North/South divide

[MugglesandLuna]

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2013278/The-new-north-south-divide-Two-families-300-miles-apart-earn-50k-struggles-lives-luxury.html

Its all very middle class, not exactly highlighting the real problems. I do struggle to feel sorry for the south couple who cant afford heating

It's not really 'news' is it that it costs more to live in the South of England? One has a house worth £600k and the other £200k. If the Southern family sold up and moved to Northumbria they'd be quids in, even if they had to accept a lower salary. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

You can buy a 3 bed semi-detached house in a decent part of surrey for 300-400k. They could stay in surrey in a less expensive house.

There are plenty of areas of the south and of Surrey for that matter which are less expensive. We live in a nice area of the south which is actually cheaper than the area of the north west we moved away from last year.

I don't think it's a north/south thing at all. I think people should not overstretch themselves just to live in an area they dont need to live in. Needing to live in the south does not equate to needing the 600k house in one particular part of Surrey.

How do the family on 50k live in a 600k house anyway? They obviously couldn't afford to buy that house now. Madness what a bog standard semi is 'worth'.

50k in the south really doesn't go very far. If you bought a house for 300k you'd really feel the pinch unless you had a massive deposit. We'd really struggle is thats all we earnt.

There is an argument for varying benefits and public sector pay depending on the cost of living in an area - not that I've ever heard a politician ever broach it.

That northern house would not be worth £600k in Guildford (DH has a lot or relatives down there).

Tell me about it. Our income is about 50k and there's no way we could borrow even 300k. Even after years and years of saving. Most we can afford is a 2 bed flat.

She doesn't need to live where she lives though. Simple economics and mRket conditions dictate to us all what is is our price band. Oh and luck of course. We wouldn't be were we are if we hadn't bought back in 97.

But I do wish when we'd first moved north with dh's job we hadn't been naive southerners who thought that buying south of manchester would mean getting an enormous house for a quarter the price we'd been paying in Surrey! Cheshire turned out to be a shock in so many ways! But at least the weather is slightly better down here!

Depends when you bought - our house is probably worth about 600k now and household income around 50k. Mortgage under 200k, just over 1000 a month.
This is in London, but a similar house in most of Surrey would cost more rather than less.

BIL up North has a larger house probably worth 200k but the chances of me and DP both getting jobs there (Yorkshire) to pay for said house are minimal. Just as well we're happy here (and been insulating like mad...)

All the jobs I've ever had had a London weighting of about 1-2kpa. Whoop-de-doo. And no SouthEast bonus. My work do have regional offices around the country - the ones in Surrey and Reading are crap because we can't pay enough to keep anyone with a brain cell so average retention is under 6 months, whereas the ones in the rest of the country, especially Cumbria and rural Wales have dedicated staff most of whom have been there over a decade and do a fantastic job. Given pay freezes I don't see the situation improving soon.

Neither of them live in nice houses, imo - both look fairly bog standard from the outside, it's not as if one is in a Georgian rectory and one in a flat in a highrise, so the only real difference is what it's costing them in mortgage payments for a very similar 3 bed semi.

London weighting should be banned. It just encourages people to flock to the Southeast.

London weighting doesn't encourage it because it simply doesn't apply to most jobs. Public sector, possibly, but not routine in the private sector. The concentration of employers and the sparsity of opportunities elsewhere is largely what brings people to the South East.

I don't think people move south for london weighting, but I do think it inflates house prices amongst other things and so defeats itself - and so yes it should be banned.

I know people in the SE already find it hard to get into a good state school but if all the remaining decent teachers moved away because they couldn't afford to live there, so there were even fewer good schools, it would soon have the desired effect of bringing down property prices there.

Oh come on, after mortgage southern family still have around 25k a year to live on. Thats more than most people earn.

Nothing "new" in the fact that some areas are more expensive to live in than others. We live in rural Wales, SIL lives in Twickenham. Our household income, which is a fraction of theirs, goes an awful lot further.

However you have to question the "hardship" that the southern family are facing. They can't afford Jack Wills clothing, a horse or £75 a month gym membership? Poor lambs. But then this is the Daily Mail...

I would never live down south. The house prices and general costs are way higher than up north. So whilst I may get paid less than I could earn in London, the result is more than offset by the fact my housing costs are way lower. Commuting is cheaper. Parking, eating out etc. all generally cheaper up north. The car park in my town went up recently to 50p for an hour's worth of parking. That's about 15 minutes in London!

Typical DM bollocks article written with an agenda in mind from the outset.
There are cheap places to live, there are expensive places to live and it's not so simple as north & south. As a southerner living in Newcastle, I've experienced it 1st hand. I've lived in cheap bits of the city and far more expensive ones ( where I live now ) and that's not a 600k house by far unless they are plopping it down in central London, which has bugger all to do with the house and all to do with the location.
Salaries up here are generally less, which is reflected in the cost of living except on national fixed costs such as fuel, heating etc and council tax up here is actually quite expensive... Therefore relatively it can sometimes be harder financially to be up north, when these costs are rising so sharply and you are getting paid less to start off with
What this article shows is two families, one living within their means the other not, not a national trend just different accounting!