There are lots of reasons to live in London. The culture, the diversity of people, the energy, the sheer number of things to do—and of course, job opportunities that simply aren’t available outside the city.
But what happens when you want a nicer home, and realise you are going to have to shell out a ridiculous sum to get something remarkably small. Do you put baby, dog, and washing machine all in one room? And what happens when your once 30 minute commute now takes twice that, and with half as much oxygen on the increasingly packed commuter boat we call the tube?
You move. You say goodbye to London in all its glory, and hello to fresh air, big starry skies, green grass, and your very own country pub.
London and other UK cities only take up 9% of the countries landmass, but account for nearly 60% of all jobs. As such, moving out has consequences… you either have to commute in, or accept the fact that your job opportunities will be fewer and further between, and for less money.
Nonetheless new research shows a significant increase in the number of people that want to move out of town. Their reasons may indeed be housing related—as we aren’t building the new 40,000 – 50,000 new homes policy experts say are needed to keep up with demand. But they are also quality-of-life and living-expense related. London, the powerhouse it is—with its wealth, celebrities, exhibitions, concerts and trendy restaurants—is an expensive place to hangout.
Maybe however, it isn’t so much about the cost of city living as it is about what's now possible outside of town that has people leaving the capital. With employers becoming increasingly open to working from home, flexi-working hours becoming commonplace, and offices moving out of big cities—suddenly people don’t need to be in London all the time. Moreover technology really does allow you to work from anywhere.
Consider this:
- High-speed broadband is being rolled out all over the country, so if your ideal village doesn’t have it now, it probably will soon.
- Cloud applications mean you don’t need to be on network in the office to share files or collaborate in real time, you can do it from your garden. We are big fans of Google Apps for Work.
- IP business phone systems mean that your mobile phone can ring simultaneously to your office phone, and that you can even have a desktop phone in your home office that is ‘on network’ for your company’s office phone system.
- VPNs and two factor authentication access make business networks remotely, securely accessible, so even non-cloud based files and programmes can be accessed from your country pad.
- Freelancing is on the rise, so if you want to really take a leap and go solo… finding consulting work you can do from your rural haven maybe easier than you think.
The bottom line is: if you are looking to escape London and live by the beach, or in that woodland cabin you have always dreamed of—do it. The trend is with you, technology is with you… and we will be with you too if you get that pool, hot tub, wine cellar and roof terrace you were thinking about.
About VTSL:
VTSL provides VoIP business phone systems, including Mitel office phones, mobiles and home-office desktop phones that can be used on a multi-site network. VTSL specialise in providing all the features of a large, corporate phone system at a fraction of the cost to SME’s across London, the UK and Ireland. For more information email info@vtsl.net.
