I get my work almost solely through contacts I made when I lived in London, though I left the UK in 2007.
Sorry: probably not what you wanted to hear!
It's not that bad, I'm a web developer too and I work in London at the moment. With my day rate I could probably fund a year in a cheap part of the world on 6 months work, but it would definitely stretch further if I could top it up with some freelance work :-)