I may be missing the point here, but if I was to work up North, I would be getting paid substantially less than I do in London, and I don't think that housing being cheaper, beer being marginally cheaper etc really makes much difference to that.
I would say that in general, the counties of Surrey, Kent, Hampshire etc are nicer than Lancashire, Yorkshire etc, and have more to do.
People up North are friendlier, but that's about all I can think of that is better up North.
Of course, I may be missing your point, so if you can try harder to make your point explicit then I will try to understand what you're saying...