Salary/living costs in UK
 

Hi,
I am now slowly finishing my work in Germany and thinking about moving to UK next year. If I decide to move, I will be getting a job at the University of Oxford as a Postdoc with salary starting from 30k GBP pa. After taxation (single, no kids) it will leave me with around 2000 pounds per month. Is it enough to survive? I looked at some postings of flats and I could probably get something in the range of 600-800 per month. By the way, flats are quite expensive in UK :-D, here in Essen, one room apartment with all the bills paid cost me 350 Euro!!!
Thanks in advance for suggestions and your opinions. Cheers, Greg

salary/living cost:

not enough/far too much !!!

Hiya Greg.
I too do not live in the UK since I moved to Roma 20 years ago. I visited last week as I do quite often for a combination of work and visiting mates and note the following:

1. Euro to Pound has strengthened recently, now 1.25E per Pound.
2. Flats have never been easy in the UK, small market.
3. I would suggest buy and not rent, if you intend to stay a while.
4. Near Oxford there are several great places which are not tooooo expensive to live.
5. Loads of good bike roads in the area!!!

Have fun, all the best, Simon.

Thanks for replies. If I decide to go it would be probably for 2-3 years and then move on, so not sure about buying a flat. I would go for three main reasons:
1. Oxford University is quite good.
2. I've never been to UK.
3. Would like to ride all over the place ;-)

I have just found that average income in UK, as of April 2012 was around 26.5 k GBP pa. ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20442666 ) So I guess with mine slightly above 30k GBP pa. I will not float in luxury either. :-)
Salaries in science are unfortunately quite low at the beginning, and I, with mine 28 years of age, am just at the bottom of the ladder... oh well. Will see. :-) Thanks again for responses, Greg

�30k before tax is OK, but if you're single it will be expensive as there's nobody to share the rent/living expenses with! I would say buy a flat, but if its only for a couple of years, hardly worth it & you would have problems getting a mortgage anyway....
EU driving license no problem, but not sure what happens if you're here for over a year - worth checking DVLA website for foreign nationals driving rules. Also, there maybe implications with insurance....

Here is something to consider.... (although I don't know what type of science you do, so it's just a pointer really)

Sellafield, in West Cumbria is taking on 500 new starters over the next year. It is a Nuclear Reprocessing Plant and Science is at it's very core (it had until a few years ago the worlds first Nuclear Power Plant).

Salaries for the workers at Sellafield are much higher than average, yet the living costs in the area are among the lowest in the country.

Worth looking at -> http://www.sellafieldsites.com/

Newcastle Upon Tyne is also a university city having both a large University and university hospitals, so again might be worth investigating. Also the cost of living is relatively low compared with the south of the country.

Generally speaking, north is cheaper (but with lower wages) than south and if you are in the commuter belt for London you will pay even more...

Bit of a hijack but thanks for the Sellafield link - will have to look into that myself as well

+1!!! Its a LONG way from here, but SE England is getting so stressed up these days, I would be up for something like that!

True all but Oxford is wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for all the responses. So..., after some delay due to a couple of moths-long trip to Mongolia and finishing up my work in Germany I am moving to Oxford! I will start my work at the Univeristy of Oxford on 1st of July. If anybody lives close and fency introducing me to area (green lanes) it would be great :-). Additionally, if somebody has any info on possible accomodation (flat or share) please do let me know.
Cheers,
Greg