Cathedral city named as the best place to live in the UK

The UK’s best place to live has been named as Winchester.

The Halifax research looks at factors such as an area’s labour market, amenities, leisure facilities, housing, life expectancy and health.

Residents of Winchester boost a strong employment rate of 83.1%, above the national average of 73.7%, while gross weekly earnings of £824 are 27% higher than the UK average of £646 and crime rates are among the lowest in the country.

They could also just be happy with the choice of pubs, with 12 per 10,000 adults, and health and leisure facilities, of which there are two per 10,000 adults.

Winchester has a large number of estate agents in its city centre, including all the top-end names.

Hart, also in Hampshire, has been knocked off the perch it has occupied for the last five years, falling to 26th place. The rural area, currently tussling with its Local Plan and where it must site the thousands of new homes required, lacks the amenities that Halifax now considers important – such as the numbers of pubs and gyms.

Nevertheless, the south of England dominates the top 50 with 32 places represented. There are 18 in the South East, six in the East of England, five in the South West and three in London.

The remaining 18 are in the east midlands and west midlands with five each, four from Yorkshire & the Humber, two in Scotland and one each from Wales and the North West.

Overall, the average house price to earnings ratio was 7.2 but Copeland in the North West had the lowest at 3.6%.

The average number of rooms when it came to housing in the UK was 5.5, while the highest was 6.4 in Uttlesford, Chiltern and Rutland.

See how your region fares overall in the table below.

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