Country houses for sale

Worst places to live in Britain

Middlesbrough has been found to be the worst place to live in Britain by buying agent (and Country Life contributor) Phil Spencer and his co-presenter Kirstie Allsopp.

They based their findings on towns meeting the criteria of crime, environment, lifestyle, health, education and employment. The predominance of ‘worst places to live’ leans towards towns in the North intermingled with a heavy smattering of London boroughs. Last year’s loser, Hackney has now shuffled down the list to 12th place.

This is the list of Channel 4’s property programme, Location, Location, Location’s ‘worst’ places to live 2007:

1. Middlesbrough – North East (6th last year)

2. Hull – Humberside

3. Newham – East London (4th last year)

4. Nottingham – East Midlands (7th last year)

5. Merthyr Tydfil – South Wales (3rd last year)

6. North East Lincolnshire – Eastern England

7. Islington – North London (5th last year)

8. Blaenau Gwent – South Wales (9th last year)

9. Mansfield – East Midlands

10. Knowsley – Merseyside

11. Blackpool – North West

12. Hackney – East London (1ST last year)

13. Stoke-on-Trent – Staffordshire

14. Barking & Dagenham – East London

15. Doncaster – South Yorkshire

16. Cannock Chase – Staffordshire

17. Manchester – North West (10th last year)

18. Haringey – North London

19. Burnley – Lancashire

20. Hartlepool – North East

The results of the best place to live will be read out during the programme to be aired tomorrow evening. Because of the controversy that these types of surveys tend to provoke, Channel 4 are asking viewers to comment back on the findings and Kirstie Allsopp stresses that ‘there are some real diamonds in the rough’ on the worst places list.

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