By now you’ll probably have a good idea of what you want to do. You may well know the sort of area you want to live in but haven’t made that final decision yet as to exactly where. It’s important to look at all the options open to you as it is going to be vital to your future happiness and the success of your business. This chapter will present some of the possibilities for your consideration.
We strongly recommend that you visit the specific areas you shortlist to get a real feel for the locations.Britain has an incredibly varied countryside, ranging from wild mountains to idyllic villages among green fields to long open sea coasts and wide marshlands. The weather too will make an impact on where you want to be. Cornwall, Wales and the west coast of Scotland have high rainfall but a milder climate than the drier and colder east. In general, though, the further north you go, the colder it will be.
Commuting Territory
This need not be as restrictive as it sounds. When you think of commuting you may automatically think of London, but all over Britain people are travelling into cities to work. According to a study by the
RAC in 2003, Britons spend more time commuting than any other nation in Europe. The average British worker spends 22-25 minutes travelling each way to and from work, twice that of the Italians. In fact, commuting time varies in Britain from 19 minutes each way for the average worker in Wales to 56 minutes for the Central London worker. If your future life involves one of you carrying on with their present job, at least for a while, then this is something you’ll have to consider.
Moving out of London to the countryside within commuting reach might be your favoured option. Check on the possibilities. We lived in Wiltshire for a number of years, when I worked first in London and then in Reading. Conveniently, many of the regular trains from Penzance to Paddington stopped at the small station in our nearby village of Pewsey. When we first moved there, it was not a well-known station and there were only about ten people waiting on the platform in the early morning. By the time we were thinking of moving on, the number had risen to over 50.
With the increasing popularity of the counties within reach of London however, house prices have risen steeply. Commuters are travelling longer and longer distances. One or two fellow travellers on that train were commuting daily from Devon. London is a special case, but it is worth considering breaking the link with the southeast of England and working in a different city. In the RAC study, the average commuting time for the north-east of England was shown to be a reasonable 21 minutes each way.
In Scotland, Edinburgh is expanding rapidly, pushing up house prices in all the surrounding villages. Commuters are now starting to look further afield, even as far as the Borders, although there is as yet no direct rail link. Newspaper articles laud Moffat, which is only a mile from the M74 and about 50 miles from Glasgow or Edinburgh, as a town with many attractions where commuters are buying homes. Dunfermline, the ancient capital of Scotland, is only four miles from the Forth Bridge and convenient for travelling to Edinburgh, Glasgow or Perth. Here and in many similar small towns, quality of life is a plus factor. Property is much cheaper and the family can benefit from a more peaceful existence and space to breathe.
If you don’t have to commute, you have a far wider choice. Your business may of course dictate the sort of area you’ll settle in. The
following is not a comprehensive list, only a guide to your decision, but it may give you some new ideas, or simply confirm what you already know.