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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask, if you feel your job can only be done in London, what you do?

121 replies

CleverButScatty · 31/05/2025 17:24

I often see people in Mumsnet say that they could not move away from London because of the job that they do.

I have also seen on a thread this morning sharing disbelief that a company has located it's head office away from London and still expect to be able to find quality staff that will be office based a couple of days a week. (Apparently there must not be any quality people to recruit in the whole of Norfolk ... I wonder what Norfolk based Mumsnetters' views about that are!)

I am curious about how much of this is reality and how much perception/snobbery.

So if you have a business that could only possibly find the staff you need in London, or have a job that can only be done in London, what is it you do?

I know I have made a tongue in cheek comment above, but this is genuinely not meant to be goady. I know there will be industries/ central government functions etc that are London centric, but I wonder if that is quite as much as people think.

TIA if you take the time to comment.

OP posts:
DustlandFairytaleBeginning · 31/05/2025 18:01

helpfulperson · 31/05/2025 17:51

But those jobs don't have to be done in London. They are commonly done in London because that is where companies have chosen to base their offices.

The civil service is currently moving a lot of their main offices out of London and there is no reason for other organisations not to do likewise .Thousands of UK civil servant jobs to leave London - BBC News

Its a chicken and egg situation though. If these businesses have always been based in London the people that are skilled in these roles are in London. If they suddenly relocated to say Liverpool or Newcastle not many people would be able to or want to relocate their lives to that specific place and they won't be able to hire the people they need to run their business there. Over time it is possible they could make it work, but even then it is risky for those employees to relocate and then be so dependent on that single employer for their job with their skill set. After the entry level work most people become pretty specialist in what they do.

Surreyblah · 31/05/2025 18:01

We don’t get to decide where organisations locate their jobs.

HappyAsASandboy · 31/05/2025 18:02

I work for the Civil Service. I no longer live in London and am still able to work, but my progression has been severely hampered by the lack of suitable roles in the next grade at each stage. In London there is a lot of cross-department movement and so lots of opportunities to apply for the next grade in the inevitable backfill, whilst in my non-London location I only have the choice of one department and so it’s a bit “dead man’s shoes”.

I wouldn’t move back to London, and boy would I definitely not go back to a two hour each way commute, but I definitely would have more opportunity in London than here.

GRex · 31/05/2025 18:02

CleverButScatty · 31/05/2025 17:51

This is the sort of role that perplexes me when people describe it as London centric. Every business in the land needs IT consultants. It's also a job that lends itself more than many to remote working surely.
And if they are only.earning 12.5k each as extra income by being in London, they Re probably significantly worse of if they are buying/renting there.
I am not saying they should move, there are many reasons why we choose to live where we do, but I would really be surprised if they couldn't easily relocate and earn the same (or more in real terms) elsewhere.
Given how varied their clientele are (stockbrokers and theatres) I am assuming it's not a niche area?

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Standard developers often are remote. Senior Architects will need to meet clients occasionally though, so they need to at least be able to commute for workshops. The benefit for the individual is choice of jobs, especially for those still expanding their careers. Picking a specific IT job title just to compare; in Norfolk there are only 7 open Head of Engineering roles in the whole county right now, and multiple of them are lightweight. London has 863 Head of Engineering roles, some of them are really significant and run global teams.

Crikeyalmighty · 31/05/2025 18:02

@CleverButScatty you would be suprised how very much more competitive it is outside of London in some industry’s . My son was previously in Bristol till 2019 and struggled to get anything similar when his company had redundancies - in London he was inundated with his skill set - and still is constantly approached by recruiters as he’s decently paid but not a massive earner. he’s hardware not software - and no his rent in London is around £500 a month more than he would be paying in Bristol and they bring in around £1k more and like living in London . - she is a London born and bred gal too . They intend to buy shared ownership in London - plenty do like living there especially without kids and they are still in their 20s -

blueshoes · 31/05/2025 18:04

Many of the design and creative industries are based in London or clustered near the film studios just outside of London.

Wibblywobblybobbly · 31/05/2025 18:04

A very niche area of law that really only exists in London. A few firms in Manchester and Birmingham do a bit, but not for the big FTSE100 and international clients, that's all London based because of in person meetings, networking etc. And if I did it in Manchester or Birmingham my take home would be a quarter of what it is now by the time I've factored in bonus etc. So I'm pretty much stuck working in London.

