January 2023 - CIA Landlords

Best UK Cities to Learn Yoga

Posted on 30 January 20231 October 2023 by CIA

Today, thanks to the wealth of information available on the internet and informative campaigns, the public now is a great deal more aware of the overarching benefits of following a healthy lifestyle. Modern life can be full of stress, so why not try and do something that is therapeutic and relaxing, and at the same time gets you fit?

In 2021, a staggering 460,000 Brits participated in yoga classes every week! This 5,000-year-old practice from the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India can be a wholesome holistic remedy to help you contend with everyday gripes and stresses.

The UK is home to a long list of cities with an exciting buzzing ambience that you can’t quite put your finger on. CIA’s landlord insurance specialists decided to delve into the best UK cities to learn yoga. We looked at things such as the number of yoga classes and dedicated studio spaces, and also the amount of yoga-related jobs available in each city.

Continue reading so you can discover all about the best UK cities to learn yoga!

London is the best city in the UK to learn yoga

London is a buzzing epicentre full of creativity and opportunities to take part in fun past times. Considering learning yoga? Our research has unearthed that the best city to learn yoga in the UK is in fact London.

London has always been a place which has led the way when it comes to trends in the UK, and the same is true for the growing trend in the popularity of people taking up yoga. These rankings were based on the three different metrics we decided to draw on, the number of classes, access to yoga studios, and the availability of yoga-related jobs, and London came out on top!

Overall rankings	Best UK cities to learn yoga
1	London
2	Birmingham
3	Glasgow
4	Bristol
5	Manchester
6	Liverpool
7	Sheffield
8	Edinburgh
9	Leeds
10	Leicester

Everyone needs some time to wind down, and learning yoga is an ideal escape for people feeling stressed out at working and living in the capital. We found out that London has an abundance of yoga classes and studios, and it’s the best UK city for yoga-related jobs. Looking after your health and wellbeing if you’re living a stressful cosmopolitan life in London is essential, and for this reason, studies have shown a large number of Londoners exercise regularly during the week to let off some steam.

In our research, Birmingham finished in 2nd place and Glasgow 3rd for overall rankings for the best UK cities to learn yoga. Not only is Brum a fabulous place to take up yoga, but Birmingham is also a thriving cultural hub and a great place for young people to live.

Glasgow finished in 3rd

Glasgow may be a surprising one, but this wonderful Scottish city finished in 3rd place! Glasgow is a splendid place to live with lots going on. If you’re a culture vulture, be sure to head on down to the Hunterian Art Gallery in the University of Glasgow, Scotland’s oldest public building. Glasgow is also a sports-mad city, and home to the world-famous Rangers and Celtic football clubs. The city hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2014. With its inhabitants having such a passion for sports and fitness, it’s little surprise learning yoga has become so popular in Glasgow!

Bristol came 4th

Bristol finished in a respectable 4th place, and it’s a city with a reputation for having a vibrant creative scene and being full of life. Our research shows that it’s a fantastic place to learn yoga! So, if you moving to Bristol and are keen on getting yourself fit while enjoying some quality time to chill out, you’ll have an abundance of yoga activities taking place right on your doorstep.

Leeds and Leicester

Our findings found Leeds and Leicester to be the joint worst out of the top 10 populated cities in the UK when comes to places to learn yoga. However, both cities are nevertheless great places to visit with hoards of exciting bars and restaurants and booming student populations.

London has the greatest number of yoga classes

In order to learn about the fundamental yoga poses (asanas), you will need to attend yoga classes. Going to yoga classes is fun, and aside from the various benefits for your physical health and mental wellbeing, it can be a great way to socialise and make new friends. The research we carried out on the cities with the largest number of yoga classes available uncovered London to be the winner, with 341 classes on offer.

Birmingham finished 2nd again with 67 different yoga classes on offer and Bristol 3rd with 56. Therefore, our research proved that it’s not only in London that you have the opportunity to attend inspiring and relaxing yoga classes!

Rankings	Cities	Total number of yoga classes*
1	London	341
2	Birmingham	67
3	Bristol	56
4	Manchester	30
5	Liverpool	29
6	Leicester	22
7	Sheffield	19
8	Leeds	13
9	Glasgow	12
10	Edinburgh	2

*Please note the figures for these classes are correct as of December 2022

London is the best UK city to find yoga-related jobs

If you take up yoga and then find yourself becoming fascinated by it and it turns into a real passion of yours, you may want to go for a job that involves yoga in some way. As they say, do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life!

In our research findings, London came in 1st place when it comes to yoga-related jobs available. At the time of research, we discovered there were 25 different yoga- related jobs in London being advertised on Google job ads. For this metric, London was well ahead of Birmingham in 2nd place with six yoga-related jobs available.

