Best place to live around London

[freemind]

I have my small Internet business and thinking of moving to the UK, somewhere not so far from London. I need some better taxation, an English-speaking environment, a better contact with English programmers and so on. My questions are:

1. What are the best places to live around London considering I'm not a billionaire , I have a wife and a son of 15yo, and I wouldn't need to travel to London every day since most of time I'm working online?

2. Would it be the suburbs or closest cities like Reading, Oxford etc.?

3. What is the cost of decent living in the UK if someone doesn't have to struggle every day but he is not a tycoon either, like, how much would it be totally for a month (incl. housing, electricity, food - all, probably, slightly above the average)

Would highly appreciate all answers

[jlms]

1.- You will get as many answers as people. No point in asking such question IMHO. What you need to ask yourself is how important is for your business to have easy access to London, airports if you will travel abroad often, school for your child, etc. Pretty much all around London there are nice places to live, and even in London proper, if you do your homework, you can find nice places.

FWIW I lived in Woking for several years and it was fine, most towns in the vicinity (Guildford, Cobham, Walton on Thames, Weybridge, etc) are pretty middle class and you will find something that suits you. Best access to London and Heathrow airport was in Woking.

2.- Would it be what? There are places bang in the middle of Central London that are great, and places in the suburbs or the countryside that are dumps. You need to come over here and inspect some places that you think may cover your needs.

3.- £40000/year should be enough (that is salary, before tax) the more the merrier of course.

[James3214]

It probably depends on how much you can afford and how often you need to get into the centre of London. If it is frequent, I recommend living somewhere near a tube station but areas vary and obviously the higher the price the better the area. Personally, as I am originally from the Southgate area of North London I would recommend that. Easy links to the M25 as well. A bit out of touch with the cost of living in London and what salary you would need these days but sounds like 40k isn't far off the mark!

[goonerfirstteam]

Zone 2 or Zone 3 areas (Tube designations) are nice and not as crowded with people as in Central London.

[palmtree]

1. What are the best places to live around London considering I'm not a billionaire , I have a wife and a son of 15yo, and I wouldn't need to travel to London every day since most of time I'm working online?

-------Have a look at Kingston upon Thames (North Kingston to be exact), Richmond upon Thames or Wimbledon. Really lovely areas and easy to commute to London. Go on rightmove.co.uk to find properties for rent. Kingston upon Thames would be your best bet as it is slightly cheaper to rent/buy than the other two areas. Average rent for a 2 bed flat is about £1200, 3 bed flat £1500 excluding bills. 2 bed house about £1600.00. Don't quote me though, it is an estimate. Your wife and son would like it too, plenty of shops/restaurants/good schools and lots of green open spaces and the river thames close by.

2. Would it be the suburbs or closest cities like Reading, Oxford etc.?

-------I have never been to Reading. If rental property prices similar to the above quotes, I'd choose those areas instead. Can't comment on Oxford but think it'd be too far from London.

3. What is the cost of decent living in the UK if so
meone doesn't have to struggle every day but he is not a tycoon either, like, how much would it be totally for a month (incl. housing, electricity, food - all, probably, slightly above the average)

-------Cost of living is very high. If housing already is over the £1000 figure. Food depends where you shop (waitrose, sainsbury's or lidl/aldi)...

sorry got to dash...

Good luck.

[tmash]

You mentioned that you want to be in touch with English programmers!!.Well...London is a diverse city and i really don't think there are many English programmers in London as they are foreign born programmers.The largest number being from EU and India.Since you are from Sweden why not get in touch with a Swedish forum or Scandinavian community. The smartest coders i have met are from your countries especially German and there are places around London they hang out.

A