is accessible for a day trip, but crucially affordable housing, which must at least be as important to most people as being able to look at the Tower of London regularly.

I’ve been a civil servant for 18 years. I’m a lawyer. Over that time I have been invited to leave longer no fewer than 4 or 5 times. There are always moves afoot. Every time a lease runs out on a building some part of the organisation moves to Leeds or similar. Are you a fast streamer? I’d say as things stand you will get to G6 by thirty or reasonably soon thereafter. I’d aim for that before having kids. You really don’t need to decide now, there are always going to be opportunities. I’d say it would be a lot harder to get to G6 or higher if you leave now.

I bought a flat when I was 22, 18 years ago. Yes I’m glad I did because it’s the only reason I have a house now, but at 22 zone five isn’t ideal. This area is full of young families. I only grew into it at 35. Stay where you are and enjoy it. When I had kids I wondered how I would manage to keep my social life going. It’s only after having them you discover that you actually can’t be bothered with most of what London has to offer. I was at the o2 the other night. I left early because I knew they would wake me at six regardless and the seventy quid for the babysitter on top of tickets made me think I couldn’t really be bothered to do it again!

Ah yes OP you can tell you are 24.
I wasn't being rude, a lot of people have said similar things so was wondering what else you wanted. It's a very common conundrum.

It came across as rude .
But I still want to get as many people's as possible.

Thanks to the above two posters. I do realise that there's culture in Yorkshire and yes I'm a fast streamer and in my final year. I do agree though that lots of jobs are moving away from London.

I bought a flat when I was 22, 18 years ago. Yes I’m glad I did because it’s the only reason I have a house now, but at 22 zone five isn’t ideal. This area is full of young families. I only grew into it at 35. Stay where you are and enjoy it

Ah come on, be fair. You bought at 22, which lots of people would give their eye teeth to do, and you’re telling her to stay put and rent? That doesn’t solve her dilemma.

Sonotcivil

Off topic but did you go straight into procurement from uni or did you work in the private sector first?

The thing is your world shrinks when you have young children so you won’t enjoy London for a few years anyway.

You could buy property in Kent and commute to London

I would never raise children in London. So hideously dirty/crowded.i could just about bare it by myself purely because it us a good place to be single. Coincidentally moving to Lincolnshire next month. Lovely place.