St. Margaret's and East Sheen are 'Happiest' neighbourhoods

5.34.52pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 10th May 2004

The government has produced an exhaustive study of 32,483 British neighbourhoods based on 37 indicators of 'quality of life'. The top neighbourhood in Britain was Chorleywood West and, within London, there were three wards from the borough of Richmond in the top 10 - East sheen, St Margarets/North Twickenham and Kew. The indicators of 'happiness' include levels of employment, levels of education, crime, car and home ownership.

MP Vincent Cable said: "the conclusions are not surprising and are reflected in the value of property. It is undoubtedly the case that there is a high quality of life in most parts of the borough. But these mechanical indicators can be very misleading. For all its attractions, St Margaret's has problems of sewage smells and aircraft noise, a shortage of primary school places and a poor train service; none of these are captured in the government's league tables".