If you could live anywhere in the UK...

[LimaDelta]

With a young family, balancing a need for metropolitan cultural enrichment, and rural escapes, with decent schools and prospects for the kids as they grow, and assuming no real family ties and the ability to maintain your income regardless of location, where would you choose and why?

FWIW, currently rural Northumberland but only 10mins or so outside of Newcastle, kids both at an Indy school.

[anonymous-user]

Great Langdale

Or

White Coppice

[Yipper]

South Buckinghamshire and South Oxfordshire are about as good as it gets in the UK (outside Central London). Places dotted around the Chilterns combine wealth with easy access to big city and pretty, quiet countryside.

Berkshire is also good, if you can put up with the tourists and ridiculously stuckup locals. Hampshire is also good, if you can put up with the low wages in the local area.

[Stuart12]

Sounds like you are close anyway but Northumberland National Park for us.

I’ve lived all over the country but we settled here, in my opinion the balance of cost of living, countryside, proximity to Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow, reasonable links south, schools and national park are hard to beat .

Previously on the South Coast which was nice but cost of living doesn’t compare

[Shnozz]

Yipper said:

Hampshire is also good, if you can put up with the low wages in the local area.

So high prices and low wages. What a combo.

[Johnspex]

I lived in the Chilterns (Amersham) for 34 years and apart form the fact that my ex-wife lives there it is a great place. Easy access to London, large towns all over the place, and lovely countryside. Just avoid my ex-wife.

[Shnozz]

My vote is the golden triangle around North Leeds. York, Harrogate, Wetherby, Ilkley etc.

Good schools nearby, cosmopolitan life and range of employers in Leeds, cost of living day to day no different to the South but house prices far lower. Dales on your doorstep, Dales one way, Yorkshire Moors the other. Equidistant in terms of the UK from North to South. Rail link to London in 2 hrs 15.

[Pericoloso]

Dover ,cuts out the 90 minute drive to the ferry port.

[stuartmmcfc]

Next door to Holly Willoughby

[Vaud]

Shnozz said:

My vote is the golden triangle around North Leeds. York, Harrogate, Wetherby, Ilkley etc.

Good schools nearby, cosmopolitan life and range of employers in Leeds, cost of living day to day no different to the South but house prices far lower. Dales on your doorstep, Dales one way, Yorkshire Moors the other. Equidistant in terms of the UK from North to South. Rail link to London in 2 hrs 15.

^^ what he said, though house prices in Ilkley and Harrogate can be steep.

Alternatively, I think the towns around Norwich have a lot going for them if you don't need to commute for quality of life. Ditto Bath (if you can afford it)

[Robertj21a]

stuartmmcfc said:

Next door to Holly Willoughby

or Rachel Riley

[Turn7]

Johnspex said:

I lived in the Chilterns (Amersham) for 34 years and apart form the fact that my ex-wife lives there it is a great place. Easy access to London, large towns all over the place, and lovely countryside. Just avoid my ex-wife.

And house prices to match sadly......

I have long believed the home counties are way over populated, and that the background stress that creates makes me follks very angry and arrogant.

I hold the belief, and its yet unproven,that things are, hopefully, much better up North....

[Willy Nilly]

Robertj21a said:

stuartmmcfc said:

Next door to Holly Willoughby

or Rachel Riley

Local to here

[pauloroberto]

We like Lichfield. Friendly historic town with good schools. Close to Birmingham, Cannock Chase, Peak District and just over an hour on the train to London.

Here is the view from my office.

[RichB]

pauloroberto said:

Here is the view from my office.

you work on a park bench?

[mikeiow]

RichB said:

you work on a park bench?

John's got brewer's droop he gets intimidated by the dirty pigeons, they love a bit of him....

[Ricky146a]

Northumberland for me.
I have managed to get to the stage where I own my house outright - OK, I know house prices are lower up here and will not increase as fast as anywhere else but I am not looking to move so it does not matter.

And the best bit?? It is over 3 hours by train to London! I hate London!

[James 33]

I'd still live in Hastings. Easy access to London an Brighton, good pubs in the old town and surrounded by beautiful countryside.

[anonymous-user]

Shnozz said:

My vote is the golden triangle around North Leeds. York, Harrogate, Wetherby, Ilkley etc.

Good schools nearby, cosmopolitan life and range of employers in Leeds, cost of living day to day no different to the South but house prices far lower. Dales on your doorstep, Dales one way, Yorkshire Moors the other. Equidistant in terms of the UK from North to South. Rail link to London in 2 hrs 15.

I’ve lived on the South Coast for the last 16 years but will be moving to this /\/\ area in the next few months. South too crowded for me now and the countryside ‘up there’ is breathtaking.

[dxbtiger]

Shnozz said:

My vote is the golden triangle around North Leeds. York, Harrogate, Wetherby, Ilkley etc.

Good schools nearby, cosmopolitan life and range of employers in Leeds, cost of living day to day no different to the South but house prices far lower. Dales on your doorstep, Dales one way, Yorkshire Moors the other. Equidistant in terms of the UK from North to South. Rail link to London in 2 hrs 15.

This really is a lovely part of the world, lived in Collingham (small village just outside Wetherby) up until I moved back to Dubai in 2007, would move back there in a hearbeat if we had to return to the UK.