Why do people live in London?

[Waahaawoowoo]

This thread is inspired by a thread where people where explaining how a £100k salary doesn't go far in London. Examples were given of mortgages costing £25k pa. (This is my salary). Childcare bills for 2 kids costing £40k. Our joint salary is £55k pa.

I live in NE Wales. Our house costs us £12k pa for a 3 bedroom semi. Wraparound Childcare used to cost a maximum of £12k pa. But we no longer pay due to age of kids and me WFH. I cannot get my head around DH and I being significantly better off than a couple who earn double what we do.

The logical answer to me would be to move from London. So why do people stay? Is it family? The type of work you do? I'm curious more than anything about what keeps people there when they could possibly have a better standard of living elsewhere.

We're all different. Most are tolerant of others' choices or simply understand that London is where they've grown up and there is no pull to move elsewhere.

London can be great fun. London has opportunities. Just like many, many other parts of the UK.

I can't remember seeing any posts questioning the life choices of people living in other cities. Although I live in the suburbs, this thread has made me feel quite defensive about my home city. Just as I imagine most people would when questioned about the place they call home.

I don't live in London at all and I don't need a car, never owned one.

Oh and just to add- I've lived abroad in 2 different European countries and also lived in 2 other cities in England as student then as young professional

So I've ventured outside of the M25....and after all that still wanted to come back to London

Key info missing in my post about city airport! Door to door in under an hour for £5 on public transport.

DM said exactly the same when we went there with her as kids on holiday. The Welsh deliberately spoke Welsh when she went eg into a pub but she’d heard them speaking English before!

I’ve been back to North Wales since and not my favourite place.

THIS

I don't know anyone who is raising kids or has raised kids in a flat if I'm going to be honest.

This thread is horrible.

I'm from the north east and it's a beautiful place I love visiting.

But London is my home.

I can appreciate the merits of many places and lucky that the UK is so small and we can easily visit anywhere.

I wouldn't choose to live anywhere but London... It has everything I need and enjoy.

But I can also appreciate that not everyone would feel this way.

It doesn't make other areas cultural wastelands or London a dirty shithole. For goodness sake.

I adore New York, too. It’s my second city.

That said, I live in London part of the week, and on a farm the rest, so I guess it’s not always one or t’other.

Born and bread there, it's a massive shite hole. It's dirty and there's no way id eat anywhere in it

@GandhiDeclaredWarOnYou I live in a rural village about 15 minutes drive from Wrexham. The local area and community are fabulous. Also I work in Wrexham, and it's not all bad. I have lived aand worked elsewhere, and can honestly saying moving to Wrexham area, has been best decision I made.

I also know loads of people with kids in flats! Literally every single one of my mum friends in fact. We are all doing it. My son loves our flat and balcony.

You can’t get bored. And plenty is free, the museums!

In fairness, my son is bored by museums and he LOVES a dated leisure centre with a wave pool.

I live in North Wales. We once went to London. It was muggy, dirty, noisy, smelly, expensive, depressing and the locals were rude to us. You'd have to pay me to visit again let alone live there.

Well, no, but seeing as you have a CoL pad and a second home in SW19, you may not move in the same circles. 🫢

OP, there’s a lot of London love here and people have explained it really well.

I just thought I’d pick up on your financial assessment.

Of the figures you give, your London couple earns £100K and spends £25K of that on housing (so 25% of income) and £40K on childcare (so 40% of income). They’re left with 35% on everything else.

You earn £55K and spend £12K on housing (so 22%) and £12K on childcare (so 22%), leaving 56% on everything else.

That seems like loads but it’s the childcare figure that’s the main difference, so you’d want to know if you were comparing like with like. That £40K would be for 2 DC in FT all-day nursery, before any discounted ‘free’ hours kicked in (so 2x under 3s). Did you do that too?

I think it’s hard sometimes to see beyond the huge initial numbers but actually it’s what proportion of income you have to spend on things that lets you know if you’re actually better or worse off. You might be wrong in assuming you’re doing much better!

Sounds exactly like my London experience.

It's definitely usually faster to drive though I do think that low traffic neighbourhoods are changing that. But you absolutely can live in zone 3 quite happily without a car if you want to. We have thought about owning a car but it's a lot of expense and we wouldn't use it at all during the week - we work in central London so can't drive and the school is walking distance.

I don't live that far from you actually and I would say it's pretty 50:50 amongst families we know on car ownership. Cycling is really starting to take off.

@Meandfour the rest of the UK outside of London are clearly living in the slums. No museums/art galleries, no public transport or airports, no restaurants, no playgroups, no swimming classes, no cultural diversity. We all travel on horseback and work in the mines or the fields.

I lived in London for over a decade and loved it while I was there. It was predominantly because of work - I don't have the same career opportunity now I've moved outside of London - but I loved being there. I used to get "on the day" theatre tickets for after work, I loved the variety, the diversity. I also love where I am now, but it was a choice to stop climbing in my career to come here. There's also very little diversity, people are lovely but it's all folk who grew up here and think moving 15 minutes away is a big move (I moved about 5 hours away).

@Emotionalstorm that might be because you possibly mix with people who have a city pad and a Wimbledon home. Which you must agree gives the impression of affluence.

I don't know anyone who is raising kids or has raised kids in a flat if I'm going to be honest.

You have an incredibly narrow life!

Except loads of Londoners on this thread HAVE derided other places! Apparently the rest of us are boring and racist, there nothing to do where we live etc etc etc.

Apparently there are no other vibrant cities or towns in the UK, nor are there any interesting people outside the capital.

It depends what you mean by quality of life. I like to be somewhere diverse and exciting. I want to go to theatre shows and be able to eat foods of all cuisines. I like easy access to airports and train stations so we can travel. But that's just my preference - some people value a large house and peace and quiet more.

@Emotionalstorm loads of people bring up kids in flats. My building (a block of 64 one - four bed flats) has a good number of young families. Mr Monkey, a Londoner born and bred, has never lived in a house.

Yku sound like the person, who upon hearing that my parents rented my childhood home (and still do) commented they didn't know anyone who brought up children in a rented house. 🙄