Lowdown on places that will benefit from planned improved train services in next 5 - 10 years

[Briony32]

I know a bit about Crossrail linking the west side of London to the East, and that places like Hayes and Uxbridge are likely to experience a property boom because of it.... but where else will benefit. Will Oxfordshire be any better connected to London?
I'm not just thinking of places in the South East (although interested in SE too) but want to know where else will be better connected (to other large cities and/ or London).
Shropshire? York? Liverpool? south coast?
My reason for asking....we are planning on moving in the next 2 years or so and want to make a wise investment!!! Ideally we'd like to live somewhere that is good for jobs and has easy access to the countryside (doesn't everyone!). We'd love to live in Oxfordshire but I'm disappointed by the time it takes to commute to London!

Have a look at the HS2 route, not sure of timescales though.

We own a property 2mins walk from a station towards the western end of the crossrail route. The local property hounds have been projecting a value jump of as much as 25%. However, this may be negated by the fact that they are about to start throwing up new builds on every spare patch of land.

It's highly likely that Birmingham will see a rise in prices due to HS2, new high speed rail link set to connect London and Birmingham.
There it's lots of development going on here literally buildings going up left right and centre and it's the second biggest city. It's called the big city plan. I think they are realising that this country is too centralised around London and they want to try and spread that out to other cities.
There are lots of nice smaller towns around Birmingham which will also all be affected.

ooooooh, sounds interesting. Will go off and research HS2 now....Which nicer smaller towns Blackeye?

HS2....Construction is set to begin in 2017 with an indicated opening date of 2026. Wow, seems a long time to wait.

So it seems.... HS2 (Phase One) will only stop at stations at each end of the route (2 in London, and 2 in Birmingham). No other stops? Clearly I am missing the point of high speed rail, but it seems that only Birmingham and London will benefit (and places in close range), but all the lovely places in between (where I really want to live) will be adversely affected by noise, loss of land etc, eg: Leamington Spa, villages around Banbury, Bicester, Brackley. I can't think of many lovely places around Birmingham (but perhaps that's just because I don't know it at all).

Will economic growth and prosperity slowly become less London-centric further out than Birmingham?

Also, what is happening in Salford? Are more businesses relocating there because of the new BBC media city? I have no idea but it seems to me like it was a token gesture to shift power away from London that is rather half hearted.

I'm a girl from the North who is feels very tied to the South now because of better financial security. I can't believe what has happened to my home town (major chains moved out, poundland taken over, and the only bit of culture is footballer's wives territory). I'm desperate to live somewhere a little less congested, but can't face the alternative.

I'm sure I sound very naive, but if someone has some better thought out views on this please share.

interactive-map.hs2.org.uk/
Would people living in places like Hayes have to commute to the proposed Old Oak Common station (near Shepherd's Bush) to get on a HS2 train? Am I missing something?

Stay away from the lovely little places around Birmingham!

HS2 is going to blight our countryside & price our children and grandchildren out of the local property market.

Although, to be fair, it sounds as though a Lichfield to London ticket on HS2 will be beyond the reach of your average commuter on a daily basis.

Sorry, talking to myself now but looking at Crossrail, it seems that places like Taplow and Maidenhead are already pretty expensive to buy. 3 bed houses are already 500k.

Yes Santas it does sound like an expensive commute. I guess you live in one of the lovely little places. My husband always said the Midlands is the best place to live as it has positives of both the north and south (real people, real communities, less obsession with money, beautiful countryside, a bit of culture). Realise I'm massively stereotyping here, and am likely to get a few raised eyebrows....

Places well

Lichfield, Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham, Harborne in Brum, parts of Moseley and Edgbaston, Henley in Arden, Stratford and generally all places in Warwickshire except Coventry!, Solihull and Knowle, Bromsgrove, parts of Stourbridge, Shrewsbury and Shropshire (beautiful)

Look don't get me wrong I'm a Londoner though and through and I spent the last 6 years at med school in Brighton. When I found out I would have to come to Birmingham to complete my training I was not sure how I would survive! My partner still lives down south so that's really where I will end up once I finish my work training but really Birmingham has impressed me! ok so it's got a grim image but there are some really nice places to visit both in Birmingham and outside...

My main issue with Brum is that it needs more things to do like theatres art galleries museums and so on which is what I miss about London but there are still nice things to do...

Also let's call it 10 years for HS2 I don't think that's too long to wait if it's a long term investment like a house. I guess if you want to make money quickly from property then London is the answer only you'll have to spend a lot to make anything

Burnham is worth a look.

I'm Lichfield born & bred Briony32. Property is already expensive compared to neighbouring areas, but we really expect that to jump up once we're "just an hour from London".

Or HS2 may never actually happen. Or may never be fast enough to make commuters want to flock to the Midlands. Who knows?

Cambridge is apparently getting a new station sorry but I haven't any more info and the baby is crying but a Google should give more info.

I'd look into the proposals for Crossrail 3 and extended spurs to the Northern line in south London. Already expensive there and the proposals might not translate into exact execution, but you might expect prices to rise in the places that are suddenly on the TfL map

HS2 is at least 10 years away, and is not a certainty unless passed after the election. And maybe not even then. OK, it will cut journey times but Birmingham to London is already a very fast 1hr 20.

can you imagine what the ticket prices will be?

more importantly, avoid anywhere blighted by it.

Hmm, I think you are putting the cart before the horse.

Looks of places have good railway links but do not make economic sense to commute it to London. Seriously, a commuting journey of more than 1 hour is expensive.

Also, London is looking more and more like a benefit town. For all the big bucks jobs in London, there are 10 on benefits.

I don't see a lot of London big buck jobs last, just look at how little money the financial companies actually make.

Or the level of benefit dependency in London lasting - expect housing benefit allowance to be capped a lot lower. The UK is taxing people on medium incomes outside of London so that people (including a lot of immigrants) can live, rent free, in one of the most expensive places in the world. Its nuts.

hereandthere just so you know, as far as I can tell there are around 843,000 housing benefits recipients in greater london. There are approximately 150,000 people earning over £150k. So even at that very high end of earnings it's more like 5 to 1, not 10. And if you included people earning over £80k, which would still be 'big bucks', you'd be looking at a much, much smaller ratio.

Reading and surrounding areas will benefit from the proposed rail link to Heathrow. Won't happen quickly though

look at the trainlines going into Paddington from Berkshire/Oxfordshire as with crossrail Paddington to Canary Wharf will be a very quick commute (20 mins?) so opens up West of London to city type commuters

Take it with a pinch of salt. I've got a house in walking distance of an HS1 station. Didn't make a jot of difference to the value, despite the journey time to London being cut in half.