eurotramp

Hubby, me and 2 kids (7+10) wondering what part of England would be good for schools, nice to live, choice of IT jobs and house prices not to far over average.

I know almost impossible, but a girl can try..

ags

Don't want much hey!! Can't blame you for trying!
As always London will give you the jobs and money, but housing there is all but unaffordable, so usually it is a trade off.
I live close to London, 25 minute commute by train, houses are affordable, but not such a great area. I am selling up and leaving the UK, so my house will be on the market for approx £170000 just to give you an idea. Small 3 bed terraced about 15/20 yrs old, no garage but off road parking.
I would start with the schools as this is a major issue here now. Primary schools are not usually too bad, but senior schools, good ones are always in great demand.
The lengths people will go to get their kids into a good school, I would probably be the same if we weren't leaving.
It always seems to be a trade off now, can't have it all I am afraid, but good luck, hope you find somewhere to suit.

eurotramp

O dear,

specially the school would be important, because my kids went all their school live to international schools and I would not be happy if that standard would come down.

I'm afraid that a small 3 bed terraced would not do(because I know how small the bedrooms are).

Are there not other parts of England in demand of good IT people??

ags

Sure Euro, didn't mean to scare you! IT jobs are all over, just pay better in London.
Where are you coming from, just to get an idea of the standards you would expect?
I have found it is always a compromise in the UK unless money is no object.
Private schools are usually outwith the man in the street.
Rural areas have a much better quality of life, but jobs are harder to come by and salaries are lower.

eurotramp

Hi Ags,

I'm German and hubby is British and we lived so far in Germany, 1 year in Dorset, 5 years in the Netherlands and by now 2 years in Belgium.....as you can see standards on the down...especially when you live on the French part of Belgium

Bob

Edinburgh and Scotland on the eastern area has a few IT places, Napier and all that shite

Wales too...Cardiff at least has lots of IT...and relative cheap housing compared o London.
Loads of IT jobs in Oxford and surrounding counties...lots of good schools, but again, housing, bloomin' expensive, average house in Oxford £175K for a 3 bed semi I guess....

eurotramp

Are you sure about the house prices? I thought that we have to fork at least 200-250K out......especially in parts like oxford.
We have all the time in the world to wait and to see if the house prices are going down. But I'm already looking into different areas....and Scotland was not on my list..planning more for the south.

Thanks

Bob

Well if you want a decent sized house with parking and a garden in a nice part of the city, yeah, £200k +, but I was just saying you could get alright in the outskirts of the city, especially like in Kidlington, Witney, near by towns, where house prices are a lot cheaper, houses are still really nice with good schools....

ags

Hi again Euro,
We originally were in Scotland for a couple of years, but even being from Scotland didn't help us settle there!
Why don't you give www.upmystreet.com a go and see how you feel about things, or www.rightmove.co.uk to give you an accurate price for houses.
Hold onto your hat, quite surprising I'll guarantee!

Gremlin

My understanding is that Swindon is not bad for IT jobs, and property prices are more reasonable than other parts of the country. London is just a quick commute as well.

Bob

That's because swindon is a shit hole....and house prices are rising there too, mostly because of the massive amount of jobs Honda as brought to the area, but most of the top engineering jobs have had engineers brought over from Japan too...not that much IT, big call centre just shut down out there...

ukkiwi

Try Telford in the Midlands - EDS, Cap Gemini & Fujitsu are all there.

Bob

And another shit hole, not that I'm referring to the midlands...but after swindon....slough...there's sony, bt/o2, mitsubishi electronics whatever, and loads of others too...wouldn't want to live there though...

Gremlin

Oh dear, that's where my older brother lives - never visited myself.

Bob

feel sorry for him already
Though there are nice places outside of swindon, between there and Oxford, that aren't bad...quite a few IT jobs in Oxford too...well if your a programmer, there's MathEngine -They did the Unreal physics engine, there's a tiny UBI soft office, or there was, there's rebellion, empire, and then out the city centre, there's loads of other places, good medical research companies to that need programmers...