Privacy Policy

Who we are

City Cost UK (“we”, “us”, “our”) is a free UK affordability tool that helps people understand the real cost of living across UK cities. You can contact us at any time via our contact page.

City Cost UK provides indicative cost of living and take-home pay estimates for UK cities. It does not provide financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Figures are based on UK 2024/25 tax bands (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and publicly available cost averages, and may vary by area, contract and personal circumstances. For decisions that affect your finances, please speak to a qualified UK adviser. Full details are set out in our terms & conditions.

What data we collect

• Calculator inputs — salary, city, household type and lifestyle choices. These are processed locally in your browser to generate your result. We do not store them on our servers unless you explicitly submit your email.
• Email address (optional) — only if you choose to submit it on the results page. We store it alongside a snapshot of the inputs you ran so we can email you future updates. You can unsubscribe with one click from any email we send.
• Anonymous analytics — if you accept analytics cookies, we record aggregated page views and feature use. No identifying personal information is collected.
• Technical data — your browser type, device type, rough region (country/city, derived from your IP) and the pages you visit. This is used for security, debugging and aggregate reporting.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file stored on your device. We use cookies and similar technologies (such as local storage) for three purposes:

• Strictly necessary — to remember your cookie preferences and keep the calculator working between page loads. These cannot be disabled.
• Analytics — to understand which features people use so we can improve them. Set only with your consent.
• Advertising — used by Google AdSense to serve and measure ads (see below). Set only with your consent.

You can change or withdraw your consent at any time by reopening the cookie banner from the link in our cookie policy. The cookie policy lists every cookie set by this site and how to control them in your browser.

Analytics

We use a privacy-respecting analytics tool to measure how people use City Cost UK in aggregate. We collect page views, referrers, device type and rough region. We do not build advertising profiles, we do not sell analytics data, and we never combine analytics data with your email address. Analytics is loaded only after you accept analytics cookies.

Google AdSense and advertising

City Cost UK is supported by display advertising. We use Google AdSense, a third-party advertising service provided by Google LLC, to show ads on this site. As required by Google’s publisher policies, we make the following disclosures:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to this website and other websites on the internet.
• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our site and/or other sites on the internet.
• Google uses the DoubleClick DART cookie and other identifiers to serve ads to our users. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie and personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
• Third-party vendors and ad networks not controlled by Google may also be used. You can review and opt out of those vendors at aboutads.info/choices or, in Europe, youronlinechoices.eu.
• For more information about how Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps, see Google’s “How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services”.

EU/UK user consent (GDPR & ePrivacy)

If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we comply with Google’s EU User Consent Policy. Before any advertising or analytics cookies are set, we ask for your explicit, prior consent through our cookie banner, powered by an IAB TCF v2.2-compatible consent management platform. You can withdraw or change your consent at any time by reopening the banner from our cookie policy.

If you decline advertising cookies, we will still show ads but they will be non-personalised — served based only on the content of the page and rough, non-identifying location signals, in line with Google’s non-personalised ads policy.

California (CCPA/CPRA)

We do not “sell” personal information for money. However, the use of advertising cookies described above may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information under the California Consumer Privacy Act. California residents can opt out at any time by declining advertising cookies in our banner or using the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” control where shown. We honour Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals sent by your browser.

How we use your data

• To run the calculator and show your results.
• To send you the email updates you have explicitly requested.
• To improve the site, fix bugs and detect abuse.
• To meet legal obligations and respond to lawful requests.

We do not sell your personal data and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing.

Lawful basis

Under UK GDPR we rely on consent for analytics cookies, advertising cookies and marketing emails. We rely on legitimate interest for essential functionality (running the calculator, basic security and abuse prevention) and on legal obligation where the law requires us to retain or disclose certain data.

Data retention

Calculator inputs that are not submitted are never stored on our servers. Email addresses are kept until you unsubscribe or request deletion. Server logs and aggregate analytics are typically retained for up to 24 months.

Sharing and processors

We use a small number of trusted processors to operate the site, including a hosting provider, a database provider, an email delivery provider and Google (for AdSense). They process data on our behalf under standard data-processing agreements and only for the purposes listed above.

International transfers

Some of our processors are based outside the UK and the EEA. Where that is the case, transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or Standard Contractual Clauses.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data at any time. You can also object to processing, restrict processing or request data portability. Email us via the contact page and we’ll respond within 30 days. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

Children

City Cost UK is not directed at children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

Changes to this policy

We’ll update the “last updated” date at the top of this page when this policy changes materially. For substantial changes, we may also notify you by email if we have one on file.