To relocate from the south east up north??

[BadgerLovesMash]

Just to start I have never moved away from where I grew up so this would be huge!! But now after having our landlord decide to sell our home again (5th time in 12 years this has happened to us!) We are seriously considering moving somewhere cheaper. But some things making me wonder whether we should.

We currently live just outside of Brighton so are very used to easy and cheap public transport which is vital as we don't drive.

Our daughters are 14 and 10, so 1 heading into GCSE years and the other just about to start secondary school.

We have a good support network of friends and family here. All the girls friends are here.

However we are both on minimum wage. DH works for a company that would let him change locations. I work in childcare so could find another job in that field (I was looking to change anyway as no longer need term time once dd2 starts secondary and theres no chance of increased hours where i am) so financially we would be significantly better off.

For reference our current rent for a 3 bed is £1500 per month and this is cheap, others in this area are closer to £1800. I was looking at Grimsby and for a similar sized 3 bed it is £515. But that is 5hrs on the train from here!

So has anyone done this and what are the pros and cons?

Oh and this is all quite outing if you know me! 🤣

THANK YOU.

I am baffled by some of the comments on here. We've always lived in the North East and love it. There is so much to do here, people are generally lovely, beautiful countryside you'd never see in the South.

We live in a large village with excellent transport links to the city.

Having said that, I'd never up sticks unless I'd spent time somewhere before.

Winter is coming.

Stoke?! Brighton to Stoke? With no car? I am utterly lost for words.
How about Halifax with no car? A nice rental in Mixenden. Christ almighty.

I’m NW and we get mild winters, little snow compared to the rest of the country.

I have lived in the North and South. It is definitely colder up north. And rains more. But it is hardly a reason not to move. I was going out without a coat in no time! Lots of different areas to consider but you don’t have a car so I would be strongly recommending a city. How about Sheffield?

I worked In Grimsby but did a 60 mile commute twice a day so I didn't have to live there! Don't move to Grimsby OP.

Places with great transport and good infrastructure are expensive everywhere.

I think it's not fair at this age to move your children. It's massively disruptive. I have experience of this. Don't.

In spite of all the promises, the transport system outside the south east is shit by comparison

You'd need to move to a city to find comparable transport and even then it will be hard

I'm not saying don't do it, but please don't underestimate how hard it will be

@MasterBeth , I wouldn't move there from anywhere, but it's cheap, and it's not far from other cities

@purpledalmation , you wont get north winds in Brighton, and so you won't get the wind-chill factor

So my situation is different from yours but can give some advice and pros and cons of north vs south generally. I grew up in the south and now live in the north (Yorkshire), I moved here when I was 20 and had my family here. A lot of friends still live down south and I often wonder if I’d be better off down there - however, I don’t think I would be. Pros of up North - it’s so much cheaper for both housing and childcare costs - for us, think 4 bed detached house with countryside views vs a 2 bed terrace or 3 bed doer upper where im from. Nursery fees £900 per month for 4 days would be £2k per month in the south. Our quality of life and disposable income is so much more due to this. Lovely countryside (but you get this down south as well) Schools are just as good I’ve found - all our local primary’s are G or O and my DD school is excellent. I think the difference down south is there are way way more options for grammar and private schools but we aren’t bothered about that. The weather comments are hilarious 😆, it’s not ‘bitterly cold’ compared to down south - maybe a couple of degrees but we don’t have to change our lifestyle because of it! Cons - admittedly up north more town centres have suffered from lack of investment eg I live outside a typical Yorkshire town near leeds and the town centre is pretty grim compared to my home town - a lot of of small towns are like this up north, but investment and regeneration is improving. You have to really research the nice areas to live and there are lots of them! And to be fair you’d have to do the same in the south! I do miss my friends but you make new ones - there are a surprisingly large number of southerners also living in Yorkshire I’ve found 😊

Both DH and I left the SE to go to University and then met when we worked in Birmingham, we then relocated further North.

No regrets here at all however our pay levels are and were way above min wage level but there is no denying it’s cheaper up North, especially good as your on a low wage.The local Mums thought I was really stuck up at the primary school due to my accent. Anyway as I have never given two shits what people think of me I went along to a parents night out. Sixteen years later two of them are still really close friends.

One of my PhD students was from Grimsby he said when fireworks were set off it meant the drug dealers in town had supplies. No idea if he was pulling my leg but that’s all I have on Grimsby.

I have to drive through Grimsby to get to my friends and it is awful also, the trains are transpenine express which are the worst for reliabilty and its about 1 hour by train to Doncaster before you can get anywhere else or an hour and a half to Hull. So public tgransport is pretty dire

Grimsby is more the midlands really. But no way would I move there. Plenty of nicer places.

🤣🤣🤣🤣
I live in northwest . It’s often warmer here in winter than kent which can be subject to extreme bitter weather coming from east - ever heard of jet stream? Well, that means generally it is milder on west than east. Ok, it’s also wetter but hey, you can’t win them all and Cornwall is both extremely mild but extremely stormy and wet, so that isn’t a north based thing either.

yep, if she was moving to north east Scotland you have a point .

im in northwest, and until the very icy December last year, we’d not had temperatures below 2-3 degrees daytime ( and -4 nights) in around 4 years.

ok, if you love being subject to temperatures of about 20 degrees at night for weeks on end, and 90 degree daytime, sure rock on and stay put in south east. I personally prefer to sleep in more temperate climates.

if you’ve never lived up north don’t spout stuff you know nowt about and seem to have forgotten your geography on.

ok, if you love being subject to temperatures of about 20 degrees at night for weeks on end, and 90 degree daytime, sure rock on and stay put in south east

hell yes!!

if you’ve never lived up north don’t spout stuff you know nowt about and seem to have forgotten your geography on.

lived up north for 3x years

Loved it m
still visit often

but…. hate being far from London
don’t like being far from Gatwick/Heathrow
love how good the public transport is down here

and

yes, love the long generally very warms summers down south 🤷‍♀️

I used to work for a company where our area manager loathed having to travel to our Lincolnshire branches, especially Grimsby, because of its location. It's a dead-end town and doesn't lead anywhere, geographically it's quite isolated due to it's position to the Humber. You can't easily get a train north or south without first travelling west, bar a few exceptions.

Lincoln is about an hour away from Grimsby, I'm not sure what the rental prices are like there but it's a lovely city.

The up north is not distinguishing the west from the east which has way more of an impact until you get quite far north.
cumbria is pretty far north, but is also in large amounts of places a higher altitude than the comparison site. What were the altitudes those average readings in cumbria taken?
the attached map is a better illustration of the east west differences.

it is typically a bloody sight colder and snowier in Kent than Cornwall, but hey let’s just focus on north south piece for our geography lesson, shall we

I ❤️ Cornwall. What a place

Is your daughter in year 10 now? I wouldn’t move - she will end up missing more than half the content of her GCSE courses.

Parts of Grimsby are really nice. Just avoid the town centre and dock area

🤣🤣🤣

I agree with pp — I think you’re looking at this the wrong way. Maybe it’s my entrepreneurial personality but I’d be looking at ways to boost income rather than uproot your entire family, to a place you’ve never been, over some vague notion of ‘a better life’.

This is hilarious!
On all the heat/ eat threads EVERYONE up north went on and on about their bills being higher, it's so much colder etc
Now there's no difference again!
I have family and visit regularly and it's never been warm, even in the summer.
I live in a lovely sunny area of the south and we are so much warmer, no freezing wind and far less rain.