London exodus??

[Newdonewhugh]

Has anyone else noticed that their Town has a lot of people moving from London?
Are local Town and village FB pages literally have 2/3/4 people a day joining and posting with the likes of “I’m moving to ..... from London next week, can anyone help me with X,Y,Z”
My Sister and others said they’ve noticed it too.
We live in South Coast.
I just wonder what this New World will look like. What will happen to London?

I agree that there probably is an element of that @SheepandCow, but it’s also a lot to do with what you said earlier as well - they assume all Londoners are posh toffs who can afford million pound properties, when that is actually very far from the truth. Yes some can, but the vast majority of us cannot!

let's not forgot that some who require social housing are often pushed out of London by the LA so it's not even their decision.

Indeed... which is absolutely criminal IMO.

@Oliversmumsarmy

I am not saying people with kids can't work in london and commute from the home counties, i am saying that the pre pandemic reality of rail delays and fixed hours were a deterrent. But if you can work from home reliably and go in for meetings, its no longer a consideration

I know enough single parents families who commute in as well as 2 parent families who both work in London without family help.

Some nurseries are open till 7.30pm, or were when dc were little and if you need to get to a particular London railway station then you choose a place on or near the train line.

Eg Leighton Buzzard to Euston is 49 minutes
High Wycombe to Marylebone 46 minutes
Even Bedford to Farringdon is just over 1 hour

If you live that far out then you don’t actually get the tube apart from once you are in Central London.

Saying that you can’t work in London if you don’t have a nanny or family back up would mean that there are no single parents working in London and if a couple had a child then one of them would have to give up work.

I know plenty of people who commute and have children from places further afield than Bedford or High Wycombe

I agree. I am a single parent. My job is central London and I commuted for years. Later I worked from home much more but not initially. Being a single parent made no difference to that. No different getting a train from 40-60 miles out than trekking across London on the rube in terms of the time it takes (if you choose carefully where you live) and no less reliable (again, choosing carefully, ideally somewhere with two trainlines with two different companies so there is a backup).

@Wherehavetheteletubbiesgone

I hope not we don't need Londoners pricing locals out of housing and changing the makeup of our local area. Some smug northern Londoner types will get the shock of their lives when they move to rural Norfolk discover great chunks of the UK are 95% white and are conservatives Brexit supporting strongholds.

Sounds like they could do with a bit of variety, frankly. Poor fucking people that move to those places though and are met with such bigotry and racism.

She offers vile supercilious little quips that show she’s based most of her thoughts on stereotypes and is guilty of oppressive discrimination as the next vile self serving wealthy Tory.

Hang on, I was a “privileged lefty” five minutes ago - now I’m a “vile self serving wealthy Tory”. I can’t keep up!

@PolkadotGiraffe national rail has gotten steady worse over the past few years. I was considering hitchin at 1 point and joined the hitchin railway commuters facebook group. It didn't make for good reading. Delays multiple times every week; of course as it was hitchin and many of the commuters had really good jobs in the city, many sucked it up but equally, a lot of them left their jobs. Hitchin is lucky in the sense that it is between two job hubs- London and Cambridge.

@Oliversmumsarmy it might be a 30 minute commute from railway station to railway stationn but believe me, i tried out the high wycombe commute by staying in a premier inn and going to the office.

It was 1.5 hours to our offices in blackfriars and moorgate respectively and that was living 0.5 miles from the station. I can't imagine it would be fun doing that and the school run! Equally, commute from london z4-6 isn't fun either, you get most of the commute and also the london house prices and you are further away from all the fun stuff. I would say the ideal situation is either:

1. if you have 5 days at the office- London Z1-3 (probably Z2/3 due to schools)
2. if you WFH 3 or more days a week (if at least 1 partner has this set-up) and like rural/town life- Home Counties
3. Move to a place with jobs like Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Cambridge.

Tried out the St Albans commute too, that was quite easy as it was thameslink but St Albans is really not much different from london pricewise.

