Firstly this is being posted here because we need advice on an area to live which many here may know really well. This is also posted in the Moving Back forum for obvious reasons, and as we're living in Canada presently, hoping for peoples' opinions.

Biggest issue for anyone considering moving back to UK, is where to move (back) to. Some no doubt move back to their old lives, and possibly their previous home.

In my case most of my opportunities are London based. I don't much like it but accept it. Although they come up elsewhere, I'm now super-sensitive to moving to a place where I have ONE opportunity in case it goes South. This happened to me in Vancouver and played a big part of our present situation.

My working needs are:
(a) I need to be commutable to London,
(b) I won't know exactly where I'd be working and possibly in multiple places,
(c) I need to be near an airport as my work involves occasional travel
(d) I would accept a more realistically priced area for extra commute time and higher commuting cost

Without disclosing all my research I did find an area that superbly meets these needs, but I don't know much about it. The area, as the title of this post suggests is Stevenage in Hertfordshire.

My understanding is as follows. Stevenage is a modern(ish) city where the modern parts now look a bit dated. The rail network to London connects with Kings Cross in 25 minutes and is about 30 minutes to Luton Airport. Property rental market is active with plenty of choice of 3 bed semis well below a grand a month, mostly in the north of town which presumably contains the new developments. I'm presuming this might be in part to do with new properties that just never sold in time for the market decline, flooding the rental market.

I have asked some friends in the area about the place but nobody seems to know, apart from they think it's a half decent place to live; nothing spectacular but reasonable. So I'm throwing this out for your opinions. It's a risk moving somewhere you don't know (as we are learning) but the more you find out about a place, the less likely things will go pear shaped. Well that's the theory.

Stevenage is very much like any new town that was built to cope with the over flow from London. Very similar to Harlow in Essex and not very attractive although as anywhere else there are some nice areas. You may be better off looking at some smaller towns such as Biggleswade, Sandy, Flitwick and Ampthill, Royston, Baldock - all with train stations with direct routes to London (apart from Ampthill). For me I don't like cities or big towns so I would prefer one of these smaller towns.

Agree with you PP not very attractive which is a shame as there are lots of lovely places to live, nearly the whole of our village comute to London daily including my OH lots travel from Stanstead, we have friends in Bishops stortford lovely areas around there and where we are in Cambs, very close to Stanstead bit longer to commute but not much and lots more for your money house wise, depends what you are looking for ?

Yeah, the OP could widen the search to include Cambridgeshire, there are again lots of villages with direct train links into London that are much nicer than the previous areas I mentioned, although housing costs might rise a little.

Stevenage existed long before the 'new towns'; it was expanded by Labour against the wishes of the local people in the 40s or 50s in their mania for 'town planning'.

It's a few years since I've visited, but it certainly wasn't a place I would have wanted to live back then; I believe it's become Chav Central since.

I stand corrected, but it was still expanded to cope with the overflow from London as much as Harlow was. The town centre is very 60's/70's in styling unless it's undergone a major overhaul in the last 3 years. Strangley enough we didn't feel the need to revisit on either of our two trips back last year. I would say it is marginally better than Luton though

Stevenage is not a pretty town, but it does have all the facilities, shops, clubs, restaurants etc. Its well placed for transport links.

Try looking at some of the surrounding villages, or even Baldock.

Good points, and what I saw of the 'old town' area was quite pretty. Living in a nearby village and travelling in for shopping, etc, wouldn't be so bad; I seem to remember there are a lot of concerts at some place on the edge of town too if you're into that kind of thing.

Yeah this more or less sums up my understanding. One of SVG key strengths is commuter time is really low and there's plenty of choice of property, almost all on the outskirts, mostly north of town. We're probably not going to settle there for long but it gets us near to where my potential job market is, without us having to pay heavily for the privilege.

Thanks for all the suggestions of alternatives. I will certainly check into those too. Perhaps I should say that I was originally considering Milton Keynes as a starting point for us, and that's still a possibility. MK is a place I know better.

I don't know if I can be of any use but I run my own relocation agency/ property finding business covering the Bucks/Herts area. If you want to pm me your budget and the kind of thing you are after I'll happily have a bit of a hunt for you (no charge!!).

Stevenage isn't that great, but it does depend on what you're after. Personally I'd go for a village nearby, but then I'm not a townie. If you give me some more info about exactly what you want then I might be able to suggest a better area.

If your talking about Stevenage,Herts, I'd heartily recommend Luton in Beds as its not htat far away and a far better town.

I lived there for two years (harrow court) and seriously, I felt unsafe there. I saw several drug dealings (yes, they happen in luton too) but unlike luton, the shopping was crap too. Lots of stores closing down, there were rumours about the swimming pool closing down (Dont know if it has) but in terms of shopping, it was like most high store chains had an opening htere, but they only had hte most expensive 70% of stuff and none of hte really good individual stuff. I had to go to luton for spices shopping, and good clothing shopping!

Seriously, pick a town that is organically grown, not a newtown that is planned. You'll do better. Sorry to be negative but after two years there i was just happy to get hte hell out of dodge. And I liked luton and manchester!

edited to add: the hospital is not too stellar either. I ended up going down to QEII in Hatfield after 2 lots of surgery in Stevenage to get an issue fixed in one go...

Try Welwyn, or Welwyn Garden City.


I would avoid Luton.

Dunstable is only slightly better

Leighton Buzzard is better than both of them.

Aylesbury is ok, Stoke Mandeville is a nice village.

Bedford is OK with good schools.

Sorry Caitilin but I really have to disagree with Luton being the better town - but we all have different opinions. I seem to remember Stevenage pool being closed for renovations - it's an old pool. As for shopping MK is close enough to get too for serious shoppers as is Lakeside and the like. I have only ever been shopping in Luton twice - that was plenty for me. I have visitied Luton on many other occasions - friends of mine lived there.

I suppose Hatfield and Welwyn are also worth considering as is Letchworth Garden City. Hatfield is a bit of a dump but the town centre is about to be demolished and rebuilt which will make it slightly more desirable in a few years time.

Our daughter lived in Stevenage for a year whilst she did her year out from Uni to do work experience at Glaxo. she was renting with four other girls a three bed house in the northern part of Stevenage and during a brief visit there it didnt look that bad, i.e. fields/countryside being close by. They paid about £1300 per month for renting and the house was not in that good order - they did keep this house especially for Glaxo uni students though so I expect they were not too bothered in keeping the decor looking nice for them. Other than that cannot comment too much on Stevenage, although daughters boyfriend also lives in Stevenage and he seems quite happy with it.

South Cambs is good - some villages are on the Liverpool St line and others are on the King's Cross line. Cambridge itself (trains go to both London stations and to Stansted, regular buses go to Stansted, Luton and Heathrow) is nice if you can afford it but the cheapest areas can be a bit dodgy and it is a pain to get anywhere on the roads.