iv started a new IT job in the CIty (london) as a general IT technician doing 1st to 3rd line support and all other sorts of IT duties in house and i graduated in January from uni, money is pretty good compared to working as a employed person and outside of london. I would have thought with a lot experiance i.e. 5 years you could easily get in to 3rd line, are there any routes you want to go into particularly? Networking/Infrastructure design/Project management? have a look on reed and other IT sites and have a scoot around there to see what is out there and what you have done

good luck