North-south divide emerges over UK's best places to live

[T_i_B]

Programm's on tonight, but I doubt I'll be able to watch it so I'll leave you lot to mull over this article from the Independent. Make of this what you will.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article304653.ece

It is a league table that could see property prices spiral or fall, and will no doubt cause many proud locals to fill with joy or outrage.

The 10 best and worst places to live in the UK are to be named - and in some cases, shamed, on television tonight.

Three of the five most desirable places named in advance of the Channel 4 programme are in the south of England, while three of the worst areas are in the North.

Experts pointed out that the qualities that make a place attractive to move to are more nebulous than crime rates and GCSE passes.

Here are the three best ones picked out by the Independent

ASHFORD, KENT
GUILDFORD, SURREY
HARROGATE, YORKSHIRE

And three of the worst

EASINGTON, CO DURHAM
HACKNEY, EAST LONDON
MERTHYR TYDFIL, WALES

[Guy_Montag]

1. Is Easington not in Tony's constituency? n/t

[non sociopath skin]

2. No it isn't. Sedgefield is further South and West in County Durham.

Tony's North has more in common with Harrogate than it has with Easington.

Easington, like Ashington where I live, had the guts taken out of its economy when Thatcher decided that it would be a Jolly Good Wheeze to dish the NUM by destroying the Coal Industry.

The old Coalfield areas are struggling like hell to diversify but as most of the investment and transport infrastructure is in the South East they're largely pissing against the wind.

Never mind, I'm sure the programme will cheer them up tremendously. Perhaps some will be motivated to Get On Their Bikes and bicycle through the country lanes to A Better Life in Kent.

The Skin

[Taxloss]

3. Depressing suburban petit bourgeois choices.

I'd rather live in Hackney than Ashford (a dump) or Guildford any day.

But Harrogate is lovely, if a bit blue rinse.

[T_i_B]

10. Well if it's of any comfort

I think that Westminster did very well in this survey.

[Taxloss]

13. That's true, number two no less.

But which part of Westminster did they mean? Belgravia? Pimlico? Soho? Little Riyadh? The council estates that dot Pimlico and Marylebone?

Your neck of the wood did well also, didn't it? You're down Epsom way - or am I wrong?

[T_i_B]

15. No

I'm in Essex, not Epsom, Ewell, Egham or anywhere else in Surrey. :-)

The nearest places to me the program mentioned were Hertfordshire and Hackney, at two very different ends of the scale.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Missed the programme, but I've looked at the website now

I see my parents' house is sandwiched between the numbers 6 and 7 desirable areas - South Cambs and East Herts. Good for the house price, I suppose (they did pay quite a lot, 5 years ago), but I can't say the area is that special.

[lockdown]

4. Hit the North!

Flamewar anyone?

(joke!)

[Kipling]

5. Yorkshire got one in. I ain't complaining.

And Surrey and Kent are mostly nice.

As for the worst: County Durham is horrific in parts, I'll admit. Bishop Auckland and the surrounding area especially. Hackney is basically a ghetto, so fair enough. Merthyr Tydfil... er... sounds Welsh?

[tenshi816]

6. Agreed.

And I'm also surprised that they would think even to consider Yorkshire since the North is usually ignored in these kinds of league tables, something I've never understood.

[non sociopath skin]

7. Parts of County Durham are "Horrific"?

Please define. Horrific as in Black Country? Horrific as in Lea Valley? Horrific as in Margate? Horrific as in Blackpool seafront?

I didn't watch the programme as I've no interest in this kind of silly-season beauty contest stuff. But I hear that my old Alma Mater Hull was declared the worst and I thoroughly enjoyed living there so I guess that everywhere else must be pretty wonderful.

Meanwhile, I'm more than happy with where I live and I don't need it to be in anyone else's Top Ten.

The Skin

[Kipling]

14. Similar to the Black Country in many ways.

But with less of a spirit of unity and pride. Poor, tough communities that were bad before Thatcher moved in and have only gone downhill. Unemployment booming, best workers leaving, drunken assaults every night, schools a mess, etc. I have cousins who live in a village/small town there - believe me, it's nasty. Less of a village, more a lump of run-down inner city plonked down on a moor.

[non sociopath skin]

9. "And Surrey and Kent are mostly nice."

Indeed, "nice" they are. And parts of Cornwall, Scotland, Wales, Cumbria and Northumberland are heart-stoppingly beautiful.

But I don't think that that's what this was all about.

The skin

[Kipling]

12. By "nice" I mean...

Impressively middle-class, picturesque, quiet retirement zones. The sort of place that would get chosen for a show like this.

[T_i_B]

11. The only entry not in the South-East

in the best 10 was Harrogate. Other then that it all seems to be about Surrey, Surrey and Surrey. Make of that what you will.

As to Hull being the worst, well there is a book out entitled "Crap Towns" which also has Hull as being the worst place to live in Britain. I remember that book well as here in Essex we used it to make fun of South Woodham Ferrers quite a bit.

They brought out spin offs of that book, notably Crap Towns II, Crap Cars and Crap Jobs but I think they've flogged that dead horse quite well enough for the moment.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

8. I don't consider Co. Durham a bad place to live

It's a mixed picture. The cost of living is cheap here, especially housing.

The main problems we do have revolve around the lack of well-paid jobs which depresses the local service economy in turn.

The local school's GCSE pass rate is pretty average, but I don't think it helps that many good students don't feel like they can make the most of their own endeavours due to the low local wages.

I live just 3 miles from Bishop Auckland and crime is comparatively low in my town (Shildon), which is quite remarkable considering the economic deprivation there is.