Horsham and Mid Sussex named among the best places to live in Britain

Horsham has been regularly named among the top places to live in Britain - but now it has shot up the rankings even higher and has been placed at no 15 in the top 20 areas of the country.

Last year the town was ranked 64th in the annual Halifax ‘Quality of Life’ survey, meaning it has zoomed up 49 places, scoring highly on health, life expectancy, employment, crime and personal well-being.

Meanwhile, Mid Sussex has been ranked just one place below Horsham at No 16 - one place higher than last year -in the top 20 places in which to live.

Hart in Hampshire remains at the top of the local authority areas by scoring consistently highly across a range of categories.

Martin Ellis, housing economist at the Halifax, said:“A mixture of good health, high wealth and a generally happy life continues to cement Hart’s place as the best place to live in the UK. Low crime rates, good weather, and a long life expectancy all play an important part in keeping this Hampshire district at the top of the pile.

“Many areas in south eastern England also perform well in terms of average earnings, employment rates, health and the weather. But the South doesn’t have it all its own way, and there are areas in the North which score highly on school exam results, and physical environment characteristics such as low population densities and low traffic flows.”

In second place in the survey is South Oxfordshire and Chiltern is in third place. East Hertfordshire is at the bottom of the list at no 50.