St Albans scores high on ‘best places to live’ list

St Albans has come 24th on a list of the UK’s top places to live.

Edinburgh topped Property Week’s Hot Housing Index 2017, knocking last year’s winner, Crewe, into second place.

Each residential location was ranked for affordability, employment levels, internet connectivity, school provision, local amenities, access to public transport and propensity to move.

The results were collated by property specialist CACI, and John Platt, CACI’s principal consultant, said: “We define ‘affordability’ as the relationship between house price and household income.

“The average property in the UK costs 7.4 times the average household income. In some areas of Scotland and the North East, this can be as low as three times.

“To put that in context, the London average is 12 times and in the least affordable place to live in the UK, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, it is 40 times.”

St Albans recorded the lowest possible score for affordability and the highest for employment levels, climbing four places over all from last year’s ranking of 28th.

St Albans has made many such lists already this year, including the Sunday Times Best Places to Live list, the Evening Standard’s 25 ‘commuter hotspots’ list and property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle’s ‘best commuter areas not served by Southern’ list.

Do you think the Cathedral city deserves such accolades? Let us know what you think at jane.howdle@archant.co.uk.