Not a first time buyer but wanting to get back on the housing market

MissJbump

Hi .... So myself & partner previously have brought 1 other property together ... Which we sold ... Long story short, somewhere else was lined up to buy .. Fell through & we started renting - fast forward 5-6 years later & we are starting to have a mini panic .... Not been able to save as renting & we are living in a area in the South East (which we've lived all our lives grown up in, have all our family/ friends here a good school for our child etc... ) but are now completely priced out of our local market ...... I have a couple of questions really .... Neither of us have bad debt, my partner has a good job with reasonable pay & I am currently a carer so don't have an income but do get some benefits ... (Can they be counted?) ..... Also as we are not first time buyers...... All be it this would only be the second time for us to buy & we have been out of the market for 6y ..... Is there any scheme to help us ?? I read about so many deals for first time buyers..... Is there anything for people like us ?
Also wondering how we would go about finding an upcoming area to move to ...... It will be terrible to leave all our friends and family behind, but we feel we may need to act now and move away a bit.... Before the divide in house prices between the south and North are bridged .... So we can at least as best we can guarantee an increase in value buying somewhere... With a view in a number of years we may be able to move back down to where we grew up after making a bit of gain in value ....We are most likely looking at Lincolnshire or Nottinghamshire .... As grew up in East Anglia so would only be an hour or 2 to drive from family ....also just to mention we are both in our mid 30's & could put up around 5% or poss a tad more in deposit.... Thank u any help of tips much appreciated.