Why Luton?
Why not move to Luton?
There are lots of reasons to join ‘Team Luton’. Just ask its die-hard football fans who celebrated Luton Town F.C. being promoted to the Premier League for the first time in May 2023!
Great connections
As a town, Luton is well-connected. A range of accomplished celebrities started out there: Monty Panesar, Emily Atack, Nadiya Hussain, and at least two Eastenders actors called it home.
Luton is also around 29 miles (46 km) from London, with the fastest of the 547 trains per day taking only 22 minutes. There are also frequent, fast and direct routes from Brighton, London Bridge, Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon and St Pancras International. Off-peak tickets start at around £12.00. Don’t forget, employees of Luton Borough Council are eligible for a range of travel discounts, including free car parking, half price season tickets and savings on local Arriva bus travel.
London Luton Airport is also the fifth largest airport in the UK – with seven airlines flying in and out, including easyJet, Wizz Air, Ryanair, Sun Express, TUI, FlyOne and El Al. The Luton DART provides quick, reliable and affordable connectivity between the national rail network and the airport system.
Luton is also at the centre of key road routes, with straightforward runs to the surrounding towns and cities. It’s just 18 miles from Hertford, 20 miles from Bedford and 22 miles from Milton Keynes. It’s served by the M1, which enters Bedfordshire just south of Luton and travels up the eastern side of the town. From there, it makes its way north past Toddington and Flitwick before hitting Buckinghamshire to the north of Milton Keynes. You can be in Nottingham in under two hours and Leeds in under three.
What do you need to know?
Located in Bedfordshire, Luton is situated on the River Lea with a population of over 280,000. It’s also a youthful town, with one in five residents being younger than 16.
During the 1930s, Luton was the world’s biggest hat producer, making more than 70 million hats every year. The town remains home to companies linked to hat production, and its Premier League football team are known as ‘The Hatters’, but there are now only 10 headwear manufacturers in Luton.
Like many English towns, Luton’s massive industrial growth in the 19th and early 20th centuries was followed by something of a decline. Being so close to London and a number of leafier commuter towns, it has sometimes struggled to focus on the positive. Step Forward Luton is focusing on turning this around. “Reputation issues have been holding us back with constant and unfair criticism of the town from both within and outside Luton,” said a council report in June 2023. Luton’s promotion to the Premier League is certainly something to be proud of, and is just one of the opportunities to tackle negative perceptions.
Enviable education options
The University of Bedfordshire is a force for good across the County. It has two main campuses in Luton and Bedford, with a large health teaching provision in Aylesbury at the world renowned Stoke Mandeville Hospital. It’s known for its high-quality teaching and has teamed up with Luton Borough Council to ensure that the town is working towards being healthy, fair and sustainable, and a place where everyone can thrive and no one lives in poverty.
It’s a great town for young people and families. There is a wide range of schools ranging from Ofsted good to outstanding for primaries and secondaries in the Luton area.
Night life
Luton has a vibrant night life, with a variety of bars, clubs, comedy clubs, cafés and restaurants, and more. It’s certainly an area to make memories, and with great transport links all around Bedfordshire, you won’t have to worry about getting home.