Which area is good to live in UK for professionally

[Kaizen92]

Hello,

It seems that my title is quite vague and unclear.

Let me explain: my husband and I have different areas of expertise career-wise, but our jobs mostly allow us to work from home or visit the office twice a week.
Throughout our married life, we have travelled and worked in several different European countries before having a baby.

We moved to the UK from Europe in 2020 when my husband got a job in Nottingham, and we have been living here since then. Now, he has a job in Manchester and commutes there twice a week. I work from home and occasionally need to commute to Edinburgh once a month.

We are parents of a nearly 3-year-old child, and it's time for us to settle in an area with good primary schools primarily.

We have contemplated extensively about where we should settle and envision ourselves in the next 4-5 years (we can't plan further ahead than that). We want to live in an area or city where we can easily commute to London (in case of future opportunities) or to the northern part of the UK (as I have connections there).

While we are not particularly attached to Nottingham and don't have a large circle of friends here, we don't mind leaving this city. However, Nottingham's central location is advantageous as it takes only 2 hours to reach London and Manchester.

There are numerous pros and cons to consider when deciding whether to stay here or move to another city (like Manchester). However, our main concern is always about the possibility of great opportunities arising elsewhere in the south. Therefore, choosing the next city should allow for easy commuting and be centrally located to minimize travel time. Nottingham seems to have an edge in that aspect.

Our priority, like every parent, is our child's education and ensuring they have a stable environment to study and make friends.
What are your thoughts on this? For people like us who can work from home and change jobs frequently, which city do you think could be a good fit for a base location?

Or perhaps I'm just overthinking everything?

Given the rising cost of living and soaring property prices, making this decision sooner rather than later has become a topic of discussion in our household. We thought it would be valuable to seek perspectives from others on this matter.