National survey finds Aylesbury Vale a great place to live

Archived press release

Date Published: 05/04/12

Aylesbury Vale

Aylesbury Vale is one of the best areas to live in rural Britain, according to the results of a recent study into quality of life.

The district is ranked sixth in the UK and second in the south east by the annual Halifax Rural Areas Quality of Life Survey.

The national study looked at the performance of local authority districts in terms of employment, the housing market, the environment, education and health, to determine the overall quality of life.

Research conducted for the latest Halifax survey highlights a number of reasons for the district’s top rating. They include:
• Residents are fit and well with 94 per cent reporting general good health, with an average life expectancy of age 80
• The employment rate is high at 77.6 per cent and many residents enjoy relatively high incomes with weekly average earnings of £720
• CO2 emissions stand at 2.1 tonnes per person in the district – well ahead of the national average of 2.21 tonnes

The announcement links handily to the imminent launch of Aylesbury Vale District Council’s new Corporate Plan which, as ever, focuses on key promises to make the area an even better place to live. Over the next three years AVDC will focus on four priorities: protecting and improving the living experience; growing the local economy; delivering efficient and economic services; and improving communication and interaction with customers.

About the Halifax Quality of Life Survey:

The Quality of Life index aims to quantify where living standards are highest in Great Britain by ranking local performance across a range of indicators, including the labour market, the housing market, the environment, education and health. The index has been produced at a local authority level for 119 rural LADs in Great Britain. The number of local authority districts has fallen from 140 in the 2010 survey as a result of structural changes to local governments in April 2009, when a number of new unitary authorities were created by amalgamating district councils.

The quality of life reading for each local authority district has been created by summing scores across 17 variables within six broad groups.

Each local authority district is given a score out of ten for each variable contained in the index. Scores within each of the broad groups are averaged and then the six group scores are summed to create an overall quality of life score.

This analysis was undertaken using the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Urban Rural classification. This classification defines an area as a Rural Area if it lies in a town or village of less than 10,000, or as an urban area if it lies in a town or city of 10,000 or more residents. A rural local authority district is one where the majority of these residents live in rural areas.