Want to avoid nastiness

[helenna05]

Hi!
Looking to relocate from north to the south/south east or west.
However I'm really worried that over time the seeming awfulness of London gangs/deprivation and scally behaviour is going to spread out and rot away at the areas around there.
I don't want my baby to grow up around deprivation, gangs and what I see as the nastiest type of human behaviour.
Where can we move in the south that will as much as possible avoid the grossness? I just don't want to be exposed to that kind of stuff, it bleaks me out. I want my son to grow up in a safe place.
Please don't use this message to make a point about me being stuck up or whatever, only genuine advice please.

Op try putting towns into ilivehere.co.uk.

Ignore all the pp's saying it's how you raise your dc etc. Part of raising them is looking for a good school and a safe environment surely.
I lived near Bradford and Leeds for 20 years and I would describe both as having some rough areas but Leeds is far nicer.
As a very loose general rule north west of London will be better than south east. I've also lived in Bucks.
And remember its always better to buy a tiny house in a good area.
Location location location!

@Greenevalley

Op try putting towns into ilivehere.co.uk.

Ignore all the pp's saying it's how you raise your dc etc. Part of raising them is looking for a good school and a safe environment surely.
I lived near Bradford and Leeds for 20 years and I would describe both as having some rough areas but Leeds is far nicer.
As a very loose general rule north west of London will be better than south east. I've also lived in Bucks.
And remember its always better to buy a tiny house in a good area.
Location location location!

Ah thanks for the link, this looks brilliant! That's really helpful, and totally agree on the importance of location. We're more than willing to live in a tiny property if it means we're in a location which works :-) thanks!

Just be aware of living in a small town / village after Leeds. Lived there myself and whatever faults Leeds has, it's public transport system knocks spots off public transport where I currently live - Thames Valley / Berks. If you're thinking rural with kids and wanting to work out of the home, you'll need to factor in your own transport. I live 5 miles outside Reading and our nearest bus stop is a mile away with one bus an hour at peak times and less during the day / weekends. It's even difficult to get a taxi to come out.

If this mythical place that has none of the 'grossness' you are looking to avoid existed, then surely you realise your £375K would not stand a chance of buying there as it would be such a highly desirable spot. I suggest a remote Scottish island for the qualities you are looking for.

I live in a very nice part of the London commuting belt that is pretty safe as far as places go, but I'm not going to tell you where it is :)

@Hazel444 I don't think op would want to live near you anyway.

The south is very expensive but not always prohibitively so. My house is within your budget in a decent area - 4 bed detached. Have you considered somewhere in Scotland though? Edinburgh is lovely and you would get soooo much more for your money. Or somewhere like dunblane - a quiet, quite posh little city with excellent commuter links to Glasgow and Stirling.

@Hazel444

If this mythical place that has none of the 'grossness' you are looking to avoid existed, then surely you realise your £375K would not stand a chance of buying there as it would be such a highly desirable spot. I suggest a remote Scottish island for the qualities you are looking for.

I live in a very nice part of the London commuting belt that is pretty safe as far as places go, but I'm not going to tell you where it is :)

I've at no point said that a place exists without those issues. But there are places which have less of them. Are you really saying that all areas have equal amount of crime levels, deprivation and deterioration?! If so, you need to get out more.

@crumptrump

The south is very expensive but not always prohibitively so. My house is within your budget in a decent area - 4 bed detached. Have you considered somewhere in Scotland though? Edinburgh is lovely and you would get soooo much more for your money. Or somewhere like dunblane - a quiet, quite posh little city with excellent commuter links to Glasgow and Stirling.

Thanks. It is lovely up in Scotland but I couldn't deal with the weather! I struggle with the cold of Yorkshire! (Southern fairy)

Where do you ideally need to be in close proximity to OP?

The south covers quite a large area and some areas are more affordable than others.

@Exhausteddog

Where do you ideally need to be in close proximity to OP?

The south covers quite a large area and some areas are more affordable than others.

