What would be a good place for living in the UK?

Hello

we are a small family thinking about moving to the UK. We don't have to apply for a visa (we're from Europe), so we can choose where to go in the UK. So far we just have not enough information about the different cities and villages in the UK, so I thought maybe you could help me here. Which place would be nice for a family who

- doesn't want to spend too much money on housing?
- wants to work in IT?
- loves to live near nature but within reach of an interesting city?
- is interested in alternative parenting/home education etc.?

What about the places you are currently living? Can you recommend them?

I am very curious about your suggestions!
Thank you so much for helping.
Kind regards

Tin

Welcome to UKY I think there are probably several places in the UK that would fit your criteria, but I can certainly recommend the city I live in- Sheffield!

Taking your points one by one:
doesn't want to spend too much money on housing?- Check, house prices (renting & buying) are pretty affordable. We pay £500/month in rent for a 2-bedroom (both double) terraced house with a garden in a pretty nice area. A house on our street which is almost identical to ours recently sold for about £100K. 3-bedroom houses will run you roughly £550-700 in rent depending on the house and location in the city.

wants to work in IT?- My husband and I both work in IT, and those jobs are a healthy proportion of the vacancies round here, especially if you're in software/web development (South Yorkshire has become kind of a mini-hub for digital/creative industry due to the universities and lower costs of doing business here.)

loves to live near nature but within reach of an interesting city?- Yep. 1/3 of Sheffield is actually in the Peak District, and there is a huge amount of greenspace, woodland and parkland within the city itself. You can either live in the city/suburbs and be within 15-20 minutes of countryside, or you can live in the neighbouring villages outside of the city and have easy access to all the amenities in town. Sheffield has seen a lot of investment/regneration in the city over the last decade or so and it's a really nice place to live with lots of stuff going on all the time.

is interested in alternative parenting/home education etc- I'm not a parent myself but am interested in home education when I do become a parent, so I know that Sheffield does have a home education group that seems to be pretty active. If you homeschool, you certainly won't be on your own!

Okay, sorry that

sounded like a commercial. But I do love it here.

I visited Sheffield last weekend and it was really good!

Hello Springhaze

thank you very much for putting Sheffield on my list of possible places to live in! Sounds like we should consider going there!

Okay, sorry that sounded like a commercial.  But I do love it here.

That made me laughing out loudly!

thank you once more
Yours
Tin

I live in a very "right on" suburb of South Manchester and its a lot of things that you described (except I have no idea about the IT Job thing) Its very organic-vegan-babywearing-chic and if you have kids, well there are activities every day of the week. You can be in the countryside in about 15 minutes, my husband works on a bloody mountain everysingle day and he only commutes 20 minutes to Bolton. The city of Manchester itself IMO is fantastic, night life, museums, arts, arts activities for kids, music, food...I have been here since 1993 and the city has changed so much! I love it here and plan to spend the rest of my days here!

Welcome to UKY I think there are probably several places in the UK that would fit your criteria, but I can certainly recommend the city I live in- Sheffield!

Taking your points one by one:
doesn't want to spend too much money on housing?- Check, house prices (renting & buying) are pretty affordable. We pay £500/month in rent for a 2-bedroom (both double) terraced house with a garden in a pretty nice area. A house on our street which is almost identical to ours recently sold for about £100K. 3-bedroom houses will run you roughly £550-700 in rent depending on the house and location in the city.

wants to work in IT?- My husband and I both work in IT, and those jobs are a healthy proportion of the vacancies round here, especially if you're in software/web development (South Yorkshire has become kind of a mini-hub for digital/creative industry due to the universities and lower costs of doing business here.)

loves to live near nature but within reach of an interesting city?- Yep. 1/3 of Sheffield is actually in the Peak District, and there is a huge amount of greenspace, woodland and parkland within the city itself. You can either live in the city/suburbs and be within 15-20 minutes of countryside, or you can live in the neighbouring villages outside of the city and have easy access to all the amenities in town. Sheffield has seen a lot of investment/regneration in the city over the last decade or so and it's a really nice place to live with lots of stuff going on all the time.

is interested in alternative parenting/home education etc- I'm not a parent myself but am interested in home education when I do become a parent, so I know that Sheffield does have a home education group that seems to be pretty active. If you homeschool, you certainly won't be on your own!

Okay, sorry that sounded like a commercial. But I do love it here.

Thanks for your post - a lot of useful information!

Hubby is in IT and we are in the early stages of talking about moving back. He's been convinced that
A) he won't find a job and
B) even if he could find a job it would have to be back in the Reading area where we used to live and we cannot afford that area now.

He's actually from Leeds though he hasn't lived up North in 15+ years.  Maybe we should consider that area. Goodness knows it's some of the most beautiful country that the UK has to offer (or maybe I'm just biased) 

Thanks for your post - a lot of useful information!


He's actually from Leeds though he hasn't lived up North in 15+ years.  Maybe we should consider that area. Goodness knows it's some of the most beautiful country that the UK has to offer (or maybe I'm just biased) 
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I would definitely consider Leeds (having lived here myself for over 30 years). Certainly on the grounds of cheaper housing, proximity to lovely countryside although I don't know about the IT job situation.

Another vote for beautiful & amazing Leeds! 

We love it here & my hubby is in IT.  Not sure about the current job situation overall - it's bad all over right now with the recession, I'm afraid.  I'm afraid our own situation has become slightly more uncertain (over the long term) with the announcement this week of a planned merger between Orange and T Mobile.  Ok for now though, so fingers crossed.

Cambridge has a lot of IT prospect, but it is very expensive for what you get. 

Your husband is correct.

Milton Keynes/Reading and those areas are still by a long shot the most busy when it comes to I.T. Jobs.

However like anythng there are plenty of other places he can go to work in IT.

As it happens I work in IT but from home (Stoke-On-Trent) but my company as you might of guessed it, is based in Reading.

The other good areas as has been said are Manchester/Birmingham and Sheffield for IT.

Thank you so much to all of you for the inside information!

@Lee - what do you mean by "those areas"? Which area is also an IT area? Working from home would be a great option - do you know whether it is common are rare in IT in the UK?

Northumberland is a beautiful area, and close to Newcastle, so it ticks most of your boxes - other than IT.... I'm not too sure about that. I do think jobs are a bit hard to find here, but maybe not in Newcastle, if you didn't mind commuting.

Thank you so much to all of you for the inside information!

@Lee - what do you mean by "those areas"? Which area is also an IT area? Working from home would be a great option - do you know whether it is common are rare in IT in the UK?

Those areas; The biggest outside of London is Milton Keynes and places like Reading, Slough and other locations just outside of London are also popular. It is quite possible to get a job around Leeds/Sheffield/Birmingham/Manchester though as these are big cities with a healthy demand for IT staff.

I know lots of people that work from home in IT, although this practice has only become popular over the past few years and I expect it will continue to grow quite rapidly given it saves costs and often workers are far more efficent working from home.

Your husband is correct.

Milton Keynes/Reading and those areas are still by a long shot the most busy when it comes to I.T. Jobs.

However like anythng there are plenty of other places he can go to work in IT.

As it happens I work in IT but from home (Stoke-On-Trent) but my company as you might of guessed it, is based in Reading.

The other good areas as has been said are Manchester/Birmingham and Sheffield for IT.

Hubby worked for a company located in Bracknell and we lived in Lower Earley, then Sonning. I had a look at houses online yesterday - yikes! Doesn't look like prices have suffered much in that area.

Nottingham is nice.  I live in West Bridgford which has a lot of children (due to a great school district).  When we first moved here we moved to Mansfield, it almost broke up our marriage!