Have you become besotted with yoga and are interested in teaching and coaching yoga to other people as a profession? In that case, our research tells you that London is very much the place to be for yoga-related jobs.

Whether it be teaching yoga to the elderly, young people, the disabled and people with learning disabilities, or anyone that fancies giving it a go, having a yoga-related job could be pretty enriching and exciting!

Rankings	Cities	Number of yoga-related jobs*
1	London	25
2	Birmingham	6
3	Sheffield	4
4	Liverpool	3
5	Bristol	3
6	Manchester	3
7	Edinburgh	3
8	Glasgow	1
9	Leeds	1
10	Leicester	1

*Please note the figures for ‘yoga-related jobs’ available are correct as of December 2022.

London is the UK city with the most yoga studios

Since yoga has risen in popularity in recent years, dedicated yoga studios have popped up all over the place. Our research found that London has a staggering 133 yoga studios for you to make the most of.

Our data showed Glasgow and Bristol coming in second and third place, with 88 and 86 yoga studios respectively. Edinburgh also came in a close fourth place with 85 studios in the city. Our research helped to demonstrate that there is an abundance of yoga studios in UK cities, and therefore it’s a better time than ever to pick up yoga if you live in an urban area.

Ranking	Cities	Number of yoga studios
1	London	133
2	Glasgow	88
3	Bristol	86
4	Edinburgh	85
5	Birmingham	72
6	Manchester	60
7	Liverpool	54
8	Sheffield	42
9	Leeds	40
10	Leicester	35

So, why has learning yoga become so popular?

You might be wondering about the reasons why learning yoga has become so popular in the UK and across the globe. Well, a lot of it is to do with there being a large number of significant benefits of practising yoga for our physical and mental wellbeing. People who want to improve their health and general wellbeing in a relaxing way which fits around their work and lifestyle often choose to learn yoga these days.

Here are a few examples of how practising yoga regularly can help lift your quality of life:

Enhanced muscle strength and tone
Improved respiration due to breathing exercises
Healthy weight loss
Improved cardiac health
Reduced risk of injury
Improved flexibility
Higher levels of stamina
Helps combat high blood pressure
Studies have shown the physical and psychological benefits for people aged 60+ can help them age better

Methodology

The goal of our research was to gather information and data on three different metrics in order to help us determine the best cities in the UK to learn yoga. We did this by focusing on the top 10 most populated cities in the UK.

The first metric we concentrated on was the availability of yoga classes in each of the cities we looked at. We found these figures by looking at the ‘Find a Yoga Class’ section of the British Wheel of Yoga website – the national governing body of yoga.

The second metric focussed on was how easy it is in each city to find a job where you’d regularly be working using yoga practices. We found data on the number of yoga-related jobs currently available in each city by searching the term ‘Yoga jobs’ along with the city in question on the jobs search filter on google.com.

For instance, searching ‘Yoga jobs Birmingham’ told us the total number of yoga-related jobs on offer at the present time in Birmingham on Google’s jobs advertisement pages. These jobs can include anything involving yoga, such as being an instructor, teaching kids yoga, and so on. For this metric, we did count yoga-related jobs being carried out online, as long as this was done so within the city in question.

The third metric involved collecting data on the number of yoga studios in each city. We unearthed these figures by typing the term ‘Yoga Studio’ in the ‘Search Nearby’ tool in Google Maps for each city of the 10 UK cities.

Sources
https://www.bwy.org.uk/find-a-yoga-class/
https://www.thegeographist.com/uk-cities-population-1000/
https://www.google.com/
https://www.google.co.uk/maps

The Best Commuter Towns in England for Young Families

Posted on 26 January 20232 December 2024 by CIA

England is a pretty small place, yet the industrial revolution led to exciting busy cities full of work springing up all over the place. As a result, today English cities such as London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Leeds, to name just a few, are thriving working hubs. But not everyone likes to live and work in a bustling city environment. Many people prefer to live somewhere that’s a bit more rural and instead, commute into urban areas from commuter towns. Where you want to live can change when you become a parent and have young ones to raise and take care of.

In addition, renting and buying homes in urban areas in England has become increasingly pricey over the past decade, and this trend has especially been felt by people living in London. In recent years, some people have therefore taken the decision to move out of cities and into commuter towns in England.

Additional advantages of deciding to move to commuter towns besides more affordable housing also include less noise, more greenery, lower air pollution levels, lower crime rates, generally quieter locations, and more. All these factors contribute to making living in a commuter town an attractive option for young families in England who are seeking a feasible alternative to bringing up their kids in a city.

The environment that your children grow up in is extremely important and something that will shape and mould them. Fortunately, there are vibrant commuter towns in England that offer an impressively high quality of life for young families.

