{"id":1744,"date":"2021-01-07T13:15:37","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T13:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lafosse.com\/?p=1744"},"modified":"2025-07-18T15:41:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T15:41:23","slug":"thinking-of-leaving-london-andrew-besford-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lafosse.com\/insights\/thinking-of-leaving-london-andrew-besford-article\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking of leaving London? We spoke to tech leader Andrew Besford about his experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
With the recent rise in remote working, increasing numbers of people are considering moving away from London to start the next chapter of their life. Whether it be a desire to get back to nature, start a family, or simply save money, we\u2019ve seen a definite shift this year \u2013 according to Rightmove, over half of property enquiries from Londoners have been to homes outside the capital.
\nWith this in mind, we spoke to Andrew Besford \u2013 an IT leader who made the move from London to Newcastle in 2018 \u2013 about his experience and key takeaways for others considering relocating.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u200bAbout Andrew<\/h3>\n

Andrew is an experienced technology professional specialising in business change, particularly around digital, data, and cyber security. He currently runs his own advisory business in Newcastle, and is a non-executive director at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Andrew has previously worked as a senior civil servant within the UK Government, as well as having spent nearly a decade with leading telecoms providers O2 and Vodafone.<\/p>\n

\u200bWhat were your main drivers for leaving your job and life in London and moving back to the North East?<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt all stemmed from when my daughter was on her way, and it was a bit of a chain reaction \u2013 probably the biggest thing was that my partner and I both had the opportunity to take shared parental leave. Obviously, you have to be in quite a specific situation for that to work, and it turns out that only about 2% of fathers take it up, but we had the opportunity to each take six months off work so we decided we were going to do the parenting 50\/50 right from the off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to move house, and we both had the possibility of a career change, so it became an opportunity to do something big. We were house-hunting in London but at some point we thought, well, if we don\u2019t do something now, then it\u2019ll be 18 years until the next opportunity. So at that point, we started very tentatively thinking \u2018well, what if we moved to Newcastle?\u2019 and gathered some momentum around that. We felt we were able to do something more flexible because we had the confidence from the careers and networks we\u2019d built up.”<\/p>\n

How long did it take you to fully settle into your new location?<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhen you go to a place with a strong identity that\u2019s a bit further away from London, it takes some time to understand that deeper level; who the useful connections and interesting people are. I knew the North East well and I\u2019d been back a lot, but I was 20 years out of date work-wise, so I didn\u2019t know anybody or any of the interesting things that were going on. It took six months to a year \u2013 a lot of coffee chats, online research and seeking people out on Twitter \u2013 to get back in sync and feel a bit more tuned in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite surprised at just how much time people had for me. People were really welcoming and took the time to listen, understand, think about other people I should meet and genuinely give warm intros. They also made the effort to get to know some real-life things as well, and might pop up months later saying \u2018I think you should meet this person\u2019. I knew there was a friendlier and less transactional business culture here, but it was still a nice surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you believe are the three main challenges when moving to a new location, especially when leaving London?<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Unfamiliarity<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cTake the time to learn how things are going to work in your new location \u2013 give it a chance. If you\u2019ve travelled and worked in many different places then you\u2019ll already have a sense of how long you\u2019ll need to get your head around a new location.\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. Network<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cGetting to know people and finding like-minded people is standard stuff, but it becomes especially important when you\u2019re in a new place.\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. Lifestyle<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThere are a lot of things that you miss when you move out of a big city like London: the diversity, food, culture\u2026 most places can\u2019t match that. Newcastle does have a thriving food scene (it\u2019s not all just Greggs sausage rolls) but there used to be more interesting restaurants on my street in London than there are in the whole of Newcastle!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cThe real key point is that there\u2019s a trade-off in all of this \u2013 there are a lot of pros in going somewhere where you\u2019ve got more space, where you\u2019re happier that it\u2019s a nice place for your family to grow up, and the pace of life is a bit less frenetic. And there are cons too, for example, the market for your skills and experience is so much smaller.<\/p>\n

    \u201cBut as part of the balancing act, you can achieve a better quality of life while earning less \u2013 if you can make the trade-offs work for you. It\u2019s a very personal choice on the lifestyle, just something to go into with your eyes open.\u201d<\/p>\n

