Good place to settle down in UK

[pranjam]

Hi

My HSMP process has reached its last stage I am just confused as to the place where I should start my job search from.

I mean I have come to know that London is really costly so I was wondering is there an area where one can find IT jobs with ease and where the cost of living is relatively low as compared to other places in UK.

Also after I land in UK which place should I settle in initially from where I can commute to different places in search of a job.

I dont know if this has been asked here previously but I didnt find it. Any help here will be highly appreciated.

[marupa]

Me too in the same stage....

But I also heard from my friends in UK , that if you stay too far of from city that you have to pay heavy on commuting..so I am even more confused..

I looked at some sights for rents

http://www.rentright.co.uk/

http://www.torent.co.uk/

but the rent seems exorbident

[SYH]

Hi

My HSMP process has reached its last stage I am just confused as to the place where I should start my job search from.

I mean I have come to know that London is really costly so I was wondering is there an area where one can find IT jobs with ease and where the cost of living is relatively low as compared to other places in UK.

Also after I land in UK which place should I settle in initially from where I can commute to different places in search of a job.

I dont know if this has been asked here previously but I didnt find it. Any help here will be highly appreciated.

For IT go to jobserve.com. From there look at the locations these jobs are in. And pick any location where there are a lot of jobs except for london, so maybe you want to go to Scotland? I went to Bournemouth and worked my way back into the London market
Good luck

[pranjam]

Thanks for you advice , but I am thinking of doing things a little differently

I have got positive responses from recruiters across UK mainly london area,southampton and leicestershire. Now if I have to choose among these places, I will like to consider the quality of life in these places as well.

So that is why I was wondering If people already in UK can tell me about these places as to the going rates for rents the commutation and just in general terms the ease of living in these places

[silverTR]

Definitely this is something i wanna know also
Do you think Scotland is also good alternative for Uk

[baskey]

Thanks for you advice , but I am thinking of doing things a little differently

I have got positive responses from recruiters across UK mainly london area,southampton and leicestershire. Now if I have to choose among these places, I will like to consider the quality of life in these places as well.

So that is why I was wondering If people already in UK can tell me about these places as to the going rates for rents the commutation and just in general terms the ease of living in these places

Hi,

If I was you , I would come and intially stay some where cheap to live and apply for jobs all over UK to start with, if I get more than one job then only I will think about which location is best to live. Always try to live near to your job location. Avoid commuting for long distances every day, its waste of money, energy and time. After working here for few years , you have choice of moving to your favourite location.

Regards,

Baskaran

[pktamil2007]

Thanks for you advice , but I am thinking of doing things a little differently

I have got positive responses from recruiters across UK mainly london area,southampton and leicestershire. Now if I have to choose among these places, I will like to consider the quality of life in these places as well.

So that is why I was wondering If people already in UK can tell me about these places as to the going rates for rents the commutation and just in general terms the ease of living in these places

Hi pranjam

I am also in the search of jobs. I am posting in sites like cwjobs.co.uk, monster.co.uk
I dont seem to get responses, getting a bit anxious.
Can you tell me which sites you applied in? I am from the IT field.

[global gypsy]

Suggest you move to London area, esp if you are coming here from the Indian subcontinent. London offers the most in terms of cultural diversity and opportunities. Yes, it's expensive to live here, but you also get paid better. And buying a house here can be a good long-term investment.

[pranjam]

Well, I have applied on lots of sites like totaljobs, monster, cwjobs. jobserve etc etc

I just get a feeling that there are lot of IT companies in Bristol area thats where I get most of the responses from (correct me if i am wrong).

I liked the suggestion about staying in the cheapest area in UK and then searching for jobs.

Any idea as to which place is the cheapest also preferably it should be somewhere in the middle so that if I have to run all over UK searching for a job I wont have to waste a lot of money in commutation.

[apply4hsmp]

Couple of things

1. Things become costly as u go down South from North(Scotland) mainly around housing and commuting.

2. Personally I dont prefer London as its a mad rush spending almost 20% of your day in Tube. You really cant enjoy life out there.

3. London is best place if u need a break or do big things for a few years to shape ur career, its a big hub of IT jobs but shift to other areas sonner or later like Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol.

4. Small areas offer good value for money and better savings in time and money, more time with ur family (most imp for me) without disturbing ur career progress.

[avjones]

It depends where you live in London! I spend, on average, 0% of my day on the tube.

[apply4hsmp]

It depends where you live in London! I spend, on average, 0% of my day on the tube.

agree with u, but on an average a londoner travels by tube and spends time travelling around london, so was a general statement.

