The Sunday Times’ expert judges curate the list each year by assessing a wide range of factors, from schools, air quality, transport and broadband speeds, to culture, green spaces and the health of the high street.
They look for improving towns, villages or city centres, for attractive, well-designed homes, and locations bursting with community spirit.
The Times Best Places to Live 2021
Whether you’re a first-time buyer, looking to raise a family, or want to get out of the city and into the countryside, where are the best places to live in the UK this year?https://t.co/fIX7G4hDVO
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) March 26, 2021
When it comes to Altrincham in 2021, the judges were particularly keen on the area’s schools – with the girls’ grammar being named the North West state secondary school of the decade by The Sunday Times Parent Power guide, and the boys’ grammar landed second place – and the convenient tram route into central Manchester was also noted as a highlight, along with its open spaces such as Stamford Park, the River Bollin, and the National Trust’s Dunham Massey.
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The Everyman cinema, “neat specialist shops” such as Batch Bottlestore and the Idaho interiors shop, as well as restaurants such as Sugo Pasta Kitchen, were also all mentioned.
Most of all though, the judges were impressed with the town’s iconic market and food hall – which has been responsible for the regeneration of the town centre that was once described the “worst high street in Britain” – and heaped praise on the way it has remained at the heart of life in the area, despite prolonged closures and challenging circumstances amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
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Helen Davies – Property Editor at The Times and Sunday Times – said this year’s guide has never been more important, as the pandemic has taught us how much we rely on our homes and communities and has lead many to reassess our priorities on where we really want to live.
“Our focus for this year has been community, countryside and convenience,” Helen said.
“It hasn’t been a year for big cities or small villages. Instead, it is small towns that have shone – big enough to have everything you need within walking distance and small enough for everyone to feel connected.
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“Altrincham was chosen as our regional winner this year as it has everything you want in a suburb: parks, excellent transport links and top-class schools.”
She continued: “The inspirational market and food hall that transformed the town centre from the worst in Britain to a favourite destination have continued to show their value, even during the pandemic”.
Steve Ford – Altrincham Property Expert from Purplebricks, who has been in estate agency for 37 years – added that the town has always been an “extremely popular hotspot.”
“The tram gets you to the centre of Manchester in about 20 minutes whilst you still enjoy the leafy suburbs on the edge of the Cheshire countryside,” he said.
“Altrincham town centre is enjoying a huge investment and resurgence.
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“The announcements this week around the proposed improvements to the Stamford Quarter further illustrate how the town centre is truly returning to a bustling market town”.
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Alongside Altrincham, the seven other North West locations listed in the guide were Manchester – particularly the area around Manchester Piccadilly station, with Ancoats, Chorlton, Didsbury and Levenshulme also getting a shoutout – Saddleworth in Oldham, Knutsford and Bollington in Cheshire, Liverpool, and Kirkby Lonsdale, and Arnside and Silverdale, all in Cumbria.
Taking the top spot for the best place to live in the UK in 2021 is the small market town of Stroud in Gloucestershire.
You can read the full list on The Sunday Times website here.
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‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Benson Boone has announced a headline gig in Manchester – and it’s a big one
Danny Jones
American pop sensation and unrivalled king of unnecessary front flips, Benson Boone, has just announced his first-ever headline Manchester arena gig as part of a new arena tour.
The solo artist and acrobatic chart-topper has seen a meteoric rise in the US and, as is usually the case across the Atlantic, he’s become increasingly popular over here too.
Benson may have performed here in Manchester before as part of the 2024 MTV EMAs and for a small show at The Deaf Institute, but now big fans have the added Boone of getting to watch a standalone show at one of Europe’s leading indoor entertainment venues.
Announced on Friday, 30 May, the 22-year-old will be making his way across the pond from Washington for a limited run of UK concerts, with a date at Co-op Live arena being one of just five dates.
Extending his ‘American Heart Tour’ ahead of the release of his eponymous sophomore record, with this autumn leg, Co-op Live will mark his individual visit to 0161.
The Grammy-nominated artist has earned several nods of recognition already for his first album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, which was released just last spring.
He has been described as among the current trend of male singers who fit into the American Idol and ‘Voice audition pop’ genre (a term recently coined online), along with the likes of Teddy Swims, Shawn Mendes, Alex Warren and others.
Regardless of the slightly tongue-in-cheek term, he’s become a huge hit around the world and landing him is still a big coup for the venue that has already welcomed similarly massive pop contemporaries like Swims, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
In case you’re wondering just how big a deal he is over in the States, even this early in his career, his domestic headline dates sold out in seconds, quite literally…
The last time he visited Co-op Live was to perform at the most recent MTV EMAs
Benson Boone is coming to Manchester on Monday, 27 October and will be playing just two other British venues: The O2 in London (two nights) and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Safe to say you don’t want to miss this one if you like soaring vocals and lots of flipping.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 5 June, but Co-op Members can gain access via the arena’s official pre-sale window from the same time on Tuesday (3 Jun).
Emily Sergeant -
29th March 2021 