Original poster
CleverButScatty · 31/05/2025 18:04

TunnocksOrDeath · 31/05/2025 18:00

You're being a bit disingenuous there, the other thread referred to a role based 30 miles from the nearest large town, which happens to be in Norfolk. The OP described it as being highly specialised, and they obviously are having trouble finding a suitable candidate locally, since the OP has now been rung up three time to ask if she'll take it!
I used to work in product control in an investment bank. We needed to be based in the same building as the traders and they have to be on a secure floor, and near the exchange, so that meant working in London for at least the majority of the week.

I doubt the company from the other thread is an investment bank etc!
The OP has been contacted 3 times by an agency about the job. That does not mean that the company can't recruit. Ultimately, if the L
OP in that thread was as valuable as they thought, and the company had no other options they would have agreed to her remote working request.
I think my irritation was with her shock that they felt they could get anyone else outside of London. The company obviously felt they could.

OP posts:
Dfsac · 31/05/2025 18:04

Can't really be an investment banker in Leeds can you?

LBOCS2 · 31/05/2025 18:04

I work in complex leasehold management, and the company I work for specialises in high risk, high rise and luxury developments. I have specialised further within that sphere. There are very few jobs outside London doing what I do, particularly with the specialism I have. To be fair, there are also very few jobs inside London doing what I do, but there are definitely more! It’s a small industry.

Original poster
CleverButScatty · 31/05/2025 18:05

Wibblywobblybobbly · 31/05/2025 18:04

A very niche area of law that really only exists in London. A few firms in Manchester and Birmingham do a bit, but not for the big FTSE100 and international clients, that's all London based because of in person meetings, networking etc. And if I did it in Manchester or Birmingham my take home would be a quarter of what it is now by the time I've factored in bonus etc. So I'm pretty much stuck working in London.

Edited

Out of curiosity, because I'm not familiar with that sector, why are the salaries so much lower outside of London?
Is it the same companies are have none of the bigger companies located offices there?

OP posts:
Ace56 · 31/05/2025 18:07

There are just more options in London, as pp have said. I work in a university so if I was to move to say, Norfolk, I wouldn’t have many options (and the pay would be about 10k lower). I would be pretty stuck if I got a job there but then wanted to leave that job in a couple of years…
If I want to move jobs in London, there are lots of universities in central or within commuting distance that I could choose from.

Surreyblah · 31/05/2025 18:07

Don’t think your assumptions are correct @CleverButScatty Loads more jobs in London. Salaries in the private sector are mainly down to supply/demand.

SnuggleMonsters · 31/05/2025 18:07

What sectors are you familiar with op? And how long did you live and work in London for?

Crikeyalmighty · 31/05/2025 18:08

@GRex yep my son isn’t a developer - he’s hardware level 3 projects - he also doesn’t remotely want remote - he had enough of it in lockdown, hated it - he’s very sociable and likes doing client site work and being out and about at various companies, onboarding new systems, sorting out their trials and troubles or acting 2 days a week as onsite IT manager etc - you are correct though - the idea there are tons of these jobs just scattered around with little competition at decent money simply isn’t the case - and his GF job even more so. And no he doesn’t want to live in the arse end of nowhere just because houses are cheap- his life, his choice

ImRonBurgandy · 31/05/2025 18:08

I work for a central London council. It's only found in London.

blueshoes · 31/05/2025 18:09

London has been likened to the dark star of the economy, inexorably sucking in resources, people and energy.

It is quite specific to the UK. I believe other developed countries tend to have more than one major hub. Because so much of the engine of London growth in recent years has been services rather than industry, people cluster together. It does not help that the seat of government in Westminster is also in London.

It does give the London a particular buzz and energy on many levels.

TheCurious0range · 31/05/2025 18:10

CleverButScatty · 31/05/2025 17:47

This is an example of what I mean. I imagine that apart from very senior and highly paid management, these are just roles that happen to be in London and are filled with people who happen to be there (e.g. because they are from the area, have family there etc).

I don't believe there are many NHS roles that need to be London based or where it would be difficult to fill these roles outside London.
Again with the civil service, I know these roles happen to be in London because that is where the organisation is based, but I can't believe EO/HEO/SEO roles would make someone whose to live on London given the relatively low salary to the high cost of living. Surely these are just mostly generic role filled by people who happen to live there anyway?

Show quote history

Well no because a lot of civil servants are attached to ministries and the ministers work out of London because that's where parliament is...