We at CIA Landlord Insurance have carried out research that draws on key statistics to try and gauge a solid data-based assessment of the best commuter towns in England for young families.

The best commuter town in England for young families is… Maidstone!

Rankings	Best commuter towns in England for young families
1	Maidstone
2	Warrington
3	Telford
4	Basingstoke
5	Watford
6	Reading
7	Swindon
8	Luton
9	Solihull
10	Crawley
11	Blackburn
12	Chelmsford
13	High Wycombe
14	Huddersfield
15	Rotherham
16	Birkenhead
17	Northampton
18	Basildon
19	Slough
20	Gillingham

Firstly, uprooting and moving to a commuter town when you’ve previously lived in a city or even a village is a big life change for a young family to go through and a decision that mustn’t be taken lightly.

Therefore, young families need to carry out a lot of research into the quality of life commuter towns could potentially offer them. Are the public transport links good for travelling into cities for work? Are there good local nurseries and schools locally? Parks and green spaces for the kids to let off some steam?

Our research into the top 20 commuter towns in England by population unveiled Maidstone, Kent as the best commuter town in England for young families. This picturesque commuter town with the River Medway running through its centre is handily just a 53-minute direct train journey away from London Bridge Station in central London. London Bridge Station is just a stone’s throw from ‘the city’ banking district, so this train link will be highly convenient if you happen to work on that side of London.

Maidstone is a top choice for active families

Are you an active family who loves spending quality time together doing fun physical escapades in the great outdoors? Perhaps you enjoy leading a sustainable lifestyle as a family and are concerned about the future of our planet? Well, in that case, you’ll be thrilled to hear that Maidstone came out with a near-perfect air quality index score of three, with zero being the least air-polluted a location can be.

As well as the acres of fields available for your little ones to run about in and explore in and around Maidstone, our research showed that there is also no shortage of parks, recreational fields, playgrounds, and nature reserves. The town has a total of eight legally protected green spaces – protected by Fields in Trust ‘deeds of protection’.

So, if you want to live outside London and raise your young kids somewhere a bit different with considerably less pollution, crowding, expense, and more outdoor green spaces, all while having easy access to London, then Maidstone is a fabulous choice!

Other great commuter towns in England

In close second place for the best commuter town in England for young families is Warrington! This North-West English town is well located for commuters, sandwiched conveniently between the bustling business hubs of the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, which are both just 20 and 27-minute train rides respectively. With low crime rates, an abundance of green spaces, and good schools, our research revealed that Warrington is a great town to raise young children.

Telford, Shropshire, a new town built in the late 1960s in an effort to ease the overpopulation concerns of nearby Wolverhampton and Birmingham, nowadays, it’s a commuter town with over 150,00 inhabitants. Telford came in third place in our research into the best commuter towns in England for young families. Living in Telford, you’ll be able to raise your little ones in a town with low pollution levels and plenty of green spaces for them to make the most of.

So, do not underestimate or overlook Telford as a nice English commuter town to reside in with your young family, since you could be missing a trick!

Basildon, Slough, and Gillingham finished at the lowest end of our study into English commuter towns. Yet these towns have decent local economies and are well situated, with all three being right next to the capital.

Swindon is the safest commuter town in England

Rankings	Commuter towns with the lowest-highest crime rates in 2021	Crime rate per 1,000 inhabitants
1	Swindon	68
2	Solihull	72
3	Watford	72
4	Basingstoke	77
5	Warrington	77
6	High Wycombe	80
7	Reading	84
8	Luton	85
9	Telford	87
10	Crawley	93
11	Maidstone	96
12	Blackburn	98
13	Chelmsford	98
14	Rotherham	104
15	Northampton	105
16	Huddersfield	105
17	Slough	107
18	Gillingham	111
19	Basildon	127
20	Birkenhead	135

Any parents raising a young family will have security at the forefront of their minds. We thereby decided to gather data on crime rates in the English commuter towns we were looking at.

Our findings show Swindon to be the safest commuter town in England. So, bringing your children up in this Wiltshire town, that’s also just 39 minutes from the lovely city of Bristol and 46 minutes from London by train, is pretty safe. The data we found shows the 2021 crime rate in Swindon was 68 per 1,000 (68 index offences per 1,000 inhabitants).

The town of Solihull is right on the doorstep of the UK’s second-largest city, Birmingham, and it came in joint second place with Watford on safety, with a crime rate of 72 per 1,000 people. These two commuter towns neighbour England’s two largest cities, boast plenty of employment opportunities, and are safe places for young families to lay down their roots.

