I'm doing Python but PHP friends I have in London at a senior level hit around £50-60k+. To be honest with the commute times, train prices, rent (£1400 a month

I'm doing Python but PHP friends I have in London at a senior level hit around £50-60k+. To be honest with the commute times, train prices, rent (£1400 a month for a 2bed in zone 3) - I am increasingly looking to get out of here and head towards Manchester and would take a £25k cut for it and probably be better off overall! Hope it works out, I'd bump your 45k target up to around 50 as a baseline - you might get a few k more or few k less but £50k seems average enough to me (outside of contracting - contract rates are a lot higher, friends regularly getting £400/pd contracts for "just" front end).