Well we're quite flexible generally, hence asking on here to narrow it down a bit. Family in Beds/Herts but don't need to be super close to them. Just need good public transport to a decent sized city. We've considered areas outside Cambridge, Bath, Norwich and bits of Bucks, but open to ideas. Difficult to gauge during lockdown.

I was going to suggest Gloucestershire, or Worcestershire, but they're not particularly 'south'.

I think you need to be more specific. You’ve basically decided that all of the south east is akin to deprived pockets of London. The south east covers a large part of England! So tell us some counties and we might be able to help.

For example you mentioned Luton. Luton has some not great areas, but it also has some nice areas. Same could be said about most places. Peterborough for example. People constantly slag the place off and yet when I visit i think it’s great!

So whereabouts would you like to live to be near family? Then people can actually help you.

Interesting reading this as looking at where to buy in Leeds.. currently living in Alwoodley which is spoiling me I think. What would you recommend and avoid OP?

In terms of Bedford and surrounds I know it well.. any of the nice villages and smaller towns will be fine and not have gangs or much in the way of anti social behaviour. Would avoid Bedford, Luton, Stevenage etc obviously but there's so many nice places between them especially north of Bedford or across from Bedford towards Cambridge. And quite a lot that is nice between Bedford and Luton if you look at the smaller places. I don't think you're wrong to want to live somewhere nice where your children are less likely to be exposed to crime or have low expectations or aspirations due to the environment around them. I want a similarly nice place to raise my children. However, I know the biggest influencing factor will always be us as parents..but I'm sure you know that too!

We've considered areas outside Cambridge, Bath, Norwich and bits of Bucks, but open to ideas. Difficult to gauge during lockdown.

Okay. Well those are all pretty expensive areas. Cambridge has a housing bubble similar to London due to its Universities and Science/tech industry. So you have to compromise. Decide what is the most important thing and go from there. If it’s schools you need to find out about local schools. If it’s crime there are websites that cover that. If it’s a certain sized house then you’re going to have to thing about commuting to the nearest town and start looking at villages/towns in the burbs.

Are you really saying that all areas have equal amount of crime levels, deprivation and deterioration?!

Err nope didn't ever say that. But you seem very clued up on which towns are nasty, so surely you could have given a few more details in your OP so people could offer you serious help - like do you want to live near the sea/the countryside/in the suburbs; are you looking for good state schools or private ones etc? Do you need to be near a large city, if so which one?

Your OP is just so goady. Decent people do emerge from the awfulness of London you know - even people from the most deprived areas.

Are you the "it's grim up north" poster going for a change of scene? 🤣

Bedford is absolutely fine! I was told recently by a Social Worker that Stevenage has a high population of sex offenders and she wouldn’t take her children to any of the play areas there. I’ll admit that shocked me so I’ll accept Stevenage maybe isn’t where you want to live. Luton again has tough areas but having spent some time there it has a bad image probably because people are basically being racist. Anywhere with a high population of minority groups gets slagged off 🙄

Poor Hull. Maybe it spiralled into deprivation and desolation when you left.

And all city centres look pretty unloved, at the moment. That's covid for you. There's an awful lot of empty shops in Durham City centre. I was last in Hull City centre early last year and apart from whitefriargate being an obstacle course, and the gaps left by markses and bhs, it wasn't as awful as you are making out. Most of the big shops have moved into St Stephen's which leaves a few gaps elsewhere. I'm sure if I headed up into Newcastle, that would be a depressing assortment of empty units, as well.

This is a nice area in Norfolk. Not far from Manea with trains to London/Cambridge/Birmingham.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-76533123.html

Where in the south are your family? Try moving to their area? Don’t move to an unknown part of London.

I kind of understand what you mean regards news reporting of London, from outside london. When I moved there my mum would reference stabbing in Peckham, when I lived in Ealing. For non London folk the headlines do look scary.

There are parts of London that I wouldn’t live but people on here would be offended and defend the area.

Cambridge has a housing bubble similar to London due to its Universities and Science/tech industry

Cambridge house prices are insane but they drop dramatically in the villages and small towns north of the city. The traffic is a lot better since the A14 was rerouted.

How about Banbury or Newbury?! Good transport