The safest places to live
April 8th, 2009 by Rachel Newcombe
If you’re keen to buy a home in a safe neighbourhood, where there’s a low risk of flooding, burglaries or criminal damage, then help could be at hand. Virgin Money Home Insurance has revealed details of the safest places to live in England and Wales.
According to the findings from Virgin Money Home Insurance, homeowners in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea can breathe a sigh of relief, as they’re living in the safest place (and also some of the most expensive properties in London). Next up in the safe ranks are Dudley, in the West Midlands and Poole in Dorset, which were both noted for having a low number of burglaries. The news isn’t quite so cheery for those living in Doncaster, as the researchers claim that the South Yorkshire town is the least safe place to own a home.
The findings were based on a rating system that measured the riskiness of various factors for the major towns and cities in England and Wales. Places were ranked, for example, in terms of the amount of criminal damage reported, the number of burglaries committed, the risk of flooding and the amount of protection on offer from local police and Neighbourhood Watch schemes.
Along with Doncaster, the next two cities on the not-so-safe list were Sheffield and Nottingham. They all suffered from higher risks of burglary, flooding and criminal damage. Despite doing well overall in the survey, it was noted, however, that Kensington and Chelsea does have a high risk of burglaries.
July 14th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
I don’t believe that Doncaster is the most unsafe place to be in South Yorkshire! I happen to live in Doncaster and I have never been burgled except for one time when two young hooligans attempted to steal my car but failed as they did not make it down the road until the police came. I’m sure that there is a more unsafe place to live than Doncaster. Doncaster may have had a bad flood a few years back but nothing as bad has occured since then!
August 13th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
in response to that, hilarious. You’ve had your car almost stolen and theres bee a massive flood. don’t even attempt to tell people that you live in a safe area. You’ve just confirmed what the survey discovered, so thanks for your useful information.
November 7th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
Well said James Ryan. It is surprising to note that Hackney in London is not rated in the bottom class. Just curious to find out the ratings for Homerton London E9 near the Olympics Park. Answer anyone?
November 10th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
What a load of rubbish, I’ve lived in Sheffield all my life and hardly know anyone who’s been burgled and certianly no one who’s house has been damaged from flooding, the city is built on hills and much water drains away. There was some bad flooding the other year when the whole country suffered from heavy rains but I’m not sure how you can count that! As for safety I find it one of the safest citys to walk around, you hardly hear any news about gun crime or violent muggings. I would much rather live here than any of the other big citys locally such as Leeds, Manchester or Nottingham.
December 6th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Hi Kim. My husband and i are wanting to move to the UK. We are looking for a safe place to stay. Would you recommend Sheffield. We are moving from South Africa which is extremely high in crime.
Please could someone let me know where to also look for work. My husband is in sales and i am in Admin.
Thank you so much for your assistance.
December 29th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Candy.
South is generally the ‘better’ to live in. London the best for work. Jeremy Clarkson once quoted ‘as dangerous as Cheltenham’ (as in safe) All in all compared to south africa anywhere is a ‘safe’ bet
January 12th, 2012 at 3:41 am
hey everyone, it may be just me but i dont think it is to do with the city at all, but rather the individual, my example is this..i live in a bad part of manchester, i grew up here & ive never been a victim of burglary, car crime or anti-social behaviour, now down the road from me is an affluent place, very upmarket, our local idiots head that way to rob, intimidate & make money because thats where the money is & thats all they can do with their sad existence. there is a very big drug problem in this affluent place but still people fall over themselves to buy extremely over priced houses there, whereas me, i am happy, feel relatively safe, i have no house alarm or car alarm, im a family man & work for a living, im a local driver for the community & everyone knows everyone. there have been a couple of shootings, robberies & anti-social incidents over the years but 97% of the victims are local idiots in tit for tat games, the other 3% have been burglaries & assaults where the victim is new to the community or has entered the community & brought trouble upon themselves. my point is, anywhere that you are not local is a potentially bad place for you, it depends on your character, who you know, who you dont, local knowledge & a little luck. …Dan Williams says, south is generally the ‘better’ to live in, im guessing hes from the ‘south’…& im sure there are are good places to live in south africa. if you want my opinion then here it is….if you want work then obviously the closer you are to a city the better, if you want peace the move towards the suburbs ( money permitting ) but the major factor is…if you want to be safe then be smart, get involved with the community, get to know local people, the more people know you the less likely you are to be victimised…..
a personal note to Candy…i started work behind a bar in an area where i was unknown, being a barman i observed a lot & there was a south african family quite new to the area. now dont take this the wrong way but because this family were south african it intimidated the locals a bit, (south africa being a high crime place) the children made friends instantly & were very popular, the mother socialised in my pub. people were mesmerised, now heres the twist..she wasnt nasty nor did she tell horror stories of her homeland, in fact quite the opposite, she was a lovely person who also made a lot of friends, was very protective of her children, polite & chatty, but very straight talking, if you were rude then she would tell you that you were rude, this alone repelled most of the idiots & the ones that were left were going out of their way to make friends with this woman & her family. bad people prey on the vulnerable, if there is a slight possibility that you will not lay down & be a victim they will move on to someone who will…from my experience, places are nice if you put the effort in to make them nice. good luck Candy.