cheapest, best places to live in England?

Seanymph

Norfolk - North Norfolk to be precise.

It's beautiful, fantastic coastline, Norwich is brilliant for shopping, there's loads to do - and it's cheap!

Mr_Thrifty

Kingfisherblue, I didn't mean to insult you (I didn't even know you were a carer). You're clearly one of the genuine ones and I can tell you work very hard for your son. However it was interesting that my "generalisation" of the roles that people who live up that way have proved true in even this instance.

LillythePink

Interesting points of view.

I must admit that if I were to move it wouldn't be to the uk. Friends of ours are looking to move over and I think that they are mad but they do have their reasons for doing it.

There are good and bad points everywhere but if you are just looking at somewhere simply because of house prices/rents then you will have lots of options.

Oh and to rent a 3 bed house here......£1500 or more pm

I do like the emigrate comment we hope to sell up and move to the USA at some point (well that's our dream)

Mr_Thrifty

I don't think you'll regret it, Lilly. For £1,500/month you would probably get a house the size of Buckingham Palace in the USA. If you were to move to Texas, for example, you would certainly be able to get somewhere where the garage alone is probably bigger than your current house.

Queries

Yes, I should imagine Harrogate would be an expensive place to live. Also, to add to Harrogate's attractions is a 'lovely' vivisection laboratory, called Covance!

kingfisherblue

Mr Thrifty, yes, I am genuine, but there are carers all over the UK, not just on Merseyside. I know that the area has its problems. I don't deny that. My answer was to the OP, though, that Merseyside isn't a place many would consider, but can be a great place to live.

Your comments were quite insulting because Merseyside also has a number of hard workers, and you will find that many urban areas have similar problems to Merseyside.

Personally, I love my home town and would not consider moving. I find it sad that others are not as happy where they live, even though on the surface it is classed as a better area.

VfM4meplse

kingfisherblue wrote: »

Errr....I am a carer. My son is disabled and has been since birth. I would hardly call that a scam. He has Down's Syndrome and was born with a number of rare congenital abnormalities of the digestive system. His first surgery, at Alder Hey (wonderful hospital!) was when he was nine hours old.

My son has several medical conditions that mean he has to be cared for both day and night. I'm up every night, at least four times. I change his nappies, give him his medications (ten a day), deal with regular choking, clean his vomit which can be several times a day, comfort him, remind him to wash (including naming parts of the body while he showers himself), sort out his food so that it is cut up into very small pieces (as he cannot manage to chew properly, and his swallowing is compromised by abnormal peristalsis due to scar tissue in his oesophagus, help him to decide which clothes are suitable (shorts are not advisable in snowy weather!), encourage him to eat and drink.... I could go on! (OP, sorry to hijack your thread!)

But no, there are not many jobs that pay £50k. Having said that, the cost of living is cheaper.

Bless you both. :A

daisy_darling

I wouldn't bother with the Ribble Valley [ Lancashire ] where I live. Although it's a beautiful place the property prices are a killer.

I did a search on rightmove of my area but only came up with one property which was 995 pcm. That's about average i'd say.

sarymclary

OP I think you have to consider that with cheaper housing, will inevitably come a lower income.

I live in S.Lincs (nr. border with Cambs/Notts/Leic). When I moved up here 20+ years ago wages weren't great, but housing was very cheap. Now the housing is more expensive, but wages are appalling. The upside is that it's a lovely place to raise kids as there's lots of open spaces, older houses have good sized gardens (our's is 80ft long), and you can let your kids go out to play from a young age (mine were going outside to play in primary school without any worry). It's a bit like living about 20 years ago. You can leave your doors unlocked still, and I don't have to panic that the car will get pinched off the drive if I forget to lock it.

Most jobs advertised up here are now minimum wage. Most jobs seem to be in the care profession, retail or sales. Commuting to a job is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Average rental price for a 3 bed terrace in my small market town is £550+pcm. There is little employment in the town, so you're almost guaranteed a commute to work, unless you can accept factory shift work. To buy a house, it'll cost you around £100k for a 75% shared ownership 3 bed terrace built in a warren of an estate, with a lot of the houses bought as buy-to-let, where the landlords don't care who they rent to, and lots of immigrants now seem to live there. Or, you can get an ex-council terrace in a less desirable area, or in a village outside of town. You have to travel to go to the theatre, cinema, go shopping (have a life), etc.

On the plus side, all local schools are excellent, there's lovely countryside and opportunity to take part in outdoor activities and sports all around. We are ideally situated to travel to most places in the country fairly quickly; less than an hour to the coast, 2hrs from Birmingham by road, an hour from London by train, OH and I went to Kent for the day to collect something yesterday, took us about 3hrs to get there, my best mate lives in Liverpool, about 3 hours from there. Just over an hour to S.Yorks. Close enough to consider Stanstead, Luton, E.Mids, Norwich and Heathrow airport. Less than an hour;s drive from Leicester, Nottingham, Cambridge, Northampton, etc.

Unfortunately, with smaller towns comes less employment opportunities. My OH was out of work for quite a while after being made redundant, and his old employer was in S.Herts, despite us living in Lincs. He couldn't find anything like the wages he was on before, and has now had to take min wage of £6.10 p/hr despite years of experience, doing menial work. It's work, but not as we know it! Shockingly, he earns less p/hr now than I did when I left my job to stay at home with my children 18 years ago, but houses are 3 x the price they were then. That's how much disparity there is.

Kingfisher, I agree that Liverpool is a lovely city, and has great access to lovely countryside, you're just across the water from Wales, nature reserves just up the coast, a vibrant city life of shops, theatre, concert venues, fabulous choice of restaurants, airport, and road/rail connections. The downside, that I can see from my friends living there, are that security is an issue to them, and their children aren't given the same kind of freedom that mine are here.

OP If you own property, and it's a good investment, why not try renting elsewhere before taking the plunge? I found it very hard to readjust to relocating from down south to live up here. Despite it being classed as E.Midlands, I find it very northern. It all depends upon what you're looking for. Are you after just cheap housing, a quieter way of life, or a more vibrant place to live?

moneypuddle

Queries wrote: »

Yes, I should imagine Harrogate would be an expensive place to live. Also, to add to Harrogate's attractions is a 'lovely' vivisection laboratory, called Covance!

Indeed there is, but not near the town centre, or the biggest residential areas. It was ages before I realised it existed.