Since our pregnancy news we’ve decided to high tail it out of London. We’re going home though to be near our families. London has its benefits but I want my kid to know their family and for us to afford a good life and not scrape by in the capital. It just makes sense.

London is pushing people out. Peoples priorities are changing!

@dollyoix

It's clear some people are deeply insular and hate all 'incomers' but I suspect there's more than a whiff of racism mixed in.

True dat & let's not forgot that some who require social housing are often pushed out of London by the LA so it's not even their decision.

Yes! London councils often house homeless families away from London. At times much to the distress of those displaced (forced to give up jobs, leave family support and childcare, children moved away from friends and the school they're settled in).

Not all places outside London are 90% white etc as previous posters have suggested. Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester...

Ohtherewearethen
It'd be such a shame if it happens on such a large scale that it makes house prices for locals unachievable.

Welcome to my world, the world of the London parent, having to have a house full so the offspring can to save and what massive amounts they need. Eldest & partner on joint of nearly 90 grand, can't afford to buy. Other 3 not a hope in hell. Esp one in tv/film. No permanent contracts, not brilliant wages, ambitions & training now reduced to whatever they can get. I long for an empty house! Multiple reasons why house prices here are so high but foreign buyers for investment & all those landlords are responsible for a lot of heartache. Part buy is a con too. Remember London is made up of many different boroughs each is a local area & I live in one of the cheapest but a bog standard terrace is anything from 600grand to a million now. A bed sit o sorry Studio Flat, is £250.000 and now we have micro flats!!!!!! I know one friend whos son in his 30s lives in the converted garden shed.

I’m old enough to remember the exodus from London in the early 90s. House prices crashed, nigella’s dad, Dennis Lawson, caused a lot of that. Prices became reasonable. Then went into the stupid spiral which is unsustainable. Hopefully in a few years it will reset and allow normal people to live here again.

Dongdingdong also a lot to do with what you said earlier as well - they assume all Londoners are posh toffs who can afford million pound properties, when that is actually very far from the truth. Yes some can, but the vast majority of us cannot!

Absolutely, I moved to L many years ago, never intending to stay, don't actually like it that much, dirty, noisy, and tube is expensive to go to any of these amazing cultural places. However house prices where I live were nothing like they are now. My house was about £60,000 in 1994. I have met people in Hackney who have lived there for generations, bought their own council house years ago and will now get caught out in death as they have no idea about inheritance tax as they find themselves as retirees on basic pensions living in houses valued at over 1.5 mill. They don't see their homes as cash cows but their home near friends and relatives and their history. They don't want to sell up and move somewhere else. Yet they will be penalised and not able to pass on their homes to their kids

@Lovely13

I’m old enough to remember the exodus from London in the early 90s. House prices crashed, nigella’s dad, Dennis Lawson, caused a lot of that. Prices became reasonable. Then went into the stupid spiral which is unsustainable. Hopefully in a few years it will reset and allow normal people to live here again.

It always ebbs and flows with economic circumstances like all things. But London is one of the biggest and oldest and most interesting cities in the world and will cotimue to be. Some will move out. Some will move in. It evolves, it has always been that way.

hopingforonlychild

it might be a 30 minute commute from railway station to railway stationn but believe me, i tried out the high wycombe commute by staying in a premier inn and going to the office
It was 1.5 hours to our offices in blackfriars and moorgate respectively and that was living 0.5 miles from the station. I can't imagine it would be fun doing that and the school run

But if your work was in Moorgate you just wouldn’t go and live in High Wycombe. As you found out it wasn’t practical. You would look around Hatfield and surrounding areas or further north to Hitchin and cut the journey time from there to 42 minutes to Moorgate
The school run is done with wrap around care and breakfast clubs etc

[quote hopingforonlychild]@PolkadotGiraffe national rail has gotten steady worse over the past few years. I was considering hitchin at 1 point and joined the hitchin railway commuters facebook group. It didn't make for good reading. Delays multiple times every week; of course as it was hitchin and many of the commuters had really good jobs in the city, many sucked it up but equally, a lot of them left their jobs. Hitchin is lucky in the sense that it is between two job hubs- London and Cambridge.

