Is Newent, Gloucestershire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Newent. 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 Newent. 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	Mitcheldean, Ruardean & Drybrook	30258
2	Longhope & Huntley	30172
3	Hartpury & Redmarley	29299
4	Penyard	28767
5	Highnam with Haw Bridge	28249
6	Ledbury West	23500
7	Longdon	22960
8	Dymock	21102
9	Newent & Taynton	20918
10	Ross North	16202

Is Newent a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Newent, 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 Newent 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	%
Tewkesbury	3.93
Gloucester	4.94
Herefordshire, County of	5.25
Forest of Dean (Newent)	5.46

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Newent. 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 Newent. 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	Longdon (Best)	27722
2	Longhope & Huntley	26965
3	Hartpury & Redmarley	26446
4	Highnam with Haw Bridge	25658
5	Dymock	24979
6	Newent & Taynton	24270
7	Ledbury West	24084
8	Penyard	23213
9	Ross North	19010
10	Mitcheldean, Ruardean & Drybrook (Worst)	18000

Is Newent rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Newent. 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	Highnam with Haw Bridge	22614
2	Ledbury West	20991
3	Longhope & Huntley	19085
4	Newent & Taynton	17950
5	Hartpury & Redmarley	17919
6	Mitcheldean, Ruardean & Drybrook	17710
7	Dymock	17578
8	Penyard	16087
9	Ross North	16030
10	Longdon	14350

How affordable are the rents in Newent?

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

Beds	Forest of Dean	Gloucestershire
1	£450	£585
2	£600	£725
3	£750	£895
4	£973	£1300

How much can I earn in Newent per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Forest of Dean (Newent)	£724.40
2	Tewkesbury	£651.00
3	Herefordshire UA	£616.20
4	Gloucester	£613.60

So, is Newent a nice place to live?

Newent has passed our core town assesment with a score of 4/5.  However, Newent does more pockets of deprivation than the average town.

* Probably.