Is Leatherhead, Surrey a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Leatherhead. 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 Leatherhead. 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	Fetcham East	28466
2	Fetcham West	28099
3	Ashtead Village	26928
4	Ashtead Park	26423
5	Ashtead Common	25626
6	Leatherhead North	24327
7	Bookham South	22834
8	Leatherhead South	22318
9	Bookham North	21444
10	Stamford	15381

Is Leatherhead a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Leatherhead, 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 Leatherhead 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	%
Elmbridge	2.87
Epsom and Ewell	3.06
Mole Valley (Leatherhead)	3.68
Spelthorne	3.85

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Leatherhead. 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 Leatherhead. 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	Fetcham West (Best)	32010
2	Stamford	30349
3	Ashtead Park	29529
4	Ashtead Village	27634
5	Leatherhead South	27183
6	Ashtead Common	27026
7	Fetcham East	26693
8	Bookham South	26330
9	Bookham North	26314
10	Leatherhead North (Worst)	19336

Is Leatherhead rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Leatherhead. 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	Fetcham West	32038
2	Ashtead Village	31031
3	Ashtead Park	30812
4	Fetcham East	29613
5	Ashtead Common	28994
6	Bookham South	27209
7	Leatherhead South	27120
8	Bookham North	26232
9	Stamford	25862
10	Leatherhead North	19648

How affordable are the rents in Leatherhead?

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

Beds	Mole Valley	Surrey
1	£900	£900
2	£1150	£1170
3	£1500	£1450
4	£2300	£2250

How much can I earn in Leatherhead per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Elmbridge	£895.60
2	Epsom and Ewell	£850.00
3	Mole Valley (Leatherhead)	£782.40
4	Spelthorne	£728.60

So, is Leatherhead a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.