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North Berwick, East Lothian has scooped the The Sunday Times Best Places to Live 2024 – the first Scottish winner in the 12-year history of the guide.
The Sunday Times’ expert judges visited locations in all shapes and sizes across the UK from the tiny Scottish island of Kerrera and the remote Welsh village of Presteigne to big cities such as Belfast, Liverpool and London.
HIGH STREET
All were assessed on factors from schools to transport, broadband speeds to culture, as well as access to green spaces and the health of the high street.
But the Scottish seaside town topped the list of 72 locations and was picked for its combination of a great high street, a great school, the great outdoors and family-friendly houses.
Helen Davies, The Sunday Times
The judges were impressed by its easy connections to Edinburgh and the way life revolves around the town’s two beaches as well as the ‘wealth of activities whatever your age’.
They also highlighted the thriving independent shops as a sign of the positive effect that small businesses can have on a community.
Helen Davies, Editorial Projects Director and Best Places to Live editor, says: “This guide is a celebration of towns, cities and villages that are each a fantastic place to live in 2024, from Dunkeld to Knutsford, Falmouth to Leeds. Wherever you are on the property ladder, there will be somewhere to suit you.”
UPWARDLY MOBILE
And she adds: “These are all places where you can feel grounded as well as upwardly mobile: they have a mature sense of community, lively, supportive high streets and an eye to the future, whether that is eco-friendly measures, transport and regeneration, or imaginative inclusion of new housing.”
The annual guide also named 10 regional winners including Wivenhoe, Essex; Clerkenwell, London; Stirchley, Birmingham; Portstewart, Co Londonderry; Leeds; Stockport, Greater Manchester; West End, Dundee; Folkestone, Kent; Sherborne, Dorset and Abergavenny, Monmouthshire.
Previous winners of the Best Places to Live in Britain title are Stamford, Lincolnshire (2013); Skipton, North Yorkshire (2014); Newnham, Cambridge (2015); Winchester, Hampshire (2016); Bristol (2017), York (2018), Salisbury, Wiltshire (2019), Altrincham, Cheshire (2020) Stroud, Gloucestershire (2021), Ilkley, West Yorkshire (2022) and Wadhurst, East Sussex (2023).
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