What's the cheapest housing scheme possible for London?

I will be moving to London for a year in August/September, where I will *hopefully* be working at a small school in Ilford, playing football, and NOT being in high school  I will be making what the principal of the school called "pocket money" (minimum wage I think), but will be taking a nice chunk of change over with me. The deal is, I will need somewhere to stay for a year that doesn't cost a fortune. My only thought has been to try to find some place where students generally live. My thought was that they will need cheap housing, and possibly be sharing a flat or something. The big advantage to this scenario (if it exists. please tell me if I'm off base) is that living with people my age will give me social contacts. Right now, I am going over to London not knowing anyone except the principal of the school.

This was way too long-winded, but it boils down to:
How do I find relatively cheap housing
Do students (or any young people) share housing? This would be particularly nice so it would give me a social group to be a part of.
Since I will be working (hopefully) in Ilford, does it matter where in London I live? (transportation, etc.)

Thank you for any help!

are you sure you want to live in London if you're working in Ilford?
It would be cheaper to stay out Essex way.

Most students would get that kind of housing through their college housing office. You could try looking at gumtree.com or Loot for a flatshare.

Just to go off topic for a moment, have you now sorted out some kind of visa for your year in the UK? I presume so, as you have a job lined up. Can your employer help you find a place to live?

I will be moving to London for a year in August/September, where I will *hopefully* be working at a small school in Ilford, playing football, and NOT being in high school 

yay, so the gap year scheme worked out for you?  I'm glad!  Now, how'd you do it- I'm really curious!  Feel free to PM me if you like

From my experience Students will very rarwely want a non student living with them, as it makes them eligible for council tax even if there are 5 students and 1 non student it means that you have to pay 75% of the council tax for that house, whereas it woud be free without the non student.
There's no "schemes" as such set up for cheap housing, students after they move out of halls just club together and the more people you live with the cheaper it gets. This also works for peopel from europe coming to live here, they tend to share in large numbers, even share rooms to keep costs down, you could try http://uk.easyroommate.com/
and spareroom.co.uk to locate some like minded people to live with
And you'd be definately better off living in essex then london, and it would matter ALOT what part of london you stay in! The travel costs would be immense and take loads of time if  you were traversing the whole of london every day to get to work!  

I think you want to rent a room in a house or flat. That's the absolute cheapest way I believe.

are you sure you want to live in London if you're working in Ilford?
It would be cheaper to stay out Essex way.

ditto

Yeah, I agree that student housing would probably not be suitable for you, not just because of the council tax issues, but also because you will often have to provide a student ID and proof of student status to the agent/landlord in order to live in a student house (so they can verify that you're not just trying to get out of paying taxes/higher rent).

I also agree that it's probably not a good idea to live in London itself if you will not actually be working in London, because as others have said, it will be much more of a hassle. You don't want to find a place on the other side of the city and then find you have an expensive 2-hour commute out to Ilford every day!!

As always, I'd say to take a look at www.gumtree.com for flatshares.

Vicky

Thank you all for your concern and help. I guess it does make more sense to live out more toward Ilford, doesn't it? Not too many rooms right now actually IN Ilford, but some pretty close.

Gumtree looks like it will be a very good resource, but it seems that I will have to wait until closer to when I will be leaving to look for a place to stay. All the listings want room mates pretty soon.

Thanks again

From my experience Students will very rarwely want a non student living with them, as it makes them eligible for council tax even if there are 5 students and 1 non student it means that you have to pay 75% of the council tax for that house, whereas it woud be free without the non student.

The law has changed, and students cannot be held liable for a non-student's council tax bill.  So there is no disadvantage for the students, but the non-student may be liable for the whole 75% bill.