Is Church Stretton, Shropshire a nice place to live?

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

How likely are you to a victim of crime in Church Stretton?

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Church Stretton. 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 Church Stretton. 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	Burnell	31226
2	Corvedale	29749
3	Bishop's Castle	29643
4	Severn Valley	28187
5	Rea Valley	27939
6	Radbrook	25281
7	Church Stretton and Craven Arms	23459
8	Longden	23247
9	Meole	21354
10	Churchstoke	1738

Is Church Stretton a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Church Stretton, 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 Church Stretton 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	%
Malvern Hills	5.02
Shropshire (Church Stretton)	5.08
Telford and Wrekin	6.12
Wyre Forest	6.14

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Church Stretton. 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 Church Stretton. 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	Corvedale (Best)	26744
2	Burnell	26178
3	Radbrook	25944
4	Severn Valley	25255
5	Bishop's Castle	22833
6	Church Stretton and Craven Arms	21952
7	Meole	21236
8	Longden	20673
9	Rea Valley	17984
10	Churchstoke (Worst)	1203

Is Church Stretton rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Church Stretton. 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	Radbrook	27710
2	Meole	22777
3	Rea Valley	21147
4	Longden	19940
5	Burnell	17654
6	Church Stretton and Craven Arms	17152
7	Severn Valley	14761
8	Bishop's Castle	12648
9	Corvedale	12263
10	Churchstoke	1047

How affordable are the rents in Church Stretton?

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

Beds	Shropshire
1	£475	£
2	£595	£
3	£725	£
4	£1075	£

How much can I earn in Church Stretton per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Malvern Hills	£736.00
2	Shropshire UA (Church Stretton)	£660.20
3	Telford and Wrekin UA	£658.70
4	Wyre Forest	£594.10

So, is Church Stretton a nice place to live?

Church Stretton has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, Church Stretton does more pockets of deprivation than the average town.  However, the rents in Church Stretton are more expensive than other parts of .

* Probably.