Living the high life

How would you assess your quality of life? Are you better off than this time last year or enjoying a better lifestyle than say five years ago? Do you live in a village, town or city where you feel the quality of the living environment is pretty good? If not, what is stopping you moving on and finding pastures new?

There is plenty of published data on quality of life variables. The government issues annual figures as part of their sustainable growth agenda (details here) and the Halifax Bank of Scotland has added it’s two penny worth. The second Halifax Quality of Life Survey has ranked Wokingham at the top of its most recent survey results - I came across it whilst researching for a new edition of the Housing Market in Focus 2008.

As one might expect the data used is fairly top heavy in terms of employment and property indicators. One significant point is that good rankings in the quality of life league tables is directly correlated in the property price figures, there is a price to pay for living the good life. According to HBoS

‘House prices trade at a premium to the average house price in their region in 27 of 30 local authorities with the best quality of life. On average, this premium is £78,618, or 30%.  In Wokingham, the average house price is £328,282, a premium of £45,372 (16%) to the average house price in the South East.’

The top local authorities for each of the standard regions of the UK were as follows:

Rutland - East Midlands
South Cambridgeshire - East of England
Bromley - London
Castle Morpeth - North East
Congleton - North West
Aberdeenshire - Scotland
Wokingham - South East
East Dorset - South West
The Vale of Glamorgan - Wales
Bromsgrove - West Midlands
Hambleton - Yorkshire and The Humber

Indicators used in the calculations

Labour market indicators
Employment rate %
Gross weekly Earnings £s

Housing
Owner Occupation rate %
No of rooms in house
% of houses with central heating and sole use of bathroom

Urban environment
Traffic flows per square km
Burglary rate per 1000 population
% of Vacant Properties
CO2 Emissions per tonne per capita

Physical environment
Average annual Rainfall
Annual sunshine hours

Health
% in good health
life expectancy at birth for males

Education
No. of pupils in primary school class
% of 15yr olds with 5 or more GCSEs A-C grade or Scottish equivalent

Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Measuring Inflation in the UK [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Poverty and Inequality and Market Failure [12 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Public Bads [12 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Blogs on Markets and Intervention [10 May 2012]
Tullow Oil and African Development [25 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Brazilian Growth and Sustainability [12 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Maximum Rents in Housing [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Government launches New Buy Loan Guarantee Scheme [12 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Rosling on China and the UK Converging [24 Feb 2012]
The Economics of Climate Change - Stern 5 Years On [21 Feb 2012]
China bans its airlines from paying EU carbon tax [5 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Carbon Emissions and Growth [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Per Capita Incomes [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Empty Housing and Economic Efficiency [15 Dec 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
Is happiness the right measure of social progress? [20 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Exercise on National income [27 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Study Note - What is Macroeconomics? [13 Sep 2011]
UK Macro: Risks of a Double Dip Recession [12 Sep 2011]
Starter Video: The Slums of Manilla [11 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: National Income and Standard of Living [7 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: FirstBuy, Affordability and Effective Demand in Property [10 Jul 2011]
Chinese inward investment in the London property market [12 Jun 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
AS Macro: Extended House Price Deflation? [5 May 2011]
AS Micro: Importance of Elasticity of Supply [23 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Bubble [4 Apr 2011]
Timetric: Mortgage Lending and Mortgage Rates [14 Mar 2011]
Combining monetary and fiscal policy to curb inflation in China [16 Feb 2011]
David Smith on Shifting Sands in the Global Economy [8 Feb 2011]
The Impossible Hamster and Economic Growth [18 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: Will the rise in VAT harm the UK’s economic performance? [17 Jan 2011]
Extend and Enrich with EconoMax [29 Oct 2010]
Beware the return of the Gazunderer [16 Oct 2010]
Housing market and negative equity [31 Aug 2010]
The Happy Planet Index [30 Aug 2010]
Reasons to fear a jobless recovery [11 Aug 2010]
Consumer sentiment weakens as double dip looms [2 Aug 2010]
Measuring what makes life worthwhile [24 Jun 2010]
China’s housing market - fantastic interactive resource [7 Jun 2010]
Unit 2 Macro: How can supply-side policies help in a recession? [6 Jun 2010]
Housing and the British Economy [5 Jun 2010]
AS Macro Revision: Consumer Borrowing [30 May 2010]
Euro Land and Optimal Currency Areas - A Valentine’s Day Massacre [29 May 2010]
Warnings of hysteresis for the EU economy [29 May 2010]
Two examples of government failure [20 May 2010]
UK inflation hits 17-month high [18 May 2010]
RES Essay Competition: Preventing Housing Bubbles [12 Apr 2010]
Paris punishes the purse strings [12 Mar 2010]
New House of Commons research report on carbon trading [21 Feb 2010]
Utopia and the 21 hour working week [13 Feb 2010]
50-year decline in housing affordability [20 Jan 2010]
Human Development Index for 2009 [24 Oct 2009]
Paul Romer on Growth and Cities [24 Oct 2009]
Gloomy summary [13 Oct 2009]
Demographic change - the rise of the ‘oldest old’ [3 Oct 2009]
The Wealth Effect [12 Sep 2009]
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Tentative signs of a pulse in the housing market [30 Jul 2009]
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Housing the global economic crisis [23 Jul 2009]
Surplus carbon credits - consumer subsidise the polluters [23 Jul 2009]
Revision - External Shocks [24 May 2009]
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Policy Failure - Rising Inequality [10 May 2009]
Australia delays carbon trading because of recession [4 May 2009]
After the storm [3 May 2009]
Global airlines nudge towards carbon emissions trading [10 Apr 2009]
Economic slump cuts EU carbon emissions [4 Apr 2009]
Revision presentation - UK Housing Market 2009 [25 Mar 2009]
Bubble Behaviour [22 Mar 2009]
Homeowners step away from equity loans [1 Jan 2009]
Barclays Boss says housing downturn is only half done [16 Dec 2008]
Coal and CO2 emissions - Poland [12 Dec 2008]
Buyers desert the property market - with good reason [30 Oct 2008]
Negative equity - why is it a problem? [20 Oct 2008]
Housing - a buyers market [27 Sep 2008]
Housing market activity - some interesting data [26 Sep 2008]
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Windfall gains for the biggest polluters [13 Sep 2008]
Shaking foundations [26 Aug 2008]
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Sharp fall in London property “asking prices” [18 Aug 2008]
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Drax feels the heat of rising carbon prices [6 Aug 2008]
Tim Harford on carbon negativity [25 Jul 2008]
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