New research reveals the top 13 places that Brits would move to since remote working

UK money transfer platform, MoneyTransfers.com, commissioned OnePoll to conduct a poll of 2000 Brits. It revealed that 63% of British workers have considered living elsewhere since the start of the pandemic.

Just under 1 in 2 of British workers have thought about moving within the next 12 months, despite the ongoing pandemic. However, when we break it down by age, there's a considerable divide. 3 out of 4 of Gen Z and 70% of millennials had considered a move due to changes in their work environment - compared to just 54% of Gen X and 46% of Baby Boomers.

When it came to gender, 68% of men said that they’ve considered moving elsewhere if remote working continued to be available, compared to 50% of women.

However, nearly half of all of the respondents chose their newly found “ability to work remotely” as one of the main drivers for considering to move elsewhere:

Rank Reasons why the public have considered to live elsewhere %

1 Better quality of life  52.34%

2 The ability to work remotely  48.53%

3 Cost of living 38.13%

4 Cheaper housing (inc lower house prices / lower rent)  29.47%

5 Slower pace of life 29.23%

6 Better weather/scenery 27.80%

7 New adventure 21.60%

8 Closer to family 21.45%

9 Because of COVID-19 16.12%

10 Better schools 16.04%

11 Better career options 12.55%

12 Because of Brexit 11.60%

13 Other 1.83%

Within the UK, London remains top, with nearly 2 out 3 of Londoners opting to move to a different part of London, or slightly further out from the capital. However, with staycations big this summer, many popularising the likes of Cornwall and Devon, the South West came 2nd. The pull of the capital remains strong though, with the South East region coming 3rd:

Rank  of Where British workers have considered moving to %

1 London 18.56%

2 South West 12.34%

3 South East 11.05%

4 Don't know 8.58%

5 Scotland 7.94%

6 Yorkshire and the Humber 7.19%

7 North West 6.33%

8 North East 6.12%

9 Wales 5.47%

10 East of England 5.36%

11 West Midlands 5.26%

12 East Midlands 4.29%

13 Northern Ireland 1.50%

Interestingly, the region of the West Midlands had the highest number of respondents (15%) that would consider living abroad, surpassing the likes of Scotland and London.

MoneyTransfers.com CEO, Jonathan Merry, commented on the findings “With many companies forced to adopt a work-from-home policy. This action saw a meteoric shift in attitude towards a higher level of acceptance for employees working from home, as they demonstrated that they were able to do so.

With many working from home for an extended period of time, the general public questioned whether they could be rid of their commutes, large rents, or mortgages for good, and instead, live and work from somewhere else - 63% thought this to be precise. 

I believe that this on-going experience will ultimately provide the public with more freedom to live and work remotely in the future, with digital being at the forefront of this movement. Moreover, from the perspective of a tech start-up CEO, this has levelled the playing field in this regard, with many start-ups more nimble to the change in the working environment compared to big corporations. MoneyTransfers.com for instance is now fully remote for the foreseeable future and we expect other start-ups to do the same.”