Pension boon

[Beef Oven!]

Re public transport, the difference is not in the cost - more that in the SE, the Beeching Axe hardly applied at all, so public transport is excellent, whereas it's patchy elsewhere. The cost differential is not significant, especially with Oyster cards and the like.

Return bus to my local Morrisons/Asda for me and Mrs Oven is £6 on an Oyster card(£5.60?). 10 minute bus ride on one bus.

I think you may not be fully up to speed on these prices.

Btw, Oyster cards are old hat, contactless bank cards are replacing them almost on a daily basis.


And public transport is not as excellent as you might think - the cost to a local hospital, 2 buses for me and Mrs Oven return is £9.60.

[Bryn]

Where I live, 30 miles out from Marble Arch, an 8 minute bus trip to the town shops cost £2.20 for a single and £3.20 for a return. Think yourself lucky to live in London.

[Beef Oven!]

According to the latest press release from the Halifax the average price of a house in London is 76% higher than the rest of the UK - but if you disregard housing and the higher cost of commuting London is only 7% dearer to live in than Manchester!

As for working hours per week - I'm afraid I've never worked more than 35 hours per week, so if I were minimum waged (which thankfully I've never been) that would mean £11,830pa. Also, many supermarkets and retail outlets employ staff on 4 hour shifts totalling 24 hours per week, this means they (the employers) don't have to pay NI so in effect it's cheap labour for them and workers can then claim tax credits (which is really a cockeyed system when you think about it isn't it?)

Crazy innit?

People don't want to work full time because they can get free money off the state and employers don't want to offer more hours because it increases their wage bill!!! Is that win-win or lose-lose!!??

[Anna]

Indeed. Taxis, restaurants, buses, trains, cinema tickets, food shopping, football match tickets (Man Utd much cheaper than Chelsea and Arsenal for example), clothes, school-trips, school dinners and so on, and so on!
It's called the cost of living and it's not limited to just house prices and rents (which is enough on its own anyway).

So what's the cost of an average school dinner in London then? A quick google reveals each Borough is different and it varies between £1.90 and £2.30. Here it's £2.00 - that seems comparable. Food, same price in any supermarket I should think plus you have advantage of many street markets for fruit and veg, Clothes - they're no dearer in London (unless you can't bear to wear High Street chain merchandise) What is cheaper in London is concert tickets - you can go for a fiver I guess, here you won't get change out £15-25

Methinks you doth protest too much!

[Beef Oven!]

So what's the cost of an average school dinner in London then? A quick google reveals each Borough is different and it varies between £1.90 and £2.30. Here it's £2.00 - that seems comparable. Food, same price in any supermarket I should think plus you have advantage of many street markets for fruit and veg, Clothes - they're no dearer in London (unless you can't bear to wear High Street chain merchandise) What is cheaper in London is concert tickets - you can go for a fiver I guess, here you won't get change out £15-25

Methinks you doth protest too much!

Seems we Londoners have never had it so good! In fact, the cost of living in the north is so expensive compared to London

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Return bus to my local Morrisons/Asda for me and Mrs Oven is £6 on an Oyster card(£5.60?). 10 minute bus ride on one bus.

it wouldn't be the cost of the bus (similar in Yorkshire) that would get to me, but having to spend time in those two hideous supermarkets that bombard you with annoying muzak.

[Anna]

Crazy innit? People don't want to work full time because they can get free money off the state and employers don't want to offer more hours because it increases their wage bill!!! Is that win-win or lose-lose!!??

Actually I know some women who work at a local supermarket - they would love to go full time but employers won't offer it so they land up juggling two jobs (generally as cleaners which is better paid than manning a checkout, usually £8ph) because the tax credit isn't enough and, of course, they end up paying tax.

[Beef Oven!]

it wouldn't be the cost of the bus (similar in Yorkshire) that would get to me, but having to spend time in those two hideous supermarkets that bombard you with annoying muzak.

That's your reason for not shopping in Morrisons/Asda? I can think of a few stronger ones

[ardcarp]

Kids in London have it lucky. I understand they have free transport under 16. My West Country kids have to pay £2.50 each way to our nearest small market town. And sixth formers have to fork out £500 per annum for the school bus...or rather, we do.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

That's your reason for not shopping in Morrisons/Asda? I can think of a few stronger ones

I can't think of a better reason. When Tesco and Sainsbury's did their annual dumbing down - crass Christmas music replacing musical silence - Frau A and I went to Waitrose 40 miles away, just to shop in peace.

[teamsaint]

Kids in London have it lucky. I understand they have free transport under 16. My West Country kids have to pay £2.50 each way to our nearest small market town. And sixth formers have to fork out £500 per annum for the school bus...or rather, we do.

same around here too.

the council subsidises the buses, and then makes it so expensive that in the holiday it is cheaper to drive them kids into town.

Also, we have a fantastic train service from to local stations in very small villages a few miles away, one an hour to both Salisbury and Southampton, but almost no buses link the larger villages to the Railway........

Morrisons are very good if you want to buy Fennel.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

So it is only property that's the real issue in London.

[Beef Oven!]

So it is only property that's the real issue in London.

No, it's not. The cost of living is much higher in London in general. We can't go by all our forum anecdotes, as interesting as they may be.

Consumer prices 18% higher than Manchester, 53% when rent is included in consumer prices.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+Kingdom&country2=United+Kingdom&city1=Manchester&city2=London

[eighthobstruction]

forum anecdotes interesting maybe.

[Anna]

No, it's not. The cost of living is much higher in London in general.

However, gross disposable household income per head of London residents is the highest of all regions. At £20,509, it is 28 per cent higher than the national average of £16,034
Therefore, as Londoners can afford it - they are charged more and are willing to pay more!!

(figures taken from Halifax report on London cost of living Dec 2014)