Reading has the best schools and colleges

Rankings	Commuter towns	Number of schools and colleges with ‘outstanding’ OFSTED reports (4-18-year-olds)
1	Reading	18
2	Northampton	16
3	Chelmsford	16
4	Watford	15
5	Warrington	14
6	Slough	14
7	Rotherham	14
8	Luton	12
9	Maidstone	12
10	Solihull	11
11	Huddersfield	10
12	Blackburn	8
13	Basingstoke	7
14	Swindon	7
15	Telford	7
16	Birkenhead	6
17	Basildon	5
18	Crawley	5
19	High Wycombe	5
20	Gillingham	1

Families with young ones living in a commuter town will want to be blessed with the opportunity to be able to send their children to a good school.

With this consideration in mind, we compiled data from the OFSTED reports of primary, and secondary schools, and colleges located in each of the 20 commuter towns on our list. We specifically recorded the number of schools and colleges in the area that had been awarded outstanding OFSTED inspection reports, the highest rating the educational regulatory body gives to schools.

The data we obtained revealed Reading to be the English commuter town with the best schools and colleges for 4-18-year-olds. An impressive staggering 18 schools and colleges in this Berkshire town were deemed to be outstanding by the latest OFSTED inspections, which are well-known for their rigorous and probing nature.

Another benefit of Reading is that it’s a commuter town that finds itself neatly situated on London’s doorstep, at just a mere 26-minute journey to Paddington Railway Station in the capital by train.

Northampton and Chelmsford finished closely behind in joint second, and both are home to 16 schools and colleges with outstanding OFSTED inspections respectively.

Crawley and Wycombe

Crawley and High Wycombe are home to five outstanding OFSTED rated schools and colleges, and Gillingham has one. This means they are the three lowest for this educational performance metric. However, these findings don’t necessarily mean those three towns aren’t also good commuter towns to live in.

There is an abundance of work opportunities available on your doorstep in Crawley, for instance owing to the proximity of Gatwick Airport. And Gillingham is an up-and-coming commuter town with great fish, just a 48-minute train away from London.

Telford has the highest number of legally protected green spaces

Rankings	Commuter towns in England	Number of legally protected green spaces within the local authority area
1	Telford	14
2	Warrington	9
3	High Wycombe	8
4	Maidstone	8
5	Crawley	7
6	Luton	6
7	Blackburn	5
8	Gillingham	5
9	Reading	3
10	Basingstoke	2
11	Birkenhead	2
12	Huddersfield	2
13	Rotherham	2
14	Solihull	2
15	Watford	2
16	Basildon	1
17	Chelmsford	1
18	Slough	1
19	Swindon	1
20	Northampton	0

Kids love running around and having fun exploring or playing sports in parks, playgrounds, fields, and nature reserves. Young children seem to have endless amounts of energy.

A key pulling factor that attracts young families to move out of urban areas to commuter belt towns is the opportunity to live in a community with much more green spaces. In order to conserve green public spaces such as parks for future generations, someone has to fight their corner and protective legislation must be in place. Putting deeds of protection on parks, fields, playgrounds, and nature reserves in Great Britain is exactly what Fields in Trust fights for.

So, we collected data on the number of legally protected green spaces by the Fields in Trust for each of the 20 commuter towns in our research. It transpires that Telford, Shropshire is the commuter town with the most legally protected green spaces, being home to a total of 14. Therefore, if it’s plenty of green space for your kids to enjoy that you’re after, Telford is a commuter town in England for you to seriously consider looking at.

Other green commuter towns

There are indeed other commuter towns in England offering an excellent array of green spaces and parks for young families to make the most of. Warrington finished in second place with nine legally protected green spaces in its local authority area, and High Wycombe and Maidstone came in joint third with eight.

Maidstone has the best air quality!

Ranking	Commuter town	AQI air pollution rating (0-500)
1	Maidstone	3
2	Swindon	8
3	Telford	9
4	Birkenhead	12
5	Basingstoke	14
6	Huddersfield	14
7	Basildon	18
8	Crawley	19
9	Chelmsford	20
10	Blackburn	21
11	Solihull	24
12	Watford	25
13	Rotherham	29
14	Luton	32.3
15	Warrington	33
16	Slough	33
17	High Wycombe	35
18	Reading	37.25
19	Northampton	45
20	Gillingham	47

Many English cities have highly concentrated populations, and some undeniably have ongoing problems related to excessive levels of air pollution. Therefore, it’s perfectly understandable that some parents may decide to raise their families in a location with better air quality, which tends to be the case with commuter towns compared to city areas.

We collected data on each of the 20 commuter towns’ AQI ratings (Air Quality Index). AQI is a measurement with a 0 to 500 scale, and the higher the AQI, the greater the level of air pollution, which comes with enhanced health risks. An AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality, and a value beyond 300 represents hazardous air quality.

The stats we unearthed found Maidstone, