Moving North from South East

[DaisyChainBrain]

We are currently living in the South East and want to move North.
We are considering Lancashire and Yorkshire but not sure where is best. Would love to hear from people already living here as to best places to live (as well as those to avoid) we are on a tight budget, and need good transport links as I don't drive. Our daughter is 6 and home educated. I'm also concerned about flood risk; are there areas we should avoid because of this?
I'd prefer a town to a city, and really looking for a strong sense of community that we don't currently have.

That's a huge area DaisyChainBrain, could you narrow it down a little? Budget?

I don't know either areas particularly well, but West gets more rain than East, so West might be greener, if that's important to you.

New build estate or older property/character property?

I’ve moved to near Whitehaven NW Lakes, so further out than you’ve suggested but OMG we love it here and there’s so many other people that have moved to this area in the past 10 years.

• cheap house prices
• Train all round west coast of lakes
• which also goes to Carlisle, from there you can go anywhere inc London
• beaches (St Bees, Allonby)
• really strong community, it’s a bit stuck in time here which is fab
• cumbrian people are really friendly
• mountains / lakes / national park on your doorstep
• no traffic in and out of the lakes back to the west coast!

So many of us living up here love it, we also have our own micro climate next to the sea, it basically all blows over to the mountains and it actually far sunnier here than it was living in SE!

We have a very tight budget, so we are looking at a maximum of £180,000. Not interested in new builds, but other half is a builder so very happy to buy something that needs work.

Whitehaven is beautiful. What are job opportunities like there?

I work remotely which is how we were able to move so I’m not sure tbh. I think it depends what industry.

Sellafield is a huge employer in the area and I’m aware them and their subcontractors pay very well.

My 20 yr old son has x2 jobs here and never been out of work in 2 years, but just hospitality work, but no shortage of that type of employment.

Have you looked at Durham? I moved here from the south east and can't believe my luck!