Manchester '10th worst place to live'

Ben Rooth

October 23, 2006

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MANCHESTER has been named the 10th worst place to live in Britain in a television programme.

The city is the only place in the north west to feature in The Best and Worst Places to Live in The UK: 2006, which will be broadcast on Channel 4 this Thursday.

Salford - which came ninth last year - no longer appears in the hall of shame.

Property expert Sofie Allsopp, who presents the show, said the results are based on official statistics released by local authorities concerning crime, education and employment.

She said: "All the research is rock solid. We look at every single local authority, all 434 of them, and the figures speak for themselves."

Co-presenter Phil Spencer said: "Life expectancy ranges dramatically across the country and does throw up some interesting results. There is a distinct north-south divide on that one.

"There's also a massive correlation between the quality of education, the amount of available jobs and consequently the popularity of the place to live in."

The London district of Hackney was named the worst place to live, followed by Tower Hamlets in east London, and Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales.

Does Manchester deserve this ranking? Have your say below.

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Showing comments 1 to 25 and replies | View All

cheeks hill, cheshire (23/10/2006 at 09:54)

"property expert"???
2 years working in an estate agents.

Sam, Manchester (23/10/2006 at 11:28)

Could they have a point? It's up to the people of Manchester to change this!

Jon, London (23/10/2006 at 13:46)

I'm sure they've not included Manchester's superb access to national parks or that its city centre baosts some of the best cultural and retail facilities in the country.

Dennis, Eccles (23/10/2006 at 13:50)

They're including life expectancy then, are they? Life expectancy figures are to do with lifestyle, end of story. Moving from one place to another won't reduce or extend your life expectancy if your lifestyle and diet remain the same yet those who have produced this programme seems to suggest that it will, given the manner in which they've used these statistics.

salford, manchester (23/10/2006 at 14:34)

Its about time Manchester became one city (excluding salford) incorparate the local councils into one, such as the towns with an M postcode.This would give Manchester more power

Ali, Manchester (23/10/2006 at 15:49)

well i am proud to call myself a Yorkshire girl born and breed but i moved to Manchester 10 years ago and can honestly say i love Manchester, the city, the people, the nightlife, the shopping etc so they have got it wrong its the worst place to live and the obviously have never been to Hull, Grimsby or Loftus. I'm Happy to be a Manc

J Baur, banks of the river irwell (23/10/2006 at 15:51)

As someone who has lived in manchester all my live i have to say that some parts are pretty grim eg the whole of north manchester, wythenshawe and salford if we're counting it! The people are nice though.

Andy, Wythenshawe (23/10/2006 at 16:34)

Life expectancy isn't just about lifestyle, its about education and poverty and stress caused through crime , anti-social behaviour etc, its also down to standards of housing and the facilities to keep fit, its also down to mental health.
Moving to another area can have a massive effect in increasing life expectancy irrespective of your diet.
Its been known for years that the North West lags well behind the rest of the country for quality of life.

toe, mcr (23/10/2006 at 16:40)

There has to be 10 other places worse than manchester to live - for example Liverpool ( great result yesterday....)

J, manchester (23/10/2006 at 16:46)

J Baur, banks of the river irwell

Are you sure you've lived in Manchester before? Because you do not seem to have a clue mate! There are a lot of areas between Wythenshawe and Salford!

Angry manc, manchester (23/10/2006 at 17:25)

Ive been in manchester all my life and sometimes have a grumble about the place, but in all its a good city with alot going for it. I personally cant believe Manchester is in the top 10. Recently Ive been to Derby and Sheffield and Birmingham & for starters these places are like Manchester was 10 years ago!

danny kelly, liverpool (23/10/2006 at 17:54)

no ,manchester does not deserve to be 10th in the worst places to live ,it should be 1st....what a dump.

Dave, Mancs (23/10/2006 at 18:19)

Once again a bunch of cockneys do Manchester down

Let's look at London

1/ 350k for a one bed flat

2/ Everything double the price

3/Sainsburys and Waitrose your only nearby option for shopping

4/ People don't talk to each other, rude and self important people

5/and you can't get Chips Peas and proper gravy, and forget about a meat pie

London....you can have it

Manchester has nice people, cheap and affordable housing and everyone talks to everyone else

I know where I would rather live.... in Manchester:)

After all all the Southerners want to move here..that tells you something!

emma, manchester (23/10/2006 at 19:15)

i cam to study at Manchester Met 12 years ago and loved the city so much i stayed and have now got a family here, i'm from Grimsby and i agree with Ali that its the armpit of the north, hate southerners thought they don't interact with people like us friendly northerners

emma, manchester (23/10/2006 at 19:15)

*came*

joan, cheshire (23/10/2006 at 20:01)

im supprized manchester did so well it always was a dump thats why people left in the thousands just look at the yob culture and the slums they were there 30 years ago and they are still there

JC, Oldham (23/10/2006 at 20:13)

Once again, more rubbish comes off Channel 4. What do they know.

ronaldo, manchester (23/10/2006 at 20:37)

absolute tosh,i travel all around europe and manchester is one of the nicest citys in europe.

ex mancunian, sydney australia (23/10/2006 at 21:25)

Manchester must have it's drawbacks. Funny though, I can't think of any.
Get 'nicked' channel 4. Maybe you are the 4th worst tv channel in the world.

Dave, Chorlton,Mcr (23/10/2006 at 21:50)

Unlike "liverpool" or "birmingham", the "manchester" stats don't include much of the leafy suburbs - only Didsbury and the posh bits of Chorlton - to balance things out a bit. Manchester comes unstuck in most of these surveys re life expectancy, crime etc. because the City of Manchester boundaries are so narrow in relation to the central conurbation (trafford, tameside etc) as a whole. I'm not claiming Manchester doesn't have major problems, as all large cities do, but the stats don't give a true relative picture for this reason

Gregory Happy, Manchester (24/10/2006 at 08:35)

glad i live in Trafford. everyone knows Manchester is rubbish! Yet surprisingly Openshaw is stated as one of the up and coming areas in the country. Sounds like conflicting spin here

Colin W, Stockholm (24/10/2006 at 08:37)

Ronaldo, i dont know what parts of Europe you travel round, old eastern block maybe, but Manchester certainyl ISNT one of the nicest places to live..... not the worse mind, but certainly not one of the best places ive been to

sarah, cheshire (24/10/2006 at 13:46)

manchester is a dirty nasty city with all the appeal of a dead dog, all the women who live in manchester sleep around, all the mims are teenagers and the gun culture is worse than the bronx, the bomb should of destroyed the lot

Helen, Manchester (25/10/2006 at 00:27)

I think Manchester is alright... has it's crime, grubby bits and helping of idiots with weapons, but it's no worse than London, and certainly has far more culture to it!!

I lived in Surrey for 22 years and although low on crime, it's one of the most drab depressing places you could be.

Sarah, Middlesbrough (26/10/2006 at 09:34)

Well, I've been to Manchester and think it's great! What do these so called experts know? I live in a place that is ranked even worse than Manchester with all its chemical 'factories' (they must mean plants, surely??) which ensure that the posh totty in the South can enjoy their lycra gym outfits and tupperware parties....fact is that its the workers up North that actually do any graft rather than sitting on our bums and dealing in stocks and shares all day....
North West / North East, let the people 'North'of the Watford Gap unite!

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