Tonight we air Sofie Allsopp (yes, that's Kirstie's sister) and Phil Spencer's rundown of the best and worst places to live in the UK.
They assure us it was all determined with the most rigorous methodology, but there are sure to be some controversial placings in there... What do you think about the lists? Do they represent what it's like to live in these places fairly? Are there any glaring omissions? Congratulate or commiserate here in the forum.
In case you miss the programme, we'll have the full list on the 4Homes website straight after the show, plus videos of Phil and Sofie's verdicts and extra information on each location. Click here to take a look.
Really dissapointed to see that the South East dominated, not that anyone could really do anything to change that.
Even more dissapointed that the full rankings, as well as proper top ten rankings for all of the categories taken in to consideration (Crime, Education, Pollution, etc), aren't available to browse. Would have thought it'd be the perfect resource for individuals trying to assess their options!
I agree with Sherry_03. Having had the unfortunate pleasure of living in the worst place in Britian for 22 years (born and bred for sins in a previous life I'm sure) I've seen it get progressively worse, and it wasn't good to start with! Jules Pipe (Mayor of Hackney) has asked all Hackney residents to 'speak up in defence of our borough'. I think not. Still at least Hackney is best at something- even if it is being the worst......
So upset to see that Strabane is again one of the worst places to live. In the show you vidoed one of the Primary schools in the area this was the school i attended as a child and i have 6 G.C.S.E's all above a C. I work in the town too and find it is a great wee town to live in. my children attend that sane school and are doing great...well it was said in the "Times" that it's one of the top ten schools in u.k. so give strabane a break please, i can think of worse places to live....
have to admit, hackey's a dump. i gave birth to my son there and i don't know what i was more terrified of, childbirth of having my car nicked when i was there. hubby kept popping out to check on it
I can't vouch for Hackney. Never been there. However, I think the small town of Atherstone (in N. Warwickshire) has been overlooked. Imagine a town (not a village) where there is nothing to do, many of the locals are barmy,and which you cannot get out of unless you have a car? Well that's Atherstone.
Ok, the crime levels aren't too bad, and the local school has improved recently, but it only has a few shops (and no high street names). Jobs and opportunities are few, and the everage wage is low. The whole place looks scruffy. Despite being on a main rail line, hardly any trains stop, and the bus service takes 40 minutes to get to the next nearest town, 6 miles away - at an over-inflated price.The councils best idea is to promote the place as a 'book town'! Yeah, that will make it highly desirable to live or visit!
At least in Hackney or Nottingham you can get a bus with ease and go elsewhere for a bit!
Agree wholeheartedly with all negative comments about the Cesspit that is Hackney... also Harringey... Tottenham... Vile, Vile hell holes to live in... so luck! I got out of there!
Ary.
-------------------------------------- ***Do not, I repeat Do NOT feed the Trolls! *** *** All Hail the mighty hamsters! ***
Sorry but I was glad to see over-hyped Manchester appearing at no. 10 in the Worst Places. It's made a lot of progress, but the unquestioning and uncritical hype it seems to get from the media was never justified and I think has caused the city to start resting on its laurels when it still has a lot more to do.
~*~Member Number 465 of... The New and Improved RACHEL Fan Club~*~
Most inner cities are ****holes let's face it. My gripe with TV shows that hype the next up and coming area is they don't mention the ten years your fancy coffee bar wil be cheek by jowl with a crack den. Agree with Islington, rough as old boots and expensive with it. A dump, for all its Granita pretensions.
the 'science' behind it is completely flawed. Its impossible to make an objective chart of something so subjective. this is proven by the fact that The Isles of Scilly would be far and away #1 if it wasn't disqualified for not having stats available and as far as I'm concerned, that is the BEST place in the whole world let alone the UK.
This year C4 have at least been a little more forthcoming with their methodology and have cited their statistical sources. But they are still inadequate at providing the full picture. For instance, the official Indices of Deprivation, designed by professionals whose life work is spent determining characteristics of area of residence, include: Education, Crime, Living Environment, Employment (all used by C4), but additionally incorporate Health (possibly the most accurate depiction of quality of life), Income and Barriers to Housing and Services. Rather than use these last three, C4 invented some flaky subjective variable known as "Lifestyle". Conclusion - this list doesn't actually show anything remotely valid. However, at pandering to what the sneering snobs of Middle England want to hear this programme scores full marks for effort. The full set of Indices reveals that Liverpool followed by Knowsley are objectively "the worst".
Maybe next year you can take into account and think about the people who live in each community. There, that's a new category for you to consider!
Spending so money on a programme might be better spent on your so called Worst 10 !!!
As a resident of Strabane for years they are the most friendly, generous and welcoming people I have met.
I'm was also very surprised your programme had even given your worst 10 so much airtime as you really didnt give yourselves enough time to BIG Up your top 10.
Think about it for next year, if you even do this programme next year. If you do, please let us know if you are coming to Strabane. We will have the brass band out playing to welcome you!!
I live in Middlesbrough, and although I can't deny it certainly has its bad points, I felt the show definitely exaggerated these! It seemed as though the negative aspects of life in Middlesbrough were embellished, giving the impression that certain issues were prevalent throughout the town, which is completely untrue! For example, the statistic that it's possible to buy a street of terraced houses for £180,000 completely shocked me!! You can expect to pay about half of that for a simple, 2 bedroomed terraced street house in the town centre!
after last years programme I watched this years with an objective eye - spotting the setups, unrepresentative clips, dodgy stats and stereotyping, which the programme was full of... this programme is still as unreliable as to identifing best and worst, but it does expose the prejuidces of the programme makers and the target audience... of course also notice how little press this years results have achieved in the 'nationals' (dont want to publicise that Londons not all it cracked up to be do we?, and Hackney doesnt make for as easy headlines as Hull?)
Didnt watch the programme as anything with an Alsopp or Phil winds me up!
what constitutes best or worst? Surely this is objective? For instance for some people price (ie cheap property) is a good area, while other might see this as a bad area. Some might consider areas with good schools the best areas, while others dont want to be stuck in traffic james with MPVs every morning and fighting for car park spaces with the school runners near their homes! Some people want to somewhere with a vibrant social life, while others may want to retire somewhere quiet. How on earth can you have a list of best or worst? There are pros and cons to every area.
These programmes are just another way to try and hype up the static property market.
The real fact of the matter is they don't mean best and worst at all, they simply mean places where rich people live and places where poor people live.
All that stuff about schools - as if kids from supportive families are suddenly going to fail their exams if they move to the next borough.
I personally feel it's offensive to show derogatory pictures of run down, deprived areas and say how bad they are. I'm sure the people with no choice but to live there agree entirely, and would dearly love to live in Epsom or wherever.
I actually really like living in the worst place in Britain, didn't realise that Hackney is suppose to be that bad before. I know that this might not make much sense on paper, especially coming from Germany, where you have a much better standard of living, but that shows you that statistics don't mean much.
All Hail the mighty hamsters! 
