Harrogate is 'happiest town' to live in in the UK

Harrogate in North Yorkshire is the UK's happiest town, while nine out of 10 of the grimmest places to live are in London, according to property website Rightmove.

Researchers quizzed 40,000 people on 12 different factors such as neighbourliness, safety, amenities, cost, and the amount of space they have in their home, and the affluent Victorian spa town of Harrogate came top.

Second happiest was another northern town, Stockport in Greater Manchester, whose postcode area encompasses Alderley Edge, Buxton and Cheadle. Meanwhile, to borrow from the Private Eye cartoon strip, it's grim up north London, although east London ranked lowest overall.

Ilford, on the eastern edges of the capital, was ranked as the ugliest for home decor, while Croydon in south London was worst for neighbourliness. Even west London, covering wealthy areas such as Chiswick, was in the bottom 10 for the UK.

Overall, people living in the north are happier than those living in the south, according to Rightmove's ranking.

Harrogate did not rank highest on any individual measure, but came top by virtue of its residents feeling happy across a broad range of factors. Harrogate MP Andrew Jones said: "I think it is about the sense of community in the town. It's also a very down to earth place. There are lots of really good businesses which have grown organically and sensibly with little boom and bust. Youth unemployment in Harrogate is only 2.5%."

At one of Harrogate's most popular attractions, Betty's cafe, manager Hazel Bone enthused about the town's delights.

"It is a lovely town with a really good feeling and atmosphere," she said. "There is a beautiful town centre with Victorian architecture, lovely attractions such as the Roman Baths, nice shops and lots of great places to eat.

"The town is well looked after and for me it has such a feeling of home that, having worked with Bettys for the past 18 years, I am finally moving here."

But the town of 74,000 is not without its drawbacks. Locals complain about poor rail links, crowded roads and problems with helping the growing number of elderly in the area. House prices are also a concern, with the average detached home now selling for about £380,000 and Georgian townhouses fetching significantly more than £1m.

In the centre of Stockport there was mild surprise that the area is the second happiest place in Britain. Landlord of the Chestergate pub, Stuart Pike, 49, said: "It's not bad I suppose – it's not a troublesome area and the people are pleasant, but it has no nightlife." Across the road, under the neon glow of the Plaza cinema, deputy manager Peter Johnson, 51, said he appreciated the location: "It's not far from the countryside, Manchester is only five or six miles away, and it's close to the airport. I love living here."

Younger adults didn't quite agree. Michael Regan, 23, who lived in Stockport during his teenage years, said: "About all there is is a Megabowl and a McDonalds. It's been pretty hard hit by the recession too. You walk through the town centre and half the shops and pubs have closed down in the past five years."

But council leader Sue Derbyshire was upbeat. "It came as no surprise to me whatsoever to see that Stockport had been rated as the second happiest place in Britain to live.

"Stockport has a thriving business community, excellent transport links, offers high quality education, has an historic market and can boast some of the best tourist attractions in the region, including Bramall Hall and the air raid shelters. All of this will have greatly contributed to making Stockport such a happy place to live."

Explaining the reasoning behind the research, a spokesman for Rightmove said: "We felt that various house price index data reports say prices in a location have gone up/down etc, but don't actually tell real people whether that location would make for a happy place to live … which feels like quite important information when choosing somewhere to live."

He said Rightmove had excluded locations where the sample size was fewer than 80, and grouped some locations by their postcode area.

Britain's happiest places to live

1. Harrogate

2. Stockport

3. Ipswich

4. Exeter

5. St Albans

6. Kingston upon Thames

7. Bath

8. Worcester

9. Bromley

10. Truro

Britain's unhappiest places to live

1. East London

2. Croydon

3. East central London

4. Ilford

5. South-east London

6. Enfield

7. North-west London

8. West London

9. Dudley

10. North London

Source: Rightmove.co.uk