@Oliversmumsarmy it might be a 30 minute commute from railway station to railway stationn but believe me, i tried out the high wycombe commute by staying in a premier inn and going to the office.

It was 1.5 hours to our offices in blackfriars and moorgate respectively and that was living 0.5 miles from the station. I can't imagine it would be fun doing that and the school run! Equally, commute from london z4-6 isn't fun either, you get most of the commute and also the london house prices and you are further away from all the fun stuff. I would say the ideal situation is either:

1. if you have 5 days at the office- London Z1-3 (probably Z2/3 due to schools)
2. if you WFH 3 or more days a week (if at least 1 partner has this set-up) and like rural/town life- Home Counties
3. Move to a place with jobs like Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Cambridge.

Tried out the St Albans commute too, that was quite easy as it was thameslink but St Albans is really not much different from london pricewise.[/quote]
I can't comment on that rail service, I don't live in that area. But being a Londoner originally and now living a fair way out, I have had no issue with getting into central London in 40 mins. Including the walk to or from my house it is 45 mins. Living in south west London and working in central London it took longer. I have not found it problematic around childcare, even as a single parent.

I have a better lifestyle here for raising a family and have not had issues with commuting in when I need to go to meetings. We have beautiful green spaces, and are not far from the beach. There are great schools but I can also go into London whenever I want to. And I own a house I could only dream of if I still lived in London.

In fact it's far more frequent for colleages who live in London to arrive late due to tube strikes/ delays than it is for me to be late.

“Yet they will be penalised and not able to pass on their homes to their kids”

This doesn’t make sense. Their kids will still benefit massively even if they sell the house to pay a tax bill. Inheritance tax isn’t payable on the first £500k per person in a couple. So £1m between two parents. Then it’s 40% of the rest. A £1.5m inheritance of property will be at least £1.1m in the pockets of their kids, £1.3m if two parents owned the house.

I live in the South West of England, and yes lots of new people coming from London and other Cities, such as Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, you are allowed to travel apparently to do viewings, so people want more space between them and others, also they can now work from home, not sure what this great shift will mean if anything in the long term.

I’m old enough to remember the exodus from London in the early 90s. House prices crashed, nigella’s dad, Dennis Lawson, caused a lot of that. Prices became reasonable. Then went into the stupid spiral which is unsustainable. Hopefully in a few years it will reset and allow normal people to live here again.

Dennis Lawson? Do you mean Nigel Lawson?

@hopingforonlychild I commute into Central London from Zone Four, 4 times weekly and it's totally fine. Door to door is an hour and that includes a nursery pick up on the return leg. I'm glad we stayed in (outer) London even if it becomes a deserted wasteland post Covid, unlikely I hope :)
I do agree with you on some places outside London. I looked at buying further out in Kent and didn't think it was feasible for me to work financially between train fares and childcare.

So we can expect locals to be priced out now due to Londoners and their inflated real estate. Great.

So we can expect locals to be priced out now due to Londoners and their inflated real estate. Great.
Just like local Londoner's have been priced out by people from all over the country moving in over the past 40 years?

Equally, commute from london z4-6 isn't fun either, you get most of the commute and also the london house prices and you are further away from all the fun stuff.

Nonsense. We’re in zone 5 and DH much prefers it to commuting from zone 2. He gets a seat on the train and there’s a direct one. He cycles to the office some days too.
From zone 2, he needed sharp elbows and travelled like a sardine and absolutely hated it.

Far more amenities locally as well as nothing is completely overrun as it was in zone 2. You can just turn up at the swimming pool or bouldering centre and use it. The only thing lacking are trendy bars but we’re past that stage of life anyway.

Z4 here. Takes 23 minutes to reach the city.