    What challenges do you see for people working in technology outside of London?<\/h2>\n

    \u201cThis is the thing that worries me the most. The challenge with having a tech job in Newcastle is that if you want to work on something large-scale, that\u2019s very cutting edge and globally interesting, where you\u2019re surrounded by brilliant leaders you can learn from, there aren\u2019t so many opportunities to do that. Even as a student, I could still see that I just wasn\u2019t going to get what I wanted in the North East, although things are definitely improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Population size<\/h4>\n

    \u201cSomething that\u2019s a real concern to me is whether people are getting the right guidance and mentorship as they move up.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIn any smaller region, you\u2019ll meet people who have stayed in one place all their lives and have floated to the top in their organisations where you can see they haven\u2019t been exposed to working in different cultures and more competitive, challenging environments. There are some brilliant technology leaders in the North East, but it\u2019s only a handful of people, compared to the hundreds at hand on the London scene who are helping develop the next generation of leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The job pyramid isn\u2019t the right shape yet<\/h4>\n

    \u201cThere\u2019s a huge skills shortage in terms of unfilled vacancies. Our local universities are generating loads of great technical graduates but a lot of them then have to move away to get a job, so we\u2019re not getting people in at the bottom of pyramid.<\/p>\n

    \u201cOne of the big dilemmas faced by younger people working in tech outside of a big hub like London is that you need to decide if you want to do a stint elsewhere to get the skills, experience and network that you can bring back with you. A lot of people who haven\u2019t done this don\u2019t know what they don\u2019t know \u2013 you work harder but you come back having accelerated your career.<\/p>\n

    \u201cManchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Edinburgh are catching up with London, but that then causes salary inflation and churn in those places \u2013 the market gets quite heated and can businesses off from starting offices there.<\/p>\n

    \u201cFrom a candidate point of view, you need to be ready to ride the wave and be conscious of where different places are in the cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

    How have you kept in touch with your London network?<\/h3>\n

    \u201cI deliberately set up reasons for me to be in London every few weeks \u2013 it was a great way to fit people in as a break from my work trip and catch up with friends and ex-colleagues. I had loads of friends and colleagues in London that I only used to see quite infrequently anyway, so this hasn\u2019t really changed much.<\/p>\n

    \u201cLike everyone this year I\u2019ve done a lot of keeping in touch through phone chats or video calls. When you don\u2019t have to travel, you can definitely be more flexible and fit in more each day.\u201d<\/p>\n

    How did you establish a new network and find job opportunities when you moved back to the North East?<\/h2>\n

    \u201cI connected with several of the local networking groups when I moved, and in the end volunteered for Dynamo, a local not-for-profit with a community of like-minded people on a mission to grow the North East tech economy. The group has representation from 150 businesses, including the local universities, and it\u2019s more focussed on the enterprise end of the tech scene. There are quite a few local networks that are good at scooping up new people so I found that was a really good way to get introduced.<\/p>\n

    \u201cI did some informal pro-bono mentoring for a couple of local tech start-ups as well. A lot of tech start-ups struggle with the enterprise sales \u2013 they\u2019ve got good product ideas but find big organisations very difficult to sell into.\u201d<\/p>\n

    What positive consequences came from moving out of London?<\/h2>\n

    \u201cI\u2019m definitely sleeping better and feel healthier! We might have found it a bit too quiet at first, but I think all of the things we were hoping for in moving have come to pass. I\u2019m a city person at heart so it\u2019s nice to be somewhere that\u2019s still a \u2018proper city\u2019 but is also less dense than the South East. And our daughter loves going to the beautiful local beaches, even when it\u2019s freezing.<\/p>\n

    \u201cAnother good thing you really notice is spending much less time on the daily commute, which really helps shift the balance of when you work.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIt became obvious to me that there aren\u2019t so many people turn up with experience and willingness to get involved, and that\u2019s been a door-opener. What I hadn\u2019t noticed so much when I was working inside Government is that a lot of data analytics and cyber security work we were doing was really cutting edge and way ahead of what most of the private sector was doing. Coming back to somewhere that\u2019s a little bit off the pace, I have to be careful not to rely on that background knowledge too much as the context is different, but there\u2019s a real benefit in having seen it before and having the knowledge that some others in the room haven\u2019t yet built up.<\/p>\n

