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.

Yes and if they are working normal jobs in say London, chances are they are living in HA property, claiming UC as top up.

Mai my North East England, with the odd one on the Lancashire coast. Places of significant deprivation and high unemployment.

I can’t find them in Cheshire either 🤷‍♀️🤔

No I didn't "fail" to provide proof when "asked," I refused to provide proof when you barked your orders at me.

You were the one who then started adding blather about auctions and house fires, but nevertheless, you're still missing the wood for the trees by trying to pin down exact comparisons.

Again there is more to the south than London and waiting lists for HA properties are over a decade in most of London from what I hear.

so that will apply to less than 5% of southerners

But greater London has a higher amount of social housing (by % population) than the rest of the UK. So yes, there's lots of people waiting but lots more of it. AND they are trying to ship people out to other areas (entirely inappropriate in so many ways).

You said there are houses in London for 100k. There aren’t. It’s that simple. If you do find one on rightmove you’ve probably failed to realise that’s the auction price (although you don’t seem to know what that means).

Old Trafford, Anfield, and the North Eastern stadia are always packed. They have plenty of money up north.

Middlewich and Crewe.

Cant find them in Yorkshire either!

All of my friends work normal jobs here in London and not one of them lives in HA. Including: complaints manager, foster placement officer, receptionist at a university, Deliveroo driver, marketing account manager, dog sitter, journalist. All own or rent privately.

I don’t really care to discuss London or social housing too much. Because most southerners don’t live in London. And most people in social housing are old or middle aged and were given their properties decades ago back when waiting lists were shorter. Waiting times for even a family in a hostel are years up to decades.

So largely a thing of the past and we are talking about 2026 not 1996

Wakefield and Doncaster.

Where are you getting that I don't know what auction means? Did that come from the same source that told you all northerners want you to believe we're impoverished? 🤣

No I totally agree! We have moved to the NE, pretty much an hour from Scotland. Very randomly my husband got promoted / relocated at the same time as my pregnancy. You get much more value for your money in terms of housing and acres (yes acres) of land, that we’d otherwise be crammed into a terraced house back ‘home’ in the Home Counties.

So far of being here for a year… we do have nose disposable income but less income than what a Londoner might earn. But then maybe their salary is going solely to the bills.

not to mention that everyone I meet is really happy and friendly. Of course there are friendly people up here but I genuinely feel happier up here than I did in Buckinghamshire…. My parents are super snobby about us now being ‘northerners’ but they’re always complaining about the cost of stuff… i said they should sell their house and move up here! They’d live like kings.

so no - totally not being unreasonable

You can look at poverty maps that show where people are struggling the most.

there are areas in the south that are full of poverty - Cornwall struggles, Great Yarmouth ,

but in the whole it is easier to find work and a way out of poverty in the south of the country. For example if you live in London you can reach lots of jobs with a great public transport system. You only need so many teachers and doctors in any area. So if there are fewer well paid jobs per head of population you have fewer options

people don’t pay the same everywhere for basics like food - as a general rule people in poor areas pay more because the big Tesco or Aldi is out of reach - the big stores don’t set up shop in really poor areas. And they don’t have the great London transport system either. Walking 8 miles to get cheaper shops isn’t inspiring.

You cant buy a family home in Hexham for less than £100,000 Hexham is one of the more affluent areas in the north east !

You're on cloud cuckoo land. I live in a fairly nice but nothing special small town in Yorkshire, my bang average 3 bed semi is worth about £350k. There are far less jobs here, both availability and range of industries, than in the south and particularly around London (where I'm from). This lack of opportunities means people from poorer backgrounds don't have as many options to work hard and improve their lives because the jobs just aren't there. Also a lot of the talk of north v south is around services. Trains are much worse up here, most government jobs (good, reliable, skilled work people can aim for) are in the south, school outcomes are worse in the north, there's loads of things that people in the south just take for granted.

And maybe some staff discount to help with the food bill!
Op, you sound extremely sheltered if that is what you think.

Absolute nonsense

You need to define what you mean by North and South.
Newcastle is the North. Cumbria is the North. The South is more than London.
Even more confusing is that parts of Yorkshire arguably are really smack bang in the centre of the country and have no business saying they are Northern. They are the Midlands.

The usual people referred to in this context though is not those from Cumbria, nor Newcastle. But Yorkshire. And Lancashire. They moan the most.

The North as in Yorkshire and Lancashire do indulge in believing they are hard done by. They do think the South is full of people who have more. That they do not get opportunities. It is in danger of becoming embarrassing if they don’t stop. You cannot say you are a fast moving, exciting area and still beat that drum of needing to level up. The record has got a bit stuck.

There are poor people in the North ( all of the North) and the South. But also in the West and the East. In our Coastal towns. In the Midlands.
There are plenty of areas that need levelling up to the North I would say.

A lot of the Civil Service is in the North. And I do not mean No10 North. And long before Andy B became PM. Digital industries are in the North. They have shopping malls galore. Race courses. Michelin star restaurants. The big cities are university towns.

Our new PM realised that the focus on Manchester would mean more attention on it. And that it would not make sense with the we need ‘levelling up’ message. And tried desperately to say Manchester of today has just occurred recently.
No it has not.

As to housing. There are plenty of houses in the North that are as expensive as in the South. When I moved from the North to the South it wasn’t that much difference price wise for an ordinary house.

When I moved to the North I had no idea of how some, not all, hate Southerners. I soon learnt. But I had not grown up with the same loathing of Northerners in the South. I was once told Northerners were ‘better people’. Imagine telling a Northerner Southerners were ‘better people’. You wouldn’t hear the end of it.

I found generally Northerners friendly. But it is not always genuine. So you have to be careful. Very nosy. I did not find them blunt at all compared to where I am from in the South. That is rubbish. Frugal, yes. Southerners could learn a thing of two there. They expect value for money. But blunt. No. They are too worried about being seen to be ‘friendly’.

In the South at work nobody would go out for lunch or after work with someone they didn’t like ( unless it was a whole team thing).
They do. Was my experience.

There are some really expensive areas in the north. Clearly not as expensive as the south east but in the professions the salary differential is enormous. Within law/accountancy/tax, senior non-partners in northern offices can be on the same salary as trainees/juniors in London (doing the same work).

At my firm we have a London office and a Liverpool office. The people who do my role in Liverpool seem much better off and nicer houses as their salary will go much further.

I’ve been poor in the North of England, South of England, and in Scotland - so you could say I’m quiet the poverty expert.

In my experience I felt much more poor in the South, there were less cheap options for dining out and things to do, I almost cried when I saw the cost of a fucking take away (and it was sub par as well which was even worse).

When I moved to Scotland I found it was a bit of a mix, I could find cheap places to eat and cheaper things to do, but I was also a student here and best believe I made the most of student discounts! I’m not poor anymore (well by mumsnet standards we are, but by my standards we are loaded) but in my experience Scotland was probably the best place to be low income. I felt the most poor down south though by a long shot.

Waffle that's very polite😁
People across the UK have the same problems when it comes to lack of opportunity due to personal circumstances.
North = flat caps ,whippets.
Scotland=kilt wearing red heided hordes
Welsh =good singers,mad about rugby.
Irish..don't want to type the stereotype as very offensive.