Is Brentwood, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Brentwood. 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 Brentwood. 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	Hutton South	22723
2	Hutton Central	22079
3	Shenfield	18910
4	Hutton North	18442
5	Warley	18406
6	Brentwood West	16173
7	Brentwood South	11351
8	Brentwood North	11350
9	South Weald	5114
10	Gooshays	4407

Is Brentwood a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Brentwood, 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 Brentwood 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	%
Brentwood (Brentwood)	3.77
Thurrock	4.34
Havering	4.44
Basildon	5.03

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Brentwood. 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 Brentwood. 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	Shenfield (Best)	32261
2	South Weald	31807
3	Hutton South	31765
4	Hutton Central	28741
5	Brentwood North	26974
6	Brentwood West	25705
7	Warley	24821
8	Hutton North	23280
9	Brentwood South	21443
10	Gooshays (Worst)	14030

Is Brentwood rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Brentwood. 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	Shenfield	32279
2	Hutton South	29449
3	Warley	25205
4	Brentwood West	25020
5	Hutton Central	24737
6	Hutton North	24322
7	South Weald	22341
8	Brentwood North	22219
9	Brentwood South	18775
10	Gooshays	6740

How affordable are the rents in Brentwood?

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

Beds	Brentwood	Essex
1	£895	£750
2	£1150	£900
3	£1450	£1150
4	£2000	£1500

How much can I earn in Brentwood per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Brentwood (Brentwood)	£941.40
2	Havering	£781.90
3	Thurrock UA	£711.90
4	Basildon	£693.90

So, is Brentwood a nice place to live?

Brentwood has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, the rents in Brentwood are more expensive than other parts of Essex.  However, Brentwood does have a number of wards were crime is worse than the national average.

* Probably.