    \u201cAn unintended positive consequence from creating more flexibility for myself is being able to take on a non-exec role at my local NHS trust, which is making a big investment in digital over the next few years. It\u2019s been a good way of staying in touch with doing some really interesting public service technology work, which I love. And something that I\u2019ve really missed being an independent consultant is being part of a bigger team with a shared purpose, so it has really filled in that gap for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u200bWhat three pieces of advice would you offer to someone either currently moving or thinking about it?<\/h2>\n
      \n
    1. Do your research but be flexible<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cUnderstand that you can\u2019t plan out everything, but you don\u2019t want to kick yourself for some obvious differences you should have spotted. Making the move is a bit like making a digital product really \u2013 you\u2019ll set out in a direction, but you need to be prepared to test, learn and evolve.\u201d<\/li>\n
    2. Career path<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cThink about what the next job is after you move. There are probably more opportunities than there used to be to do something in a different way, so whether you\u2019re moving for you or your partner\u2019s job, be flexible and opportunistic \u2013 it might just be a chance for a path you hadn\u2019t previously considered. You can create your own opportunities, especially when you\u2019re bringing skills and experience that many people don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/li>\n
    3. Trade-offs<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cMy biggest piece of advice is to weigh up the pros and cons and figure out how they\u2019ll work for you and the different aspects of your life – your friends, family, and your priorities.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      What advice would you give to candidates applying for roles outside of London during this time?<\/h2>\n

      \u201cDon\u2019t hang about! There’s loads of rewarding work going on and progressive companies are hiring, so be open to employers that you might not have considered before. Every organisation is reconsidering the remote\/office balance, so this is opening up new possibilities.<\/p>\n

      \u201cAlso, consider the public sector \u2013 there\u2019s lots of interesting work going on all over the country, whether that\u2019s in the central government hubs, the health system, or local authorities \u2013 this is a really great way for technologists to do something that genuinely impacts on people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

      As a technology leader, do you have any advice for London-based managers who have begun hiring and onboarding remote workers based outside of London?<\/h2>\n

      \u201cRemote working means there are now many candidates outside your usual catchment area that have the skills you need and wouldn\u2019t normally have access to \u2013 and they may be hungry to change job as well, so take advantage of this opportunity. People outside of London also tend to have more moderate salary expectations due to the lower cost of living, so it\u2019s worth considering even if you would’ve ruled it out before.<\/p>\n

      \u201cThere\u2019s also something to be said about onboarding. Many organisations have been successfully onboarding remotely, so it can be done, but you have to make the effort and take care about doing it well. It\u2019s easier for modern businesses with good collaboration tools, but it doesn\u2019t happen by accident so it\u2019s something to pay attention to.<\/p>\n

      \u201cNow more than ever, there\u2019s rightly a big focus on health and wellbeing \u2013 lots of people are getting a bit frazzled from working at home, and some are desperate to get back to the office, while others always hated the traditional office environment. So, how do you look after people as individuals? I see it as a company culture thing \u2013 if you\u2019re a micromanager, it\u2019s time to stop doing that! Everyone\u2019s having ups and downs, so being flexible and trusting people is more important than ever.<\/p>\n

      \u201cThere\u2019s really a challenge to technology leaders here \u2013 we\u2019ve figured out that we can make remote working work, and recruit people who are based further away, but how are we going to develop these people and help them grow? We learn by watching and copying people around us, but how do we as leaders expose the next generation to this now instead of just leaving them being good at what they\u2019re good at? I don\u2019t think there are obvious answers, and it\u2019s going to be a huge challenge for managers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      With the recent rise in remote working, increasing numbers of people are considering moving away from London to start the next chapter of their life. Whether it be a desire to get back to nature, start a family, or simply save money, we\u2019ve seen a definite shift this year \u2013 according to Rightmove, over half<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[664,663,673,683],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-future-of-work","category-hiring","category-leadership","category-mental-health-and-wellbeing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThinking of leaving London? 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