Is Heathfield, East Sussex a nice place to live?

Is Heathfield a nice place to live or is Heathfield a bit rough? For us there are a number of factors that make any town a nice place to live, like a low crime rate, low levels of deprivation, the good health of the residents, rent affordability and excellent wages. In this article we will see if Heathfield meets our criteria.

How likely are you to a victim of crime in Heathfield?

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Heathfield. They are a measure of how likely you are to be a victim of personal or material crime in an area, such as muggings or burglary. Naturally rural areas have less crime than urban areas, but for this part of our town assessment we've looked at the 10 wards nearest to the centre of Heathfield. To pass this section, 8 out of 10 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5

#	Ward	Crime Rank
1	Mayfield & Five Ashes	31318
2	Heathfield South	28689
3	Horam & Punnetts Town	28098
4	Crowborough South East	27894
5	Hadlow Down & Rotherfield	27595
6	Heathfield North	26469
7	Crowborough Jarvis Brook	26207
8	Framfield & Cross-in-Hand	26197
9	Catsfield & Crowhurst	26143
10	Uckfield North	24644

Is Heathfield a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Heathfield, you want to know if the place is likely to put you on a downward spiral of ill health. For this section of the town assessment, we've examined government health statistics from the 2021 Census General Health question and the Indices of Multiple Deprivation's health element.The table below shows what percentage of Heathfield residents answered saying their health was either bad or very bad. To pass this section, the local authority has to have a percentage score less than or equal to 7%.

Local Authority	%
Tunbridge Wells	3.8
Wealden (Heathfield)	4.42
Rother	5.99
Eastbourne	6.28

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Heathfield. They measures the risk of premature death and the impairment of quality of life through poor physical or mental health, lovely! We've collated an average LSOA rank for 10 wards nearest to the centre of Heathfield. To pass this section, 8 out of 10 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5.

#	Ward	Health Rank
1	Hadlow Down & Rotherfield (Best)	30905
2	Mayfield & Five Ashes	30327
3	Heathfield South	29843
4	Crowborough South East	28938
5	Framfield & Cross-in-Hand	28852
6	Crowborough Jarvis Brook	28510
7	Horam & Punnetts Town	28224
8	Heathfield North	27839
9	Uckfield North	25071
10	Catsfield & Crowhurst (Worst)	21074

Is Heathfield rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Heathfield. In layman's terms, this is how rough the ward is based on mutiple measures of deprivation including; employment, income, health, crime, housing and outside space. To pass this section as the town assessment, 8 out of 10 wards must have a ranking higher than the English average of 16422.5

#	Ward	Deprivation Rank
1	Hadlow Down & Rotherfield	26398
2	Crowborough Jarvis Brook	25801
3	Heathfield South	25453
4	Crowborough South East	25323
5	Mayfield & Five Ashes	24910
6	Heathfield North	24230
7	Uckfield North	21920
8	Framfield & Cross-in-Hand	21381
9	Horam & Punnetts Town	20055
10	Catsfield & Crowhurst	13794

How affordable are the rents in Heathfield?

Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These market rental statistics are dated September 2023. We have used the median rental figure for this assessment as we believe this is a more realistic figure than the average (mean) that can be skewed by artificially low and high rents. To pass this section, Heathfield rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for East Sussex.

Beds	Wealden	East Sussex
1	£725	£650
2	£900	£825
3	£1195	£1095
4	£1800	£1460

How much can I earn in Heathfield per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Heathfield, you'll want to know how much you can earn in a job in the town. Every year the government publishes statistics on gross weekly pay, these figures are for September 2023. To pass this section Heathfield's local authority needs to be in first or second place compared to the three nearest local authorities.

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Tunbridge Wells	£766.30
2	Eastbourne	£726.70
3	Wealden (Heathfield)	£679.90
4	Rother	£623.90

So, is Heathfield a nice place to live?

Heathfield has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, the rents in Heathfield are more expensive than other parts of East Sussex.

* Probably.