It may be situated on the Thames, with among London's lowest unemployment and crime rates and some of the country's best schools - but Kingston has only the 110th best quality of life in the UK according to a new survey released last week.

Residents of the royal borough should cast an envious eye on neighbouring Elmbridge which was named the UK's top spot to live in the first annual Halifax Home Insurance Quality of Life Survey. It ranks Kingston lower even than neighbours Richmond, Runnymede and Spelthorne.

The figures are based factors like employment rates, owner occupation, traffic flows, burglary rate, annual sunshine hours, percentage of people in good health and teenagers with five or more A to C grade GCSEs.

But despite the fact Kingston was the third best London borough, behind Harrow and Richmond, town centre manager Graham McNally questioned the lowly position.

He said: "Instinctively it feels wrong. Everything I know about the borough that statement seems wrong, we can't be 110th.

"You could pick it apart piece by piece. We are the safest London borough and we know in terms of some health indicators that Kingston is top in the country. The housing may be something to do with the number of flats, but we also have large houses in Kingston, Surbiton and New Malden."

Indicators were broken down into six main categories and authorities then given marks out of 10. Elmbridge scored a whopping 39.8 points, compared to Kingston's 35.6 and 36.9 in Richmond.

Secretary of Esher Residents' Association Joan Leifer said she was thrilled to find out Elmbridge had been confirmed as the best place to live in the UK.

She said: "It just confirms what we all think anyway. Elmbridge is a fantastic place to live and we are delighted this survey has confirmed this.

"The borough is very green, but we also have everything we could want from a major town. It only takes 30 minutes by train into central London and Gatwick and Heathrow are only 20 minutes away by car.

"We also have great leisure facilities such as the lovely Vera Fletcher Hall theatre in Thames Ditton."

Professor Joe Nellis from Cranfield School of management said: "Measuring economic well-being on the basis of simple measures such as gross domestic product is being challenged more and more, as we all feel more pressurised and stressed by the pace and quality of life around us.

"This new index seeks to adjust for many of the factors that really matter to us in terms of how we feel."

Why Elmbridge is number one

  • Earnings are the third highest in the country and the highest outside London at £1,112 per week, compared with £638 in Kingston, £655 in London and £519 in the UK.
  • Nearly 80 per cent of people here are owner-occupiers, compared to 70 percent in the UK
  • Elmbridge houses are larger than the norm with an average of 6.1 rooms, compared to 5.3 in the UK, and 4.7 in London. The average house price at £457,461 is the highest outside London.
  • 95 per cent of us are in good or fair health, compared to 91 per cent in the UK and 94 in Kingston.
  • The area has 30 hours of sunshine a week, compared to the British average of 28.1. Rainfall is an average of 633mls per year, compared to 843 in the UK
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