JaninaDuszejko · 31/05/2025 18:11

People who live in London always think their job can't be done elsewhere even when it can. It might not exist in the rural areas but all the other major cities in the UK have arts scenes, finance industries, law firms, universities, architecture firms etc etc. But if you didn't believe you were doing a high powered exciting job that couldn't be done elsewhere why would you put up with paying a fortune to live in a tiny flat with kids? Let them think that and the rest of us can enjoy our great quality of life in our unfashionable backwaters.

Octavia64 · 31/05/2025 18:11

Not me, my DS.

professional jazz drummer.
he needs a big enough music scene to make it work in terms of gigs/teaching etc.

also my ExH.
quantitative analyst for a hedge fund. The fund is actually based in Chicago but they have a satellite office in London which he commutes into. Pre covid he used to do one week in four in Chicago, they wanted him to move there when he got the job but we had kids in school etc etc.

lots of financial services jobs are actually done fairly remotely but head of whatever for Europe will be based in London. Expectation of lots of travel so you can’t eg work from Leeds because Head office is already Singapore/New York/Copenhagen wherever

Dfsac · 31/05/2025 18:12

Ace56 · 31/05/2025 18:07

There are just more options in London, as pp have said. I work in a university so if I was to move to say, Norfolk, I wouldn’t have many options (and the pay would be about 10k lower). I would be pretty stuck if I got a job there but then wanted to leave that job in a couple of years…
If I want to move jobs in London, there are lots of universities in central or within commuting distance that I could choose from.

Would you be comfortable saying what one? I went to UCL and DH went to Imperial. What's it like to work at a university?

RedToothBrush · 31/05/2025 18:14

SnuggleMonsters · 31/05/2025 17:38

I live near London. People I know who work in offices in London include civil servants who work on Westminster, people who work in finance, some NHS workers who want to work at specific types of hospitals, lawyers who want to work in magic circle law firms, my own dh who is an engineer who works for a big company whose main offices (like most big companies in the UK) are in London.

Fwiw, we don't even especially like living in the SE and would move if we could get anything like the same income we do here, but somewhere else. It's so heavily populated here....but there's a reason for that. We don't all live here for the clean air and gorgeous beaches do we 😂?

At least one of the magic circle law firms has offices in Manchester...

Original poster
CleverButScatty · 31/05/2025 18:15

Ace56 · 31/05/2025 18:07

There are just more options in London, as pp have said. I work in a university so if I was to move to say, Norfolk, I wouldn’t have many options (and the pay would be about 10k lower). I would be pretty stuck if I got a job there but then wanted to leave that job in a couple of years…
If I want to move jobs in London, there are lots of universities in central or within commuting distance that I could choose from.

Ignoring the Norfolk reference, which related to another thread, you could work elsewhere if you wanted? There are many universities in the country.
So if you felt you didn't enjoy London life, or wanted to be able to buy a better property, or weren't happy with the schools in the area.... You could move?

I am talking about the people who insist that their role/decor just doesn't exist outside London, and that they could not move away if they wanted.

OP posts:
ArtemisiaTheArtist · 31/05/2025 18:16

If we are talking about being a caretaker for a particular London thing, then yes, I can only do mine, in London. I run Tube stations. But, if I were to be transferred to Brum, or, Manchester, or Glasgow, I suppose I could do a similar job there. However, I can't exactly move my stations from London and run them in, say, Norfolk, for example. I have to be in London to do this job.

But live in London? No. Many of my colleagues live outside, and commute in. I will be the same soon.

SnuggleMonsters · 31/05/2025 18:16

JaninaDuszejko · 31/05/2025 18:11

People who live in London always think their job can't be done elsewhere even when it can. It might not exist in the rural areas but all the other major cities in the UK have arts scenes, finance industries, law firms, universities, architecture firms etc etc. But if you didn't believe you were doing a high powered exciting job that couldn't be done elsewhere why would you put up with paying a fortune to live in a tiny flat with kids? Let them think that and the rest of us can enjoy our great quality of life in our unfashionable backwaters.

I mean...you're the one throwing around insults about a city you have no interest in living in. Op has also got some sort of special interest in Londoners. Why not just enjoy your city and we'll enjoy ours? If you've not lived and worked here for a decent length of time, you really don't have enough experience to speak with so much authority in the subject tbh. (Imo anyway)