I do not know about London but I suspect they are significantly higher, but then so are the living costs and commute time / stress.
Ideally, a "work from home" remote job would suit me where I get to write C++ all day. Know anyone offering such a delight?
What hobby projects do you write? I am working on a scheduling system.
Search for my nick on Github or have a look at http://www.progtools.org.
Not much nowadays, as family and friends take most of the time.
Clearly not all places are equal. :)
I did C++ for many years, was on the C++ side since day one on the C vs C++ wars, since 1993.
Nowadays mostly Java, C# on the job. C++, among others, mostly on hobby projects.
Given my Turbo Pascal initial background I still prefer more memory safe systems languages though. Although modern C++ surely feels good.