[goldfish]

I spend a little over an hour on the tube each day (about 40 minutes) each way. That's about typical I think and you can get to most of Zone 1 & 2 in that time. Doesn't seem too long really although if you can live close to work, or work from home, even better!

[unileeds]

Well depends on what you are after. London is great and can be quite alright to live in if you are lucky. It is expensive, but you can bag bargains as well. If you are young, and would like to enjoy life, not stress about how you will get from one place to another, then london is great with its public transport system.
For jobs and specially IT jobs look at the M4 corridor. Reading, Basingstoke, Slough etc. They are all good IT places. If you are married and are looking at a good life style, then maybe slightly away from london, or in the outskirts might be good as well. If you have kids, then make sure you think about schools as there is a lot of difference in standards here, and there is the issue of catchment area and what not.
Personally, I started in Leeds and I think it was a friendly place, but I really didnt feel the british life style there. The same goes for places like Leicester, Southall, Slough, Reading etc etc. But the advantage is that you get your indian groceries easily. You dont get stared (not that much) in the streets as you would say in other places. This used to initimidate me a lot, but now I have got used to it. People are cautious towards strangers, but speak to them nicely and politely and you will be alright.
Every city has its good and bad spots, try and avoid the bad ones. Scotland is a good place to live, with a great life in the summers. Winters are dull nearly everywhere due to the lack of sunshine.
People from the Indian Subcontinent, as a precaution make sure you get your international driving Licence, also see if its worthwhile getting private insurance for a year (till you get settled in and register with a GP etc). I would also make sure you have some way of transferring funds from your home country to the UK. ICICI bank is good with this, atleast in my experience.

Lastly, come with an open mind. You will experience everything here from warmth to beloved to genuine community spirit. The society and culture is different and I would be careful before making any judgements. Two good ice breakers here would talking about the weather and offering someone tea/a pint of beer. But I remember once when I mentioned (jokingly) how rubbish the weather was today compared to yday, the taxi driver replied, "Why dont you bugger off to your own country then" so I would use conversation wisely.

Cheers

[unileeds]

Also look at www.gumtree.com its a good place to find rent ads, and its available for cities other than London as well. Gives you an Idea of living costs in each city

[pranjam]

Hi

Can someone provide some guidance for what you should do when we land in UK for the first time, I mean places where one can stay, cheap hotels etc.
Also in general what is the cost of commutation in UK. Suppose I land up in London and have to go for an interview in Chelmsford what are my options.

Also any suggestions about where should one stay should I try and find some room through gumtree and all or are there any cheap hotels where one can stay for a few weeks because intially I dont want to get bogged down with one place by renting some accomodation as I would have to visit various cities for interviews etc

[unileeds]

Try looking at hostels then on a nightly basis, hostelworld or hostelbooking.com or something. It wont be great but it will be good for a night or two.

Commuting is a bit expensive. The train fares are quite expensive. Check train times and prices (sometimes booking 7 days or more in advance can reduce prices) at nationalrail.co.uk Also unlike in india where you buy a ticket for a train, here you buy a ticket for a journey, ie you can catch most trains on that route. Return journeys are cheaper (usually £1-£5 more than one way) and the return ticket is valid for a month. So even if you have a small chance of coming back from that place in the future, try the return fares. There is a concept of peak and offpeak (after 10am before 4:30 pm) as well. This only applies on some trains and peak tickets are well expensive. So try to travel offpeak, look for prices in advance (and then book either online or at a station) and always ask if your ticket is valid on a train. Some train services like GNER offer reduced tickets if you book and reserve for a praticular timed train say the 11:53 to Leeds. Your ticket is then valid only on that train but its £8-9 compared to £33.
If you are under 26 then a young persons railcard costs £20 and is worth every penny. Eg A usual return ticket to Leeds for me costs £51. Where as without the Young per railcard its close to £70 or slightly more. So buy this if you qualify.

The other option is BUS. Nationalexpress.com (or co.uk) is a standard intercity bus service here. Again book online for heavy discounts. you can get tickets for 9 quid on their super saver fares. Book 7 days in advance. Other option for buses to and from London are megabus.com (or co.uk) They again are very cheap with tickets starting at £1 plus 50pence booking. The ticket is usually texted to you.

Air is an option and i usually use skyscanner.net or kayak.co.uk for good cheap flights. Last year my ticket from Rome to heathrow was £11.50 incl taxes where as the bus from heathrow to my place (18 miles) was £12.50. So thats the price variance.

Mobiles, well the contract term is tempting, but I would suggest go for pay as you go to begin with. ASDA and TESCO have some great pay as you go prices. A phone and sim could start at £15 if you are not fussy.

