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 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.