Good (affordable) towns near London?

[UnsureHmm]

Apologies, posting for traffic.

I am looking to move out of London over the next couple of years as I cannot afford to buy in london.

I am also not sure of the surrounding areas as I am from up north originally. Unfortunately, I need to be near London for mine and my partners work.

Which towns/areas are good for families with kids, with good schools etc.

Fair enough, but I don’t know Hemel or Stevenage so I personally can’t compare to Reading.
Reading just isn’t my favourite town in the South of England.

How about Colchester in North Essex? I grew up there and it used to be a nice town with lots of London commuters, lovely surrounding countryside and good schools.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/131136557

You could afford to stay in London. Sidcup is nice, well connected as is Bromley and Orpington. Grammar area but Eltham has an excellent comprehensive school that takes over the border into Sidcup.

Personally, I'd rather live in Woolwich/Plumstead than the Medway towns. You would definitely be able to find a flat in Eltham, Hither Green, possibly even Charlton or Blackheath for that budget. Further out there are places like Dartford and Maidstone that are affordable.

littlemousebigcheese, I grew up in Wycombe, and you’ve summed it up perfectly.

That is a good price for that area

I've lived here for about 15 years now. There are good and bad areas, definitely and there are certainly areas I'd not be comfortable in, but isn't that the same for every town in the UK? Even Marlow has some unfortunate looking estates surrounding it.

I don't go out late in town very often, but when I do it's felt as safe as any other weekend venue.

Yes, the old flyover going through the town is a bit strange and something really needs doing with the old shopping centre, but on the flip side, it's got excellent links to London by road or rail, a brilliant theatre and you can be in the countryside within minutes.

They're even opening Bentley and Porsche dealerships near Waitrose, so can't be that bad!

@HurryShadow we live in Bath and have got some fairly big council estates and a fair bit of housing association too. It's way more mixed than people think- personally I think it keeps somewhere more real- I like the fact we have cute independents and Poundland and Greggs. (X2) I'm not into cutesy villages so if anyone can show me a place over 40,000 people that hasn't got some from side to it then I would be suprised

Purley or Caterham might suit.

I don't think the transport from wycombe is good at all! unless you want to live right by the station (which I wouldn't) then you need to factor in driving/getting there, plus the journey in which only goes to Marylebone. it's so west and pretty useless as husband needs to be east so would then need to add in a battle with tubes during rush hour! We tried it once and it took 2 hours 15 minutes to get to work!