Life’s good in happy Valley (From Romsey Advertiser)
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Life’s good in happy Valley
2:50pm Wednesday 11th April 2012 in News
A national study has hailed Test Valley as being among the top 50 rural areas with the highest quality of life.
The area, which includes the towns of Romsey, Stockbridge and Andover, ranked 14th in the Halifax Quality of Life survey, which looks at average earnings, housing, employment, education, health and weather.
The New Forest also featured, at 44th.
East Cambridgeshire topped the table, ahead of Wychavon, Worcestershire and South Cambridgeshire, in second and third spots.
Residents in Test Valley welcomed the study, saying assets such as the River Test and Hillier Gardens made the high placing understandable.
At the Mountbatten School in Romsey, 87 per cent of pupils scored five or more C grades and above in GCSEs.
The Romsey School scored 86 per cent and the independent Hampshire Collegiate School in the same town scored 93 per cent.
Unemployment in the Test Valley currently stands at 4.2 per cent, against the 7.7 per cent national average.
Some people may be surprised to see Test Valley rated so highly with the wide gap between wages and house prices. A recent National Housing Federation study revealed an average house price in the borough to be 13.3 times the average salary.
