Why is London so expensive?
London is the place many of my graduate friends inevitably seem to be gravitating to in search of work, and many are now settled there and employed in well-paid jobs. That's perfectly understandable as the city offers the best job prospects in the country, but as one of those 'simple country folk' there is one thing about London I have never been able to get my head around. Why is the cost of living so much higher there and why does everyone accept this? I genuinely do not understand this state of affairs, and whichever logical angle I approach the question from, I always reach the conclusion that London circumstances should mean the cost of living is cheaper there. Allow me to explain...
When reading job adverts, it is the norm to see one starting salary for what used to be called the 'provinces' (i.e. everywhere outside of London) and a higher one just for London, or when discussing average prices of things London will usually be excluded from the figures and treated as a special case. That doesn't mean the job is intrinsically more difficult in London, but simply that Londoners expect to be paid higher wages for the same work to compensate for their higher cost of living, and their actual take-home pay after living expenses is no higher, or in some cases actually lower. Thinking logically, I fail to see why this situation has arisen and why their cost of living should be higher in the first place. There is an argument that life in any popular location will inevitably become more expensive, but London seems to stand alone as an example that is way more extreme than any other UK city, and I'm honestly at a loss to explain why.
London is the capital and the economic and cultural heart of the country, and as such it has far better infrastructure than most towns that in some cases is world-leading. Logically that should therefore mean things are cheaper at the point of consumption as the cost of delivering them to London is lower thanks to efficient communication and transport networks, and in many cases the providers are themselves based in the city. With everything they need easily obtainable on their doorstep, massive demand offering quantity savings, and much competition between retailers, the cost of living for Londoners should be lower than those who have greater difficulty obtaining the essentials of life. I suppose the situation has developed into something of a self-fulfilling prophecy: residents have become accustomed to paying higher prices and accept this as a fact of London life, so retailers take the opportunity to charge higher prices to a willing market and the circle continues.
Property prices in London are quite frankly absurd and I guess this is the root cause of all the expenses as high rents have a knock-on effect on retailers, but again why should that be the case? Supply and demand I suppose: despite being overcrowded, overpriced, polluted and thus rather unpleasant, London is still somehow seen as an attractive and desirable place to live and people are prepared to pay well over the odds for the privilege. High property prices by themselves should not necessarily mean everything else becomes more expensive though, and there is an argument in my simplistic mind that other things should be cheaper to compensate for the high cost of housing and the consequently lower disposable income available to residents after paying their housing expenses.
It would be far more understandable if the cost of living was so much higher in remote locations such as the far reaches of Cornwall or the Scottish Highlands and Islands that are isolated from the majority of civilisation and require goods to be delivered long distances through poor conditions, yet there is no routine increase in wages in those locations compared with the average, and they are not treated as special exceptions to the norm. To some extent, the London situation can be blamed on the effect of tourism, but even basic everyday things like food prices can be more expensive in London for no apparent reason, as the exact same goods are available from the exact same retailers elsewhere at lower prices and getting them to London is no more difficult or expensive than getting them to those other places. Why is there a 'London premium' levied on so many goods that can't really be justified?
As for my personal view of London, for many reasons I dislike the place and try to avoid it as much as possible. Living and working there would be my idea of hell and I certainly couldn't stand the idea of a crowded commute into the heart of the city every day. My sister lived there for a year while studying for her MA and found it exciting at first, but the novelty soon wore off after a matter of months. In fact it became a standing joke that every time she told someone she was moving to London, their response would usually be "it's very expensive there, you know"! I only visited for the day on a handful of occasions and quite frankly that was more than enough as the frantic pace of London life is just too much for me.
I wouldn't want to live there even at normal provincial prices, so I genuinely don't understand why so many people are willing to pay over the odds to live in such a place and accept that expense as an unavoidable fact of where they choose to live. Maybe for certain types of people, living in London is considered some form of status symbol that they think is essential for their social standing, and they're prepared to pay so much just for the dubious privilege of being able to say they live there, but of course there are others who do have genuine reasons for needing to live there. A low cost of living may make all the problems far more forgivable, but what I consider one of the less desirable places to live in the UK is also the most expensive, a peculiar paradox to me.
For now I'm quite happy in my humble small town away from the hustle and bustle of intense urban life, but my dream for the future, seemingly unlike many of my friends, is to get as far from the cities as possible and live in a big house in the country, far enough away from civilisation to avoid the overwhelming crowds, but within reasonable travelling distance of a decent-sized town so I'm not completely isolated. Some may say I lack ambition but there are more important things in life than money, and that doesn't sound like such a bad lifestyle, does it?
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