Bank account is a must and usually there is some hassle. But once you have that, you will be quite capable of applying for a mobile contract or a credit card or soemthing. If you dont plan travelling outside UK, then applying for a UK driving licence is a must. The trouble is that you have to send your passport to the DVLA to get a provisional Licence. They USED to accept bringing in the passport in person to teh big DVLA centres but that has now been changed (atleast when I tried it). So its a good 2 weeks of being without your passports!!!

Hope it helps!!!

[pranjam]

Thanks a lot unileeds for your inputs

Just one more query I already have a mobile thats a tri band one cant I just buy a sim and use the same mobile or is it necessary to buy the mobiles as well if you get this mobile contract.

[unileeds]

yes you can use your existing mobile.

[GKdada]

Unileed provided very useful information to all of us.I used to stay in Reading for 1.5 years and then Sheffield for 7 months.IN my stay ,I found tremendous difference between these two big cities.I found Reading very much happening in other days than weekend....where as Sheffield city itself big and good for weekends.Sheffield provide you all kind of facilities and now a days lots Indian are staying there.
In Reading we had got Hindu temple,Reading library with regional literatures and lots of Indian. This city still not much inhabitated with Indian as such.
Sheffiled has some suburbs where we can find lots of non indian community....we can get groceries but again people don't find accmodable with non -indian whereas you can even facde soem sort of beloved.

[arsenalsri]

What about Leeds? How is the cost of living in Leeds? Is the rent a lot cheaper in Leeds ? How about transportation and availability of Indian groceries and stuff in Leeds?

[apply4hsmp]

http://www.jobserve.com/News/E5CFEA316.news

Milton Keynes tops jobs growth list

Milton Keynes is the fastest-growing city in the country when it comes to decade-long job growth, according to a new study.

A Centre for Cities report, based on some 50 areas of the country, reveals Milton Keynes has enjoyed an average annual growth rate of more than three per cent between 1995 and 2005.

The only other city to top the three per cent mark was Portsmouth, while Brighton came in third, with 2.6 per cent.

Communities minister Hazel Blears said: "Where once the wrecking balls demolished the factories and warehouses in our city centres, today the cranes fill the skyline building the cities of the future.

"Let no-one fall into the trap of talking our cities down, or pretending things haven't improved in the past decade."

The report also said that Manchester, London and Birmingham need to close the gap between prosperous metropolitan developments and poorer neighbourhoods.

A closer look at the findings reveals that overall the north of England is the fastest-growing region in the country when it comes to job growth.

[apply4hsmp]

What about Leeds? How is the cost of living in Leeds? Is the rent a lot cheaper in Leeds ? How about transportation and availability of Indian groceries and stuff in Leeds?

I live in Leeds, u get all indian groceries and spices here at abu bakar and continmental.

Rentals are ok 600-900 for a two bedroom decent one, commuting also is £3.5 peak and £2.5 off peak in buses.

U generally get 40-45K as good salaries in Leeds. Something above that is quite good.

One of the very upcoming places in UK as down south its getting very expensive, definitely recommend that.

[unileeds]

Leeds is good. But again there is an underlying anti asian feel there due to the huge asian population in Leeds and Bradford. I mean I started my UK life there and I think it might have been the wrong decision. But again depends on how much you want to segregate with the native population.

One thing I feel I should mention. When I came here to Uni, it was often the case that Asians would live together, and would only go places were asians go and basically wont experience the life in the UK as the English do. Having said this I know there will be huge criticism on this. But I feel if you spend the time and effort of coming all the way down here, dont focus on things like will u get your groceries or how many indians live there etc, unless your sole purpose is Work, Home, Eat, Sleep, Earn and then return back after 2 yrs. If you plan to live here take the first few steps as soon as you come. It is difficult and challenging especially if there are no friends around. There can be a lot of hostility from people if they dont know you, again this is not region specific just according to who you rub against. But then thats there anywhere. I mean when I went to goa there was beloved against me in my own country!!! Just because I didnt have the Pound or dollar to spend and was a local tourist. After that I cant really blame anyone from being dearly beloved because people in my own country are brimming with it. Though its not a nice feeling it exists everywhere and you are unlucky if you are caught in the midst.

But back to my original suggestion of trying and experiencing native culture and lifestyle. Lots of people do but there are probably a lot who dont. It's just a waste if you dont!!! Having said that there are some hotbeds of anti immigrant people. I'd stay away from there at all costs!!!

[rvag]

Can someone who already lives in the UK suggest some Postcodes where to look for accomodation for the initial period of stay for a first timer in UK Please?.

Any information on how to arrange for bed-sit when initially coming to the UK?