South Cambridgeshire has been named the most peaceful place to live in England and Wales in research examining noise, crime, green space and proximity to nightlife.
The district scores 89.2 out of 100 in analysis by SAM Conveyancing, ahead of South Norfolk on 88.2 and Broadland on 86.9.
But the research also highlights the scale of noise facing homebuyers, with more than half the population of England and Wales – around 33 million people – living in properties exposed to night-time road or rail noise above the World Health Organization’s 40-decibel guideline.
The study analyses 316 local authorities, with night-time noise measured across 37.7 million addresses using Defra national noise mapping alongside crime, green-space and licensed-premises data.
QUIETEST LOCATIONS
South Cambridgeshire records 46.9 crimes per 1,000 residents compared with a national median of 71.1, while just 0.48% of residents live close to a cluster of licensed premises.
South Norfolk ranks second and Broadland third, with the latter recording 34.8 crimes per 1,000 residents – the second-lowest rate in England and Wales.
Rushcliffe and Wealden complete the top five, followed by Bracknell Forest, Cotswold, North Norfolk, Central Bedfordshire and Hart.
At the other end of the ranking, 10 of the 20 least peaceful locations are London boroughs, with Kensington and Chelsea receiving the lowest overall score.
BUYER CHECKS
Andrew Boast (main picture, inset), Chief Executive Officer of SAM Conveyancing, says buyers should investigate what an area is like outside normal viewing hours before committing to a purchase.
He says: “Buyers spend months on the things they can measure – the price, the survey, the school catchment – and almost no time on the thing they will notice on their first night in the house, which is how quiet it actually is.
“A Sunday afternoon viewing tells you very little about what a road sounds like at two in the morning, or what happens when the pub two streets away turns out.
“The encouraging thing is that this is all knowable before you commit.”
