My wife and Moved to Norway in 2007.
We want to move back. We are both British citizens having lived in England all our lives. I am nearly 65 so will be able to claim my pension as i have worked in Britain for 44 years.

What are the essential things I need to do to move back. can we just simply return to Britain, and sort things out when we get there(accommodation etc).

Any helpful advice?

Also we will only bring back essentials like clothes etc, no furniture or heavy stuff. Who can we contact to move just these few boxes cheapest and arrange storage with till we get accommodation:

All advice appreciated greatly!!

Well unless you want to sleep on the streets you'll have to sort out some accommodation. Realistically, you're looking at hotels or short / holiday lets untill you can find a flat or house to rent or buy.

Presuming you know where you want to be so hit the net and find agents in that area. Email them, explain your position and then you can see them after you get back.

You should be able to sort storage online but why not just post them to a friend's house if you can ? Or contact the storage people in Norway. You might have to fly back to send the stuff over. Work out if it is worth it.

Theres also something between a hotel and a flat, serviced flats I think they are called, everything included fully furnished, probably something like Long stay business apartments they have in US. If you book into one of those for a few weeks, it'd give you a start than you can look at houses/flats to rent.
Or stay with friends/family if they'll have you

http://www.globeapt.com/serviced_apartments.html

Just Google.co.uk and put in servced flats adn the city name.

Thanks to those that replied. very useful info, will look into. Mange takk!

Often mega overpriced I fear, especially in the UK from my research recently. A better option I have found is short term rentals but these are really only worth it for a month or two maximu otherwise you miht as well keep the premium, book a hotel for a week and see 10 or 20 empty flats or houses in that week and pick one for the next 6 months. Net net it works out cheaper.

Another option is holiday caravan parks. Many of them do longer term lets for a discount rate. We are staying in one now and its lovely. Brand new caravan, 2 bedrooms, bathroom with shower, fully eqipped kitchen with brand new appliances, gas fire heating (very warm!!) never been used before, dog allowed, only need to pay one weeks rental in advance, no ref checks required, swimming pool, pub, laundrette, grocers shop and all usual holiday park facilities.
We a well happy to have found it. £150 a week!! Suits us down to the ground.

That sounds lovely. Great price too.

Hi. Thanks for your advice. Very useful, never thought of caravans. I am 62, and when we return, am not sure whether to buy or rent!. We always bought before, but as you get older, not sure whether its better to protect our capital. Any thoughts?

Oh dont get me wrong we are not staying here forever!! Only until we know where my husband will be working permanently. He has interviews in 3 different counties so we decided to do this until we know.

I agree its a bit of a dilemma whether or not ot buy and in all honesty i'm not sure i want to buy. We owned our house in New Zealand, but when we moved to Australia we decided just to rent and in all honesty i was happier.
Now we have recently landed back in England its something we keep pondering over.

Yes I agree. And buyin can be disadvantageous as you get older.because should we ever become ill and need to go into a home, they can use your assets to pay for it. Also if you are unemployed , you can claim rent , but not mortgage, only the interest. Is it worth it I wonder. Definitely if you are young better to buy, but no real advantage when you are older, and lots of hassle selling etc.
We own an apartment here which we will have to sell first before moving back. Time consuming and lots of hassle.
Hope things work out for you anyway. Lykke til(good luck på norsk)

So you made it back to the UK. Would this caravan be located in Essex by chance? If so roughly where if you do not mind me asking.

when we return it will be to the midlands, worcestershire most likely, as we used to live in bromsgrove

We are wondering the same things? where do we go when we get off the plane...good post...serviced flat, must look into that...have 3 kids joining us..so makes finding something at harder?