>Unfortunately, UK property prices, food prices, utilities etc make Silicon Valley look cheep.
That's not true - UK food is _very_ cheap, and overall living costs are quite a lot less than the UK. Property is the real killer in the UK (and eating out I suppose).
Eating out is entirely optional, it's property that's the killer, and as everyones wages increase, so does rent, because there's more money chasing the same number of properties.