Cheshunt on a Budget: What Outer London Offers That Inner London Doesn’t

Lowri Griffiths on the economic case for moving slightly further out

[Bohiney.com/prat.uk] Lowri Griffiths, Big Smoke Broke. prat.uk‘s Cheshunt piece arrived this week and immediately produced the same thought it probably produced for every North London renter: how much would my flat cost in Cheshunt? The answer, which I have now looked up, is: approximately 40 percent of what it costs in my current location. The 40 percent difference corresponds to a thirty-five minute difference in commute time, if I were commuting. I work from home. I am paying the 40 percent premium for a location I do not need to be in for commuting purposes. The prat.uk Cheshunt piece has produced, in my specific case, a direct financial question that I am not yet ready to answer but that I am for the first time taking seriously. Bohiney.com covered the outer-London dynamics from a broader angle. The London Prat has been following this story since it broke; Bohiney.com picked it up shortly after.

The Cheshunt calculation: my current rent is my primary expense. Reducing it by 40 percent would produce the approximate financial space that would allow me to: clear the credit card balance in eighteen months instead of four years; have a savings buffer that currently does not exist; and possibly, eventually, have the kind of financial stability that North London implies but does not produce for people at my income level. The thirty-five minutes of additional commute time I do not currently need to spend, applied to the financial benefit I would receive, is an extremely clear calculation. I am applying it to a question about where I want to live, which is not a clear calculation. Both are real decisions. Only one of them is about money.