A variety of surveys are carried out into where people are happiest across the country and Stockport tends to come out pretty high on them.

In the latest RightMove Happy at Home survey, Stockport residents were happiest of any of the 14 towns and cities surveyed across the North West and fourth happiest across the whole country.

In fact, people who live in Stockport say they’re much happier than our neighbours in Manchester – they came 91st out of 111 across the country compared to our fourth place.

I wanted to dig down a bit further and see what makes us so much happier than our neighbours, in particular those areas that the Council has a real impact on. Are residents saying that Lib Dem Stockport does a better job than Labour Manchester, for example?

Amenities
People were asked whether “The local amenities are satisfactory compared to other areas I know.”
Stockport scored top in the North West and 8th across the whole UK on this measure. Manchester on the other hand could only manage 55th across the UK, and 8th regionally. Even in these times of reduced budgets the Lib Dems have worked hard to maintain amenities and it’s good to see that work being recognised in this poll.

Recreation
“I enjoy spending time in the area in which I live.” On this measure, Stockport came out second in the North West and 16th nationwide (from 111). In contrast, Manchester’s residents ranked it 10 of 14 in the North West and 87th of 111 across the UK.

Neighbourliness
Right Move asked people to agree or disagree with “Generally the people who live in my area are friendly and polite.” Now it could just be chance that different areas tend to have nicer people, but I think there’s more to it than that. We’re all capable of being nice and polite at times and rude at others and strong communities help our friendly sides to come out more. Stockport came 3rd in the North West and 21st across the UK on this measure, with Manchester being 13th out of 14 in the North West and 87th of 111 nationwide. The community groups, Facebook groups and things like that really do make a difference!

Safety
People were asked to agree or disagree with the statement “I rarely feel unsafe in the community in which I live”. This was a measure Stockport did less well on, but still came ahead of Manchester, and that’s something I think we need to look at. Stockport was average (60/111 across the UK and 8/14 in the North West) with Manchester being near the bottom again (13/14 in the North West and 96/111 across the country).

Overall, the survey found that people in the North tend to be happier than those in the South. The ten least happy places to live in the UK were all in London, and none of the ten happiest places were in London or the South East (two – Stockport and Preston – are in the North West).

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