The only local authority in the south-west to make it into top fifty in the Halifax Building Society’s annual Quality of Life survey is the Isles of Scilly which comes in at number 48.
This year’s list is dominated by the south-east of England with ‘the leafy Hampshire district of Hart’ coming top for the third year running.
The survey takes account of various ‘key facts’ such as the labour market, housing, physical environment (rainfall and sunshine), health, education, personal wellbeing and the urban environment. The rural environment does not get a look in.
The only other appearance by a south-west local authority is made by East Dorset which comes joint top (with Hart) in the category for longest life expectancy for males at birth – 82.9 years.
There is much criticism of the survey in various online comment forums – especially for the way it ignores the south-west and the Lake District.
The Western Isles come top in the category for the lowest average number of pupils (16) in primary school classes – as if that will always guarantee positive results. And unsurprisingly they are also top for lowest population density and traffic flows. But they do not appear in the top fifty – perhaps they are let down by their rainfall.
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