Hart in Hampshire 'best place to live in UK'

Hart in Hampshire, which is home to Fleet Pond, came top in the Halifax study

Hart in Hampshire is the best place to live in the UK, a study has found.

The Orkney Islands retained its second place position for a second year, while Rutland in the East Midlands came third.

The annual Halifax quality of life study looked at a range of factors including health, earnings, crime rates and life expectancy.

Women in Hart have the longest average life expectancy at 86.7 years, the report said.

Orkney was named the best place to live in Scotland, and second best in the UK

The district, centred on the town of Fleet, came top between 2011 and 2013 but was only in 26th position last year.

Halifax said it "rocketed" back to first place having scored well in the Office for National Statistics personal wellbeing survey.

Rutland in the East Midlands, which is home to Normanton Church at Rutland Water, was named third in the study

Last year's top scorer, Winchester in Hampshire, along with Wychavon in Worcestershire, Wokingham in Berkshire, Waverley in Surrey, Craven and Richmondshire in North Yorkshire, and Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire also feature in the top 10.

Employment rates, wellbeing and the weather were also taken into account.

Wychavon in Worcestershire, which is home to the town of Droitwich Spa and its barge canal which opened in 1771, was named fourth in the study after coming third last year

Last year's top scorer, Winchester in Hampshire, dropped to fifth place this year

At least nine in 10 Hart residents reported good or fairly good health and the area has the third longest life expectancy for men at 82.5 years, the report found.

Residents also enjoy 32.5 hours of sunshine per week, compared to the national average of 29.7 hours.

The market town of Wokingham in Berkshire came sixth in the report

Waverley in Surrey, which is home to the town of Godalming where the borough's headquarters are, was seventh on the list

However, the study found living in Hart comes at a price, with the average house price standing at £419,231, which is 8.8 times the average annual pre-tax local income.

The study said many areas in southern England scored strongly in categories including the labour markets and health, while northern areas tend to perform well on education and "benefit from more affordable properties with lower house prices to earnings".

Craven, which centres around the market town of Skipton, was eighth in the report

Ninth in the study was Richmondshire, which covers a large northern area of the Yorkshire Dales including Arkengarthdale

Stratford-on-Avon was number 10 in the poll

Top 20 places:

1. Hart, Hampshire

2. Orkney Islands

3. Rutland, East Midlands

4. Wychavon, Worcestershire

5. Winchester, Hampshire

6. Wokingham, Berkshire

7. Waverley, Surrey

8. Craven, North Yorkshire

9. Richmondshire, North Yorkshire

10. Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire

11. Uttlesford, Essex

12. Ryedale, North Yorkshire

13. Westminster, London

14. South Oxfordshire

15. St Albans, Hertfordshire

16. Tonbridge and Malling, Kent

17. East Hertfordshire

18. City of London

19. Chiltern, Buckinghamshire

20. Rugby, Warwickshire