Residents of East Cambridgeshire have the best quality of life of any rural area in Great Britain, according to the latest Halifax Rural Areas Quality of Life Survey. In fact, Cambridgeshire occupies two of the top three positions, with neighbouring South Cambridgeshire – last year’s winner – in third place. Wychavon in Worcestershire in second place separates the two Cambridgeshire areas.
Residents tend to be fit and well with 93 per cent reporting general good health, and have the joint highest life expectancy amongst rural areas where life expectancy is 4 years more than the UK average. The employment rate is high, at 79 per cent, and many residents enjoy relatively high incomes with weekly average earnings of £707. Residents also have the lowest domestic CO2 emissions of all rural local area districts
On top of all this, enjoying a high quality of life in East Cambridgeshire does not come at a particularly high cost either. The average house price in the area is 5.3 times local annual gross earnings, which is below the average house price to earnings ratio for all rural areas of 5.9.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, commented: “In recent years, East Cambridgeshire has performed consistently well against a wide range of indicators to demonstrate that its residents have amongst the best quality of life in rural Britain. In particular, health and life expectancy in East Cambridgeshire are amongst the highest of all rural areas.
“This only adds to the general high performance of East Cambridgeshire in employment, average earnings and low CO2 emissions. In addition, average house prices relative to local earnings in the area are below the average for rural areas, highlighting that a high standard of living doesn’t have to come at a high price.”
