Where would you live in England..

[Allboundformoomooland]

A colleague has just moved to England from abroad and needs to find somewhere to rent for her and her 13 year old daughter. She can work remotely and priorities are:

• safe area
• reasonable rent
• excellent secondary schools
• no need for a car so good access to amenities and transport

Which towns or cities would you recommend? Thank you

Even in Leeds you might not get a 2 bed for £1200 in a nice area.

Interesting, I moved to Leamington in 1985. It has always been on the rise I think with blips, probably a blip at the moment but that's nationwide.. Very central for transport via M40. Trains are good to London and Birmingham. Warwick and Coventry Universities good. Centre of gaming/digital stuff. Lots of coffee. Pretty. Multi cultural. Car industry. Walkable. Downside a lot of traffic, mostly JLR !

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/129698204#/?channel=RES_LET

£1200 in Manchester won’t go far these days. Anywhere you can find may be grim. Liverpool is a lovely city, not sure about schools though.
Newcastle? Again not sure about schools.

I briefly looked into moving to leeds last year, admittedly focused on the city centre but the cost of renting was eye watering

Agree with LastQueen - everyone thinks the north is cheaper but it’s not! Especially in the nice bits of cities such as Leeds and Manchester with good schools.

Shrewsbury. You can get a 3/4 bed in the burbs for 1200 or a nice flat closer to the centre.

Liverpool ,Manchester.
? York but might need to be further out.
Sheffield, Leeds.

I think it depends a lot on what you are looking for, but I think I’d recommend Swansea, overall, for friendliness, affordability, beaches, good housing stock. Of course, that’s because I’m assuming you meant to include Wales in your opening question, which could be wrong!

but most of those have dire public transport and very few affordable rental properties

Norwich.

I’d have a look at The Sunday Times best places to live and start there. www.thetimes.co.uk/best-places-to-live

Cheltenham. Very safe, good schools, loads going on, lots of parks and green space, small enough to walk around and a reasonable bus service, flats and houses in ok areas within budget.