Comparison site Uswitch has today published a new Remote Working Index (RWI), which ranks 104 of the United Kingdom’s biggest towns and cities by seven metrics to help identify the best places for people who have to work from home (access to superfast broadband, crime rate, green spaces, property prices etc.).
Remote working is of course nothing new to modern business culture, although it’s recently become much more common since the COVID-19 crisis began and many expect that trend to continue (i.e. after businesses have adapted and seen the benefits). Indeed 19% want to spend more time working from home once the pandemic is over and one in six employees (16%) want to work from home full time when life returns to normal.
The new index has sought to capitalise on this change by creating a table that weights 7 categories according to how the survey respondents valued them: Some 53% said house prices were the more important consideration, while 45% said green spaces, 43% said crime rates, 34% said broadband speeds, 28% said air quality, 20% pointed to the amount of local doctors and 16% to the quality of local schools.
Arguably this sounds more like a list of the best places to live in general than for home working, but such things tend to represent two sides of the same coin, although we’d still argue that having access to a fast broadband ISP connection should be higher on that ladder of considerations.
Nevertheless, many people (17%) say they’ve either already moved or are planning to relocate due to the benefits of working from home, with a lot of those people intending to move out from dense urban areas and into smaller towns and villages. As such the new index might come in handy.
Overall, the index claims that Harrogate in Yorkshire is one of the UK’s best places to work from home, thanks to a good balance of superfast broadband, good schools, low crime rates and acres of green space on its doorstep. Meanwhile Ipswich sits at the bottom of the pack, which is despite the fact that it seems to have access to good broadband speeds, but they fall down in other areas.
We should point out that the data for broadband speeds in this study comes from Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2019 report, which means that the information is over a year old. Uswitch also doesn’t clarify whether their averages are based on estimated line speeds from existing connections or the actual network availability of faster services (the latter is likely to be more important for movers).
Sadly, the full index is too big to paste, so we’ve cut out the columns for air quality, doctors, Ofsted ratings and number of cafes in order to fit it in.
2020 Remote Working Index – 104 UK Locations
Rank | Location | Average property value | Green space in local authority | Crimes per 1,000 people | Average broadband speed (Mbps) |
1 | Harrogate | £381,278 | 95% | 53 | 60.2 |
2 | Bath and North East Somerset | £419,005 | 86% | 56 | 54.8 |
3 | Mendip | £328,885 | 94% | 56 | 41.9 |
4 | Derry City and Strabane | £114,360 | 95% | 37 | 60.7 |
5 | Wigan | £161,403 | 61% | 73 | 75.3 |
6 | Cheshire West and Chester | £264,941 | 87% | 73 | 44.7 |
7 | St Albans | £689,166 | 75% | 65 | 75 |
8 | York | £298,215 | 81% | 66 | 56.1 |
9 | City of Edinburgh | £298,046 | 57% | 102 | 77.4 |
10 | Swansea | £191,516 | 80% | 83 | 73.3 |
11 | St. Helens | £162,410 | 66% | 88 | 80.3 |
12 | Cheltenham | £368,878 | 42% | 72 | 75.2 |
13 | Basingstoke and Deane | £376,839 | 91% | 68 | 60.8 |
14 | Stockport | £289,584 | 40% | 64 | 76.7 |
15 | Exeter | £289,407 | 41% | 77 | 73.8 |
16 | Woking | £534,475 | 58% | 69 | 79.8 |
17 | Sefton | £207,917 | 57% | 77 | 68.6 |
18 | High Peak | £244,428 | 92% | 52 | 35.5 |
19 | Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole | £303,534 | 38% | 82 | 73.1 |
20 | Darlington | £153,494 | 86% | 110 | 79.3 |
21 | Warrington | £244,877 | 67% | 81 | 69.8 |
22 | Belfast | £159,564 | 28% | 26 | 79.8 |
23 | Redditch | £223,947 | 58% | 81 | 79.4 |
24 | Bedford | £314,795 | 87% | 89 | 76.2 |
25 | Solihull | £357,181 | 64% | 75 | 77.6 |
26 | Brighton and Hove | £433,155 | 51% | 95 | 83.4 |
27 | Swindon | £250,755 | 75% | 78 | 74.9 |
28 | Aberdeen City | £187,656 | 65% | 100 | 36.2 |
29 | Bolton | £178,632 | 51% | 99 | 70.4 |
30 | Telford and Wrekin | £176,719 | 79% | 88 | 71.7 |
31 | Plymouth | £202,963 | 21% | 82 | 82 |
32 | Wycombe | £481,288 | 85% | 57 | 49.2 |
