With the growing cost of living crisis, and the rise of hybrid working encouraging many workers to consider relocating to UK areas that are cheaper to live in, a new survey by leading global communications company, Moneypenny, showed 59% of workers would be prepared to relocate, or have already done so. The survey of 1,000 UK office workers showed that in contrast, only 29% said they would not be prepared to relocate.
Motives for Relocating
With such a high percentage of those surveyed showing they’d be willing to relocate, Moneypenny investigated the motives behind a relocation for work reasons, with the following results:
- Cheaper cost of living (50%)
- To start a new chapter in life (46%)
- For a partner (44%)
- For family (42%)
- To leave a city (39%)
- To move and live abroad (34%)
- To leave a more rural area and move to a city (34%)
Relocation motives varied between men and women, with men most likely to say the cost of living being cheaper (46%) would be the main reason to relocate, while the most common motive for women was the ability to start a new chapter in their lives (56%).
Relocation For Job Purposes
Moneypenny also investigated how many would move to another city if they were required to because of their job, and found that over half of those surveyed (53%) would move cities, while only 20% wouldn’t.
Men were more likely than women to move for a job (69%) compared to 51% of women.
Moneypenny also looked into relocation distances that those polled would be willing to move to for a job, and the average number of miles people were prepared to relocate from their current location was 250.6 miles.
Perhaps surprisingly, the age group most likely to be willing to relocate the furthest from their current location, at more than 1,000 miles, are those aged 45 to 54 (32%). While you might imagine this age group would be most settled, especially if they have children of school age, it could be that they were demonstrating a willingness to relocate to another country for work.
However, what was perhaps even more surprising was that the second-youngest age group (25-34) had the highest percentage of people saying they would only be willing to relocate 1 to 10 miles for a job.
Rural vs Urban Areas
Moneypenny also wanted to discover how many UK office workers would leave the city to move to a more rural location and found that 27% of those polled have already left the city to move to somewhere rural, while 42% would be happy to relocate somewhere more rural, but haven’t yet done so. Only 17% of those surveyed would prefer to stay living in a city.
When investigating if respondents would relocate, or have already relocated, if their company allows or allowed flexible or remote working, nearly half (46%) would move to a more rural area, while 29% would relocate to a more urban UK area or city, and 10% would prefer to live abroad.
Not surprisingly, younger generations are most likely to want to relocate to a more urban destination: 56% of 18 to 24-year-olds would move to an urban area, compared to just 19% of those over 64 years of age.
Relocation Regret
The grass may not always be greener on the other side, as the survey showed that 57% have moved jobs and regretted it later, while 36% didn’t regret it.
The oldest age group explored in the survey (those aged 64 and over) were most likely to regret their decision to move (81%).
Joanna Swash Group CEO from Moneypenny commented: “We were surprised by how many people would be willing to relocate, and not just to places a few miles from where they currently live. We believe the huge rise in hybrid working is behind this trend. We’re also seeing some of the businesses we handle calls, live chat and outsourced communication channels for are relocating either out of cities, or to cheaper areas, and it will be interesting to see if this trend continues.”
