I Moved Up North – I Thought I’d Save A Fortune But It’s Not As Cheap As You Think

If you’ve found yourself wondering whether life really is cheaper in the North, you’re not alone. The debate has been reignited by Andy Burnham, who has made closing the gap between the North and South central to his vision for the country. He’s promised the “biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen”, arguing that the UK’s economy has become too centred on London and that raising living standards across the regions should be a national priority.

It’s a debate I’ve been having with almost everyone since I moved from the South to Greater Manchester last year.

I grew up in a town an hour away from London, and I always imagined I’d settle there. But with the average house price in the capital approximately £553,000, compared to the national average of £270,000, it was simply out of reach and unrealistic for me to do so. In January, I bought a house in Greater Manchester, where my partner grew up, and like most southeners I assumed moving up north would make life dramatically cheaper.

Everyone back home told me the same thing: “You’ll save so much money.” And while there’s certainly some truth in it, the reality is more complicated.

The biggest saving is housing. London households spend, on average, more than twice as much each year on their rent or mortgage as households in the North West.

I’d have been lucky to secure a small flat on my own in the capital with my budget. But where I live now, just outside of the Peak District, I have a three-bedroom property, with a separate dining room, lounge, office and garden which cost just under £450,000. While that’s much more than the Northern average, it secured us a place we can live in for years, while my friends back home have bought for the same price and already feel they’ve outgrown their space.

Unfortunately though, living in one of the North’s fastest-growing cities doesn’t automatically mean bargain living. No matter what people think, the cost-of-living crisis doesn’t stop at the M25. Our household bills alone are almost £2,000 per month, a latte costs £4, and we spend over £400 a month on groceries. Every trip to the supermarket leaves me wondering how I spent so much on what feels like so little.

A pint is cheaper here (costing £5.72 in Manchester compared to £6.75 in London) and fuel is a little less expensive, too; this week, petrol was an average of 151.4p per lite in London compared with 147p in Manchester. But many of the everyday costs that dominate our budgets – food, energy bills, insurance and household essentials – still feel painfully high. The average salary in the North is lower, too, and there are fewer job opportunities – two things Burnham is keen to rebalance.

Still, I wouldn’t swap it for the South. When I ask people across the UK what they spend, it was obvious that overall the North is cheaper, even if it’s not half the price like I once expected. In January, the average rent in London was £2,200 per month, and last year 75 per cent of Londoners put the cost of living as their top concern, as found by a survey by pollsters Ipsos, commissioned by London Councils.

Hayley Knight, a 37-year-old PR agency manager, shares a three-bedroom flat in Islington and her share of the rent and bills comes to around £700 a month, before spending roughly £250 on groceries, £200 commuting and between £400 and £800 socialising. “I rent from a friend, so have a good rate, but even with my low housing costs London is insanely expensive, especially with wages not increasing,” she says.

All of Knight’s friends have moved out of London. In 2023, more than 100,000 people left the capital, with a large proportion relocating to the North West, according to figures from ONS. “You walk around now and it’s just wealthy people. I’m looking at moving to Kent to save money, though I’d still be sharing with pals. So many people I know that grew up in London have been priced out.”

London salaries do tend to be higher – the median in the capital is £43,190 per year, around £10,000 more than the South East of England, whereas in the North West it’s £31,489. In the North East it drops to £29,266.

But when I compare our day-to-day spending outside housing, the gap isn’t nearly as dramatic as I’d expected before moving. Where Knight spends £200 commuting per month, I can spend that on a return to my office in London during peak hours for just one day. Phoebe Bambury, a 28-year-old doctor living in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, pays a similar amount to Knight. The flat, which she halves with a friend, is £750 a month in rent before bills of another £364. She spends up to £200 on groceries, around £150 on parking, as her flat has none, and roughly £400 going out.

Bambury moved “to experience a buzz and be right in the thick of” a city without the premium price of London. While Manchester has changed enormously over the past decade, with what seems like new apartment blocks appearing every month, it’s slowly becoming “Londonified” and certainly not the bargain city many southerners still picture.

The more people I spoke to across the country, the clearer it became that the North-South divide isn’t so simple. Ruth Bradford, the 43-year-old owner of The Little Black and White Book project, says house prices in Bristol are “eye-watering”.

“For a standard three or four-bedroom semi-detached with a fairly small garden and good school catchment area, you wouldn’t get anything for less than £600,000. It’s a lot of money for not a lot of house. It’s also competitive, especially for schools. Your postcode can command ridiculous prices,” she says.

For Ruth’s family-of-four, she spends around £520 a month on food, while a family day out can easily reach £100.

Over in Birmingham, jewellery business owner Ruth Chipperfield, says she’s “blessed” with the price she pays for her three-bedroom house near the Solihull border. Her rent of £925 hasn’t increased for six years.

Scotland is an increasingly popular choice and is a significantly cheaper place to live than England. Event producer Paul Crumbie, who moved from London to Glasgow in 2023, splits rent with his partner and pays £525 in rent for a one-bedroom flat, £5.50 on a daily commute, and says “socialising is really cheap” with a round of six drinks totalling £36.

“We’re in a flat block in Govanhill which is around 10 minutes from the city – it’s the up and coming spot. It’s what Hackney used to be to London. I’d previously lived in various parts of London. My last place was £900 rent, without bills, for a single bedroom in a flat share near Stoke Newington. I was paying between £150 and £200 on top to get to work.”

Moving up North was worth it for me – it has made home ownership realistic – but it’s not as cheap as people think. Manchester has given me my own space, but it hasn’t made me immune to the cost-of-living crisis. I still have to think about the amount of coffees out I’m buying.