33 | South Tyneside | £151,083 | 46% | 110 | 73.9 |
34 | Hartlepool | £139,435 | 69% | 132 | 83.6 |
35 | Maidstone | £358,089 | 89% | 90 | 61.1 |
36 | Sheffield | £211,537 | 65% | 91 | 51.1 |
37 | East Staffordshire | £224,014 | 89% | 58 | 40.5 |
38 | Chelmsford | £422,870 | 87% | 89 | 56.3 |
39 | Worthing | £328,339 | 35% | 79 | 82.2 |
40 | Eastbourne | £268,808 | 56% | 85 | 39.1 |
41 | Dundee City | £142,689 | 31% | 129 | 81.5 |
42 | North East Lincolnshire | £139,978 | 75% | 123 | 89.6 |
43 | Gloucester | £224,406 | 26% | 92 | 83.5 |
44 | Rochdale | £166,978 | 68% | 99 | 59.5 |
45 | Colchester | £296,918 | 84% | 95 | 64.7 |
46 | Oxford | £510,304 | 40% | 98 | 76.4 |
47 | Cardiff | £256,717 | 44% | 107 | 76.1 |
48 | Bristol, City of | £336,695 | 21% | 100 | 81.3 |
49 | Oldham | £164,666 | 67% | 101 | 66.8 |
50 | Preston | £169,619 | 76% | 131 | 66.2 |
51 | Blackburn with Darwen | £144,563 | 75% | 108 | 62.3 |
52 | Chesterfield | £186,653 | 47% | 77 | 46.7 |
53 | Burnley | £126,764 | 80% | 122 | 68.5 |
54 | Nuneaton and Bedworth | £195,013 | 59% | 89 | 71 |
55 | Newcastle upon Tyne | £196,530 | 48% | 139 | 61.2 |
56 | Newport | £204,283 | 70% | 106 | 68.7 |
57 | Rotherham | £168,253 | 72% | 94 | 56.3 |
58 | Kirklees | £193,047 | 72% | 105 | 60.7 |
59 | Cambridge | £508,721 | 33% | 118 | 82.6 |
60 | Peterborough | £216,629 | 79% | 105 | 77.8 |
61 | Cannock Chase | £201,292 | 63% | 54 | 47.7 |
62 | Mansfield | £154,417 | 64% | 114 | 74.9 |
63 | Calderdale | £188,093 | 85% | 116 | 49.7 |
64 | Middlesbrough | £133,130 | 35% | 167 | 80.1 |
65 | Crawley | £320,001 | 30% | 111 | 88.4 |
66 | Dudley | £202,047 | 16% | 75 | 76 |
67 | Milton Keynes | £314,491 | 71% | 83 | 46.9 |
68 | Walsall | £201,777 | 36% | 85 | 66.7 |
69 | Leeds | £225,524 | 64% | 131 | 65.6 |
70 | Stevenage | £312,112 | 25% | 100 | 90.4 |
71 | Bradford | £177,476 | 69% | 134 | 62.9 |
72 | Coventry | £205,097 | 31% | 78 | 67.8 |
73 | Slough | £348,658 | 25% | 95 | 68.7 |
74 | Medway | £275,980 | 65% | 109 | 86.6 |
75 | Liverpool | £162,399 | 18% | 118 | 70.6 |
76 | Watford | £417,352 | 22% | 102 | 80.5 |
77 | Glasgow City | £163,987 | 26% | 129 | 64.6 |
78 | Thurrock | £307,696 | 68% | 105 | 75.3 |
79 | Basildon | £356,246 | 55% | 103 | 67.8 |
80 | Stoke-on-Trent | £126,761 | 36% | 99 | 71 |
81 | Worcester | £238,141 | 28% | 94 | 43.4 |
82 | Birmingham | £228,074 | 22% | 100 | 74.1 |
83 | Sunderland | £141,352 | 46% | 121 | 59.9 |
84 | Reading | £344,426 | 19% | 90 | 74.4 |
85 | Doncaster | £157,651 | 81% | 116 | 51.1 |
86 | Lincoln | £176,555 | 33% | 138 | 84 |
87 | Derby | £187,976 | 25% | 98 | 76.1 |
88 | London | £819,829 | 28% | 91 | 24.4 |
89 | Wolverhampton | £179,541 | 10% | 96 | 74.6 |
90 | Norwich | £240,534 | 16% | 126 | 72.5 |
91 | Nottingham | £176,233 | 19% | 134 | 80.8 |
92 | Southend-on-Sea | £350,944 | 23% | 115 | 65.4 |
93 | Northampton | £237,023 | 29% | 108 | 76.4 |
94 | Harlow | £297,095 | 40% | 116 | 88.6 |
95 | Portsmouth | £245,363 | 22% | 111 | 83.7 |
96 | Hastings | £252,650 | 34% | 103 | 36.5 |
97 | Kingston upon Hull, City of | £123,619 | 15% | 150 | 131.4 |
98 | Southampton | £239,316 | 16% | 122 | 72 |
99 | Luton | £261,977 | 17% | 102 | 84.2 |
100 | Blackpool | £123,686 | 15% | 173 | 66.9 |
100 | Manchester | £215,473 | 16% | 136 | 59.6 |
102 | Leicester | £205,831 | 23% | 119 | 75.6 |
103 | Sandwell | £167,447 | 12% | 90 | 65.6 |
104 | Ipswich | £219,447 | 25% | 118 | 72.3 |
Surprised at St Albans.
You’d think the millionaires that live there would all have decent broadband.
Yet another flawed survey.
Take just 1 example – Milton Keynes
67 Milton Keynes £314,491 71% 83 46.9Mbs
Note the average speed at the end.
This is an area with 80% FTTP coverage with speeds up to 1Gbps available. So the average speed points to consumers who are careful with their money by only purchasing what they require. Not what you can achieve should you need it.
Also down to Ofcom data points they are using eg. 2019 Connected Nations is actually Aug/Sept 2019 data so Milton Keynes was at approx 50% FTTP coverage back then but on a clear path to the 80% as shown on https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/E06000042
FTTP speeds at mean. 150 down, 64 up are well above the average Ofcom reported but the speed was also lower in Q3 2019 showing how things are changing.
If someone really wanted to highlight areas in terms of speed options, use % availability of FTTP or max mean download