I'm not sure if food here is cheaper than down south, but there are lots of 'low cost food stores' like Aldi, Lidl, Netto (I was really surprised with netto! haven't been there for years but they have lots of brand name food for far cheaper prices than the major supermarkets), petrol is cheaper here I believe we're paying 112.9/l minumum.
Houses are really resonable, you can get a 2 bed house for about 70k in most villages and towns.
The people are really friendly, I moved here from South Shields which is about 50 miles away ( a long way for some of the people in these small mining villages!) and the people are very friendly in the small village that I live in. Very accepting of people from outside the area, there is a very small Filipino community (about 4 people) in the actual village and the people that I know are very accepting of them. I only say that because in some of these small ex mining villages you might expect to find some bigotry, not just to people from overseas but 'outsiders'. A lot of the people were born and bred in the village.
We have excellent transport links via the A19 and A1(M), and if you wanted to get the train to London its direct from Durham station.
Plenty of hospitals around here, walk in centres popping up all over the place and these new 'super' health centres for employment for your wife, salaries for nurses are less up here because we don't get the London enhancement. But still plenty of work and agencies for her to look through.
Hope this is helpful
K xx