When Louise Clarke moved from a small town in the North West to London the capital simply took her breath away. “It was like Manchester on steroids,” says Clarke. “It was so international, I was meeting so many different people from all over the world. It was such a breath of fresh air. “I was a bit like a deer in the headlights because there was so much to see and do. And the weather is so much better.” Alas, Clarke’s love affair with life in the capital was short lived. Less than two years on she was packing her bags and moving back up north, and her reasons for doing so are a neat summary of the problems Londoners face if they wish to remain in the capital. Clarke, now 30, moved to London in March 2022. She is a lawyer, specialising in corporate crime, and when her company offered her the chance to move to its London office she jumped at it. She rented a two-bedroom flat in Raynes Park, west London, and the commute to work was one of the first things that started to get her down. “Everyone is pushing you – it is so cramped,” she says. Then there was the cost. Her flat cost £1,750pcm, plus bills. She was able to live alone, which she loved, but when her landlord informed her the rent was going up she realised she was going to have to get in a flatmate. “I didn’t like the idea of living with a stranger,” she says. Although Clarke had friends in London she found that finding the time to see them, and getting to them, was a hassle. “It can take up to an hour to get across London, and you are not actually as close to people as you think you are,” she says. “I actually felt quite lonely.” The news that her sister was expecting a baby gave her a sense of home town FOMO too, and she didn’t enjoy London’s long hours culture. Even though London has amazing restaurants an abiding memory for Clarke is finishing work at 11pm and grabbing a pasty from a stall in Waterloo Station, the only thing open that late, to eat on the train on her way home. Returning home to be reunited with her family and friends in September 2023 Clarke has been able to achieve an ambition she’d never have been able to afford in London – buying a house. Her three-bedroom semi at Whalley Manor, a development by L&Q and Lovell four miles from Clitheroe, cost £300,000 and her mortgage payments are less than her old rent. “It is wild,” she says. “I don’t think you could buy a one-bedroom on the outskirts of London for that.” Clarke is glad that she gave up on her London life and returned to her roots, but not without any regrets. “I do miss the vibrancy of London, you don’t get that in a little village in the countryside,” she says.