Is Lechlade, Gloucestershire a nice place to live?

Is Lechlade a nice place to live or is Lechlade 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 Lechlade meets our criteria.

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Lechlade. 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 Lechlade. 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	Watchfield & Shrivenham	30631
2	Fairford North	30541
3	Alvescot and Filkins	28669
4	Lechlade, Kempsford & Fairford South	28420
5	Carterton North East	27340
6	Carterton South	26316
7	Carterton North West	25718
8	Faringdon	23723
9	Blunsdon and Highworth	21902
10	Cricklade and Latton	18476

Is Lechlade a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Lechlade, 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 Lechlade 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	%
Vale of White Horse	3.24
West Berkshire	3.35
Cotswold (Lechlade)	3.8
Swindon	4.45

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Lechlade. 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 Lechlade. 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	Alvescot and Filkins (Best)	30941
2	Watchfield & Shrivenham	30452
3	Fairford North	27324
4	Carterton North East	27280
5	Carterton South	27003
6	Lechlade, Kempsford & Fairford South	26298
7	Faringdon	25976
8	Carterton North West	25279
9	Cricklade and Latton	23965
10	Blunsdon and Highworth (Worst)	21597

Is Lechlade rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Lechlade. 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	Carterton North East	28666
2	Fairford North	28631
3	Carterton South	28282
4	Watchfield & Shrivenham	27936
5	Lechlade, Kempsford & Fairford South	26765
6	Cricklade and Latton	24259
7	Carterton North West	23984
8	Faringdon	23516
9	Blunsdon and Highworth	23341
10	Alvescot and Filkins	18421

How affordable are the rents in Lechlade?

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, Lechlade rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Gloucestershire.

Beds	Cotswold	Gloucestershire
1	£650	£585
2	£815	£725
3	£1050	£895
4	£1745	£1300

How much can I earn in Lechlade per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Lechlade, 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 Lechlade's local authority needs to be in first or second place compared to the three nearest local authorities.

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	West Berkshire UA	£775.50
2	Vale of White Horse	£730.80
3	Swindon UA	£697.50
4	Cotswold (Lechlade)	£692.50

So, is Lechlade a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.