I live in the next town over from Tiverton. We're actually moving to another part of the country on Saturday. Devon is great if you're a tourist. Or if you're older. But the reality for young people is wages are lower, services are being cut by the day, and as a county, Devon lacks infrastructure.
I wouldn't move to Devon at your age if I'm honest. DH was your age when he moved down with his parents and it's been quite limiting career wise. His wage is several thousand pounds lower than his friends in cities who do the same job. And the companies he works with are a lot smaller, and are very agricultural, meaning it's been hard to get the level of experience needed for progression elsewhere.
It took him months to find a job further up north in a city, despite being good at what he does. The feedback he kept getting when he was rejected was that he's good at his job, but Devon just can't give the experience with bigger clients that he needs. He finally got a job with a bigger company in a big city, and he's being paid a few thousand more for the same position than he is down here.
Devon and Cornwall are actually known as brain drains, because a huge amounts professionals go elsewhere for better opportunities.
The cost of living is also a lot higher here in comparison to a lot of other places, despite significantly lower wages. Our petrol costs are huge because we have to drive to most places, a lot of days out can be quite expensive, especially in summer because it's catered for tourists, if you live near the coast, as DH did originally, it gets horrifically busy. If you decide to move out, you need to be aware that housing is insanely expensive, and not really good value for money unless you're in the sticks.
In terms of services. They're being cut by the day. There is a horrific pothole issue round here. People damage their cars and lose/burst tires quite often on the smaller roads (which are unavoidable from most towns), there have also been lots of near misses with car crashes because people are trying to avoid ridiculously deep holes in the road. Dependent on where you are, there can also be quite a lot of flooding when it rains. Not so much houses, but lots of roads get quite flooded, which hasn't been great this winter because it's rained so much. And it's less than ideal when there's a massive pot hole every few metres because you can't see the holes when the road floods. Devon county council pretty much refuse to make the roads useable. I say refuse but it boils down to not having the funds.
Where I am, they've just taken our 630am bus and our 8pm busses too and from Exeter, despite here being an established town and having a lot of people commute via public transport on a morning. We're lucky though as we still have busses every 20 minutes outside of that. I know people in villages with busses twice a week.
The wait list for an NHS dentist in Exeter and surrounding areas is currently sat at 10 years. It's also incredibly hard to see a GP where I am, because our one surgery covers pretty much every small village within a 5 mile radius, and lots of GPs left for better surgeries elsewhere. Hospital waiting lists are also insanely long. There's nothing wrong with any of the services once you get them. It's just hard to get them. I've been waiting to see a consultant for something here for over a year. I've ended up having my referral transferred to the city I'm moving to.
Also, I don't know if you're planning on having children one day, but please know that we have one of the lowest amounts of funding per pupil here. It's been incredibly hard to get DD10 the things she needs, because she has additional needs and the funding just isn't there for either education or basic NHS therapies. It's not great for "typical" children either. There is a reason that Devon has the highest proportion of home educated children. You may not be thinking of that yet, but it's something worth keeping in mind.
If you're adamant on moving I would personally move to south Devon. My in laws live down there and people are a lot more friendly because they have a lot of tourists visit. They are under Torbay council rather than Devon so have slightly more infrastructure. I live in mid Devon, but other than Exeter, mid Devon is quite cut off. It takes about 30 minutes to get to Exeter, and a similar amount of time to get to any of the bigger towns in any other direction. Anywhere in mid Devon that isn't Exeter involves country roads of varying size and quality.
North Devon is similar to mid Devon, except there's less there as they have no city. It's also very agricultural. Both areas can be quite hard to fit in if you live in a smaller town because a lot of places are quite insular and people won't talk to you if your face or personality doesn't fit. I'm non white and have experienced a lot of malicious racism and a lot of ignorant racism such as people calling me coloured, and referring to me as a N*, being surprised I work because "my kind usually claim benefits and send money back home" (I'm English).
It's also a whole different culture and way of life down here. That's not a negative. It's just a fact. In lots of towns everybody knows everybody, and you can sometimes find that everyone you know is connected in some way via marriage. The pace is a lot slower and people are very chilled here. The myth about hating city people and Londoners is exactly that. A myth. If people hate you it's usually because they don't like any outsiders, or you've offended them by saying wherever you're from is better, or trying to force change that isn't wanted.
It probably sounds like I hate Devon. I don't. It's a beautiful county, and part of me is sad to leave. But there is next to no infrastructure. It isn't the idyllic, perfect world tourists think it is. Life is tougher, it's more expensive. Housing is unaffordable. Exeter has a huge drugs and homelessness problem. The same applies for Barnstaple, Torquay, Plymouth and any other big towns and cities. Younger people leave daily because there is nothing here for us.
DHs parents are here and they're thriving. But they are older and more established than us, and can afford to live here.
I just want to give the other side of what it's like to live down here as a younger adult because it isn't all rainbows and butterflies .