To question whether northerners are actually poorer than southerners ?

[Naegriafowlia]

As we know a lot of northerners seem to think all southerners are living like the Russian Romanov family pre murder and funds from the south should be directed up north because they are apparently so much poorer than us.

But is this even true? If you can buy a family home up there for 100k or less and the same size home costs 300-400k on average in the south. You already have a lot more disposable income. I know they say they get paid less, but Tesco (for example) pays the same every where and has branches everywhere. I know they also say there’s no good jobs there but where there’s people there’s schools and hospitals so you want us to believe there’s no teachers and doctors?

I know someone will say “move there then” personally I won’t be moving anywhere anytime soon as I started my family young (first born a few months after GCSEs) and my kids are all really settled in school and with friends.
Based on what I’ve heard from northerners they are more welcoming to people from countries on the other side of the planet than they are their fellow countrymen from 100 miles to the south.

😇😇😇

When did I admit I didn’t want any experience outside of my bubble?

The stats professional northerners like to throw around are on average wage. The tiny minority of people on really high wages in London drag up the southern average. Then it dosent take into account someone in the south outside of London could be earning the same wage working in Tesco as someone in the north but spend 3x as much money on their mortgage or rent (shock I know but not every southerner owns their home, some of us rent too).

Therefore the northerner has more disposable income

I knew people making moves north over 20 years ago - why have you been so ridiculous slow to realise this was possibly a good move?

No-one IME and I've lived all over UK - blames individuals for gentification - so if you moved north IME they will not bat an eyelid.

Population density depend where you look in north. London has quite a few green spaces despite being very densily populated - so depends what being compared to what really and then access to it.

Last place I lived before this one had loads of green spaces and famers fields what it didn't have were footpaths and access routes into them. We actually had better access in northern city to countryside and buses and trains went out there.

I must be a bit dim because I'm not getting this thread.
If you're not happy, OP, move!
If I've ever heard a southerner / northerner rant, it's been in fun, not serious.. people are just people, wherever they come from in the UK. We're all trying to do our best. Are you just trying to set people against each other?

No, pretty much the opposite - it's an illustration of the wealth gulf between north and south. That house is about 40 mins drive from where I live, I certainly won't be making an offer.

Cornwall's poverty rates aren't great....but it is full of ex Londoners which may be skewing the results...

My DP manages a large team - all work remotely. And the ones up north have massive houses, two cars and their wives don't work.

They are on the same wages as London and SE based members of the team so they are laughing! Everything is cheaper... like leisure centres, cafes, kids gymnastics, football clubs... cinema etc...

We are totally ripped off in London. And we pay for everyone else. And Fing Burnham wants to bleed us dry even more!

Poor northerners? My arse.

No I'm not sure how that happened!

I think that is part of the current Prime Minister's opinion, yes. It is one of his big talking points. I think that is likely why OP has posted about it.
Like most things, it is not as straightforward as the soundbites.

There are some richer people up north

but on average ? No

Pity people with such huge earning power can’t understand the difference between individuals and averages

The current prime minister has certainly led to a lot more discussion around the topic but for a while there’s been this idea that all southerners are rich, stuck up etc. and that all northerners are poor and “salt of the earth” kind of stuff.
My point is mainly houses are cheaper up there so they actually have a lot MORE disposable income than southerners (if you compare people with the same job)

Some northerners will be better off than some southerners but overall the data shows that the South is richer. This is reflected in the housing market. There is less economic activity in the north and more income in the south. Therefore on average people can afford to pay more for a house in the south. So rather than saying the housing means northerners are richer it's more like northerners are poorer on average and so therefore housing is cheaper.

It's most certainly not in the Midlands

Arguably, it is, I am afraid. Commonly, no, people in South Yorkshire think they are Northerners. And would loathe to be considered from the Midlands.

We are Northeners

Yes I know you how you see yourselves ! I have explained in a PP why arguably, you are not. I will not persuade you otherwise. Nor you me.

Who wants you to believe that?

But South Yorkshire is in the Northern region of England I'm not sure how you argue with that fact. But you are entitled to your opinion

I did try to explain it in an earlier post.

This. The more opportunities that are created in the North, the less there will be over-demand for housing in the South East (which I think is that we mean by South in these conversations).
Reduced demand will stop the house prices in the South East being pushed to such ridiculously unaffordable levels.

Surely this is nothing to do with disposable income at a personal level? I know I have much more disposable income than I would have if I lived in London.

What i don't have is:

• a bus service that is frequent enough to use for commuting
• a local library that is open for more than 4 hours per week
• wraparound childcare, in any form, no matter how much money I am willing to throw at it.
• local evening classes / adult education

Some of these are due to living semi rurally, but i have also lived in a city, and had similar problems.

So, on a personal level, I am fine, but these are basic things needed for equality of opportunity, and they are missing in some areas of the country.

Me and my husband are public sector workers, grew up in London and still live in the south east. Some people I went to school with are also public sector workers in similar roles but moved to Manchester post university. They are much better off than us because they could buy a nicer house than us for less than half the cost of ours so they have a much smaller mortgage. And everything just seems cheaper there eg she tells me kids holiday clubs are £25 a day where here they are £50-60. Nursery and wrap around care significantly less. Family Days out eg a farm visit £100 here, half the price or less there. As such they have a much nicer lifestyle than us, ie spend their money on multiple holidays where ours is spent on mortgage interest. It frustrates me when people seems to think that because your house is worth a lot it means your rich- the cost of my house is what keeps me poor!!

I completely agree

I don't get this thread.

OP, if you sold your house in London you bought 15 years ago and moved to Bradford you could buy a much bigger one, probably outright from the equity. If you sold your house in London and moved to Manchester you could buy a bigger one too.

If you are trying to buy a first home in London now it would be very hard because prices are crazy. There are very few bits of London that haven't gentrified to some extent.

But if you were born and brought up in Manchester or Bradford and working in an ordinary job, you wouldn't be able to buy a nice house in a nice area, and we do still have really bloody rough areas where you wouldn't want to buy. I am looking at flats for DC and the ones in areas where they'd like to live are 200k plus.

If you moved up here you'd be quids in , but if you lived up here your whole life you wouldn't be.

25 years ago, people working in my profession used to own 5 bed detached houses in nice parts of town. Now we are in 3 bed semis in ok parts of town. It's not a license to print money up here. House prices have more than quadrupled in my area in 20 years (and the BBC Londoners moving in with their equity richness had a fair bit to do with that, tbh)

Do you really truly think the North is on easy street? I mean the stats are very clear about inequalities in the North Vs the South of England. Health, employment opportunities, disposable income, education outcomes, graduate opportunities are all worse in the North. You are very simply wrong to think otherwise.

Since you don't appear to have ever ventured past Watford Gap I do wonder where all these chippy Northerners berating Southerners have been heard, as well. But if they did, they have got a point. Thatcher eviscerated a lot of traditional Northern industry and some areas have never fully recovered.

I didn’t buy a house in London? I don’t live in London and was a child 15 years ago?

It’s not just house prices but also rent prices
If I rented a house here (south but not London) it would be 1700 a month but only 900 up there. I work in a shop so would be paid the same before you say northerners are paid less.

Anyway yes I could move if I really wanted to and maybe one day I will but I’m sure they wouldn’t be happy if every southerner moved north seeing as you’re already complaining about the dew that have