The 'best places to live' ranking that lists all 1,447 towns, cities and large villages in England and Wales — who is this year's winner?

Everyone wants to live in one of the best places in the country, don’t they? Criteria could include something like a pretty neighbourhood steeped in history. Or beautiful countryside. Or close to good schools (and a decent farm shop and coffee shop). But you still need to get to work easily…

Sometimes, though, it can feel like looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Well, Garrington Property Finders has come to the rescue and unveiled their list of the best places to live in England and Wales.

Now, the property buying agency will have a good nose for what the top locations are, as they are in the business of securing properties on behalf of their home-buyer clients.

But the firm has gone down the data route to compile this annual report. It has ranked more than 1,400 villages, towns and cities across England and Wales. In case you're wondering about the enormous number of places, it's basically every settlement with a population of more than 5,000.

All have been ranked according to five key criteria: natural beauty, wellbeing, heritage, schools and jobs, and value for money (determined by how the price of a family home compares with house prices and salaries in the wider region).

• Natural beauty: proportion of open green space, distance to a natural beauty area (ie AONB, Heritage Coast), Flood risk
• Wellbeing: air quality, % homes with a 1ha of accessible open space within 300m, crime ranking
• Heritage/culture: % listed buildings, % pre-1900s homes, number of museums, galleries and theatres within 5 miles, number of restaurants within 5 miles
• Schools, employment and connectivity: Growth in number of high-tech jobs within the travel to work area, overall jobs growth, homes with ultrafast broadband, outstanding schools, homes within 200m of bus stop/rail station,
• Quality/value: change in average sales prices, incomes relative to regional average, sales prices per square foot relative to regional average.

This year, the Hertfordshire village of Redbourn has been crowned the best place to live, knocking Twyford off the top spot. (The Berkshire village has dropped to 35th place in this year’s ranking, in case you’re wondering).

Redbourn has that winning combination of rural charm and easy access to London. It’s also got not one, but two golf courses. Plus cricket pedigree: it’s thought that cricket was first played on the common in Redbourn as far back as 1666.

The village scored highly for natural beauty and value for money, and fared well for heritage too. A typical family home in Redbourn costs a chunky £767,501 - and that’s after average sale prices dipped by 8.2% in 2024.

Epsom, which hosts one of the world’s most famous horse races, comes in second place. Top schools and high-paying jobs have helped propel the Surrey town into this coveted spot, says Garrington Property Finders. Epsom is no stranger at the top end of the annual ranking, having been a ‘thoroughbred’ performer in previous years. The typical family home in the area costs £790,983. Average prices slipped here too last year, by 2.5%.

But you don’t necessarily need deep pockets to buy a family property in one of these top-ranked places.

In third place is Whitburn in Tyne and Wear on the north east coast. This may come as a surprise to some. But it’s home to wide, sandy beaches — yet is not far from Newcastle and Sunderland. And the typical price of a family home in this seaside village? A relatively modest £328,699. Average prices dropped by 1.6% in 2024.

Like the sound of Whitburn? This unassuming-looking five-bedroom house is bursting with colour and pattern inside. It has a £365,000 price tag with Brown & Co Properties.

Still, Alnwick in Northumberland, ranked sixth, trumped Whitburn to be the most affordable place in the top 20 ranking. A typical family home in the cobbled market town would set you back an average £327,246. Alnwick is also a top performer in the value for money category too, beaten only by Kibworth Beauchamp and Kibworth Harcourt in Leicestershire, Penarth in Wales, and Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex.

As for the most expensive place in the top 20, well, that title goes to St Albans, the cathedral city in Hertfordshire. Ranked fifth, the popular commuter city boasts two millennia of history and ‘many good schools’. This may explain why the price of a typical family home rose by 0.2% last year to hit £974,657, suggests Garrington Property Finders.

Want to know more? Here’s the top 20 ranking in full:

1. Redbourn, Hertfordshire
2. Epsom, Surrey
3. Whitburn, Tyne & Wear
4. Marple, Greater Manchester
5. St Albans, Hertfordshire
6. Alnwick, Northumberland
7. Merley, Dorset
8. Ewell, Surrey
9. Chigwell, Essex
10. Ashtead, Surrey
11. Rawdon, West Yorkshire
12. Worcester Park, Surrey
13. Godalming, Surrey
14. Gatley, Greater Manchester
15. Corsham, Wiltshire
16. Whitnash, Warwickshire
17. Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent
18. Long Ashton, Somerset
19. Meltham, West Yorkshire
20. Tadworth, Surrey

Of course, there are several ways to slice and dice the data. And the good news is, you can do that yourself, with Garrington Property Finders’s nifty interactive tool. It allows you to search for a place, browse by region, and even sort by ranking.

That leads to the one big omission: namely, that villages under 5,000 were not part of the analysis. Thus some delightful, beautiful, historic and perennially popular places aren't included from Ambleside (population 2,627) to Arundel (population 3,496).

‘Our analysis has revealed several highly desirable parts of England and Wales where prices have either fallen, or risen more slowly, over the past year. Some of the biggest savings are to be made in perennially popular, prime locations which offer excellent amenities, a high standard of living and now also improving value,’ explains Jonathan Hopper, CEO of Garrington Property Finders.

‘With mortgage interest rates forecast to come down gradually during 2025, many would-be buyers and movers are likely to progress their plans in coming months, keen to capitalise on the combination of lower borrowing costs and a highly competitive market in which buyers often hold the cards when it comes to negotiating the best price.’

Now there’s your cue to pick up the phone to Mr Hopper…