Thinking of moving to Preston but not sure whether it’s the right place for you? Here are some of this Lancashire city’s top selling points:
Its location
Preston is well served by road and rail networks, placing it around two hours from London, one hour from
Manchester and
Liverpool, and 45 minutes from the Lake District. Whether you need to travel for work or want to get out into the countryside, Preston is perfectly located. If you fancy going to the beach for the day, Blackpool is only 30 minutes’ drive away. But the really nice thing about Preston is that you really don’t need to leave it if you don’t want to! There are plenty of jobs in the city, lots of high street and independent shops, some fabulous places to eat (try
Lathams of Broughton for some cheesecake, you’ll thank us later) and plenty of fun places to visit.
Its green spaces
As well as the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales are really close, as is the Forest of Bowland - you’ll never be short of a place to visit for fresh air, exercise and beautiful scenery at the weekends. Within Preston itself, there are plenty of well-maintained parks (Avenham and Miller park is great for a picnic), a large country park (Beacon Fell) and a nature reserve (Brockholes). The River Ribble runs through the city, too, and offers a lovely place to take a walk in the summer months.
Investment in startups and business
The Preston and Lancashire City Deal is a multi-million pound, ten-year investment scheme designed to further improve the city’s infrastructure and create thousands more jobs in the area. If you’re a startup or SME looking to move to Preston, you should look into creating links with the University of Central Lancashire, based in Preston. UCLan has
several ongoing projects designed to support your business and encourage graduates to stay local and keep talent and expertise within the area.
House prices
Preston is growing in popularity and attracting more businesses to the area, yet property prices are still affordable and now is a great time to invest, whether in a home for yourself or a second home to rent out. You can get a lot of property for your money, far more so than in nearby Liverpool or Manchester. Families tend to settle in the surrounding villages and suburbs such as Penwortham, Fulwood and Ashton-On-Ribble, and properties with gardens sell for around £125,000 in those areas.
High-quality education
The UCLan attracts students from around the country and the rest of the world and is regarded as an excellent university, with links to local businesses aimed at ensuring that graduate talent stays local to the North West.
Families are attracted to the city because around ⅔ of its primary and secondary schools achieve ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ OFSTED scores - and, of course, when the children aren’t in school they have plenty of things to do in the city (go-karting, laser tag, trampolining and of course the Wacky World Inflatable Park!) and loads of green space to run around in.
Its heritage
Preston has an interesting and varied history that adds to the character of the modern city today. The largest ever hoard of Viking treasure was found here, and it was the scene of major battles fought during the Roman and Civil War times.
It’s also the home town of Preston North End, which was the first time to win “the Double”, and it was here that Nick Park of Wallace and Gromit fame was born.
You also can’t really talk about Preston without mentioning that it was the location of the UK’s very first branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken…
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If you’re thinking of moving to live and/or work in Preston and need somewhere to keep your belongings or office furniture while you settle in, Safestore Self Storage Preston is centrally located with 24-hour access available. Using self storage during a move makes moving in, redecorating and renovating much easier, and if you’re thinking of renting before buying we can keep your household contents safer until you need them.