AIBU to be upset I cannot afford to live in London

[marielle17]

Just wanted to come on here and have a rant, I am moving back to the UK from Spain. Having had a look at places to rent in London, its very apparent that I will not be able to afford to live anywhere near my family in London. I am a teacher my salary will be circa 35K, but I am also a single mum with two kids, my youngest son is 8 months, so I will need childcare, which is not possible on my wage plus renting. I planned to live close to family, so my mum and grandma could between them help with the childcare, however even then I will barely be scraping by. I am really upset about this, I have been looking at possibly commuting into London, but they will mean communting with two kids. I have been looking at living in luton on purfleet, essex to be specific. The other alternative is just not to work and be on benefits. Controversial I know. Any suggestions on how a teacher can cope living in London, how do people cope.

As you're from there, no. I feel very sorry for people who have grown up in a place and only want to stay in it, but it changes as they're there and suddenly they can't live there anymore.

As a general rule I'd say to anyone on a national payscale or similar like teachers etc to look to other regions in the UK: that 35k salary would stretch pretty far in Newcastle, for example. But it's hard to do that with no support network, especially when you have a child already.

And it’s not necessarily that easy to be a visible minority in an area where you’re pretty much the only minority in the village, or your child is.

You can’t afford it so you will have to look elsewhere . Can’t have been that amazing if you left .
Can you move in with relatives ?

Something that is one of the only things i wish i could change about here. i like everything else. it is harder than a lot of people realise.

Tbh, a lot of this thread comes across as chip-on-shoulder schadenfreude that middle and low-income London people haven’t got any choice to stay in their communities near their families.

And yet we’re expected to feel sympathetic to young people priced out of picturesque Cornish coastal villages.

I feel along with many people I know who were born in London feel resentful at how London has changed large pockets of middle class villages

This wasn’t London. Yes making London a nice place to live to have good facilities but so many areas are full of little cafes little nice twee gift shops that the new locals find delightful but the people who have have lived there all their lives can’t afford to or their children can’t, a school gets a good reputation and it’s seen as an area to invest in and becomes a good feeder school

When did housing become about an investment and not about housing people (I know for a few it always has been)

Wow, some people do pride themselves on showing zero empathy online don't they? Wonder if they'd be as cruel in person.

YANBU. It sucks. It's a really faulty and unhealthy economic structure that prices keyworkers out of major cities. The government could and should make a priority of developing brownfield sites in the centre of town exclusively for keyworkers and their families - homes that families can expand into and stay in.

What would be a reasonable amount of rent on the salary you're coming back to? People can help look around for you (family can too) if they know what your benchmark is. Occasionally friends of friends have nanny flats or granny annexes to let or are happy for a responsible person to house sit on a low rent while they work abroad for a year. (I know it's rare but it can happen and you only find out by asking around and spreading the word.)

I sympathise, but at least as a teacher you have a profession you can work anywhere with.

flowers, I understand

Millions of people would love to live in London but can't afford to. That's why the trains are jam packed with commuters doing soul destroying journeys into London every day. Property prices in London are off the scale. I can't believe this is a shock to anyone.

Are you sure you have been living in Spain and not Mars?

This situation isn't unique to London and Cornwall either. Try being a young person wanting to bring up a family in Abersoch or other parts of picturesque North Wales where property is being snapped up by the Cheshire set.

Picturesque Cornish villages? It's the most impoverished county in the UK with the lowest wages, seasonal work, an aging retiree population and a devastated economy.

And I agree, it's not just Cornwall that's experiencing this. Not by a long shot.

Yes making London a nice place to live to have good facilities but so many areas are full of little cafes little nice twee gift shops that the new locals find delightful

And the new locals talk about the sense of community when what they mean is they talk to lots of other new locals.

I’d settle for less naice and more integrated - things are going in the wrong direction in my view.

St Ives?

What the fuck do I know, I seldom go outside the M25

There has to be might tightwr restrictions around taxes on buying second/third homes

Property shouldn’t be an investment at the cost of many people not being able to afford a decent place to rent or buy and that is what has happened

More people want to live in London than the city can hold, hence house prices /rental prices rise. I'm not sure that living in London is a right, or that priority should be given to those who were born or brought up there if it were. How would that even work? Who would you displace?

I was born in London and ended up moving north btw.

Look on www.rightmove.co.uk to rent or buy property, you can enter a town and radius/distance. Lots of people have had to relocate to find work away from their families including myself. You are fortunate to have a skill that should allow you to find employment. Some property is cheaper north

I’m starting to wonder if a local priority system might actually be a reasonable policy approach to countering the polarisation between London/other major cities and everywhere else. Wealth priority isn’t working out well.

Laindon , steeple view, Radford park, noak bridge and great berry are all ok, good nurseries and schools, and mainline to fenchurch street, avoid the town centre or the estate right next to the train station. Billericay is nice but not sure on your budget, Brentwood, upminster and Shenfield, really nice, excellent schools but are pricier not sure about rents tbh as it's been a long time since I rented. Or further north in Essex tiptree, great motley, white knotley, Manningtree are lovely but the commute might be too far. Chelmsford is a lovely city these days and again great schools, you might want to look in the surrounding areas eg baddow, sandon etc if Springfield or town centre are too expensive. Avoid the Melbourne estate.

I’m starting to wonder if a local priority system might actually be a reasonable policy approach to countering the polarisation between London/other major cities and everywhere else. Wealth priority isn’t working out well.

They used to do this but there was a court case and it was labelled discrimination.

This is part of the reason Labour’s policies are unlikely to make a dent. No housing policies they could introduce would keep up with the upturn in migration they would also encourage. And housing policies tend to have inbuilt terms which discriminate against people settled here already (eg labelling people who can’t afford their rent ‘intentionally homeless’) so housing in high pressure areas tends to go to new migrants.

I believe the court case was against Tower Hamlets.

I don’t think you are being unreasonable.

And to all those posters saying the op can buy/ rent somewhere amazing on £35k outside of London, she won’t get £35k outside of London - that’s the London weighting, teaching salaries are a fair bit less outside of the south east.

The only teachers I know who make it work in London are those with husbands earning shedloads from banking. £35k is a good salary anywhere but London - it's barking.

I thought London weighting for a teacher on that salary was only a couple of grand?

They need to stop there being so many empty homes in London from people who don't actually live there... We would also LOVE to be in London but are forced out by the huge house prices. :-(