Nottingham has slipped down 76 spaces on a list of the best places to live across the UK. The Best Places to Live in the UK list was created by Garrington's Property Finders and takes into account a number of different categories such as green efficacy, natural beauty, architecture and quality of life.
Nottingham was at number 405 in 2021 but has sadly slipped 76 places this year to 481. While the report may record a low score of 966 for natural beauty, it scored highly at 94 for green efficacy which may be helped by new cycle lanes and the city-centre e-scooter scheme. The architecture scored 496 but, sadly, the quality of life score was recorded as 966 which suggested a lack of access to open green spaces, parks and reliable broadband.
So are the rankings right? We asked Nottingham residents how they felt about the changes and if the area could do with improvement. Janet Stanley is from Aspley in Nottingham and she said that she felt sorry for the city. Aspley is not recorded on the report but it is just three miles from the city centre.
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"Aspley is lovely as we have everything close by including shops and it's close to town too. I'm quite sad for the city to hear this and I worked for the council for years so I know the infrastructure so it's really sad to hear. The closure of a lot of the shops isn't helping as you come into town and the shops are boarded up and closed," she said.
Nottingham City Council Leader, Councillor David Mellen, questioned how the rankings were reached and said there was much to be proud. “People who live here love Nottingham and probably won’t pay too much attention to what a property agency thinks it’s like," he said.
"Only this weekend the Sunday Times namechecked Nottingham as a place that’s on the up – a couple of months after they said Hockley was among the coolest postcodes in the country, so this survey seems to be somewhat out of step.
“We would certainly question how they reach their rankings when they score our city so low in the green category. This is a city with the best sustainable transport network outside London and ambitious plans in place to become carbon neutral by 2028. If they are referring to green space, around a quarter of our city is made up of that and we have more parks and open spaces with green flag status than any other area in the country.”
Stephen Lawson is from Beeston, an area that was recorded on the report. Beeston was reported as an area with great energy efficiency at 473 but poor architectural scores of 980 out of 1372. Quality of life in Beeston was recorded as 730 despite the changes to the town centre of new facilities, restaurants and a cinema.
Stephen said: "It's a very good place to live. It's not great that we are falling down the list but we could improve if we had better housing for our homeless and people."
Gary Heselton and Sandy Poundall from Stapleford feel that the area can be a bit forgotten about as it's close to Beeston. Stapleford was recorded on the report as being 839 on the list out of 1372 with a low green rank of 978. However, it did report a drop in the average house prices for the area at lower than £350k for a family home.
"Stapleford has always been a bit on the outskirts as it's a bit of a forgotten town because Beeston is close by so that's where all the money goes. Stapleford gets forgotten about as a result. The high street is dying a death at the moment even charity shops. It all seems to be barbers and food outlets."
He added: "A change of what you see on the high street would be great but I don't know how you do that in a small place like Stapleford. When it comes to green spaces, we have Bramcote park but very few amenities as it's just a big open space. We could do with addressing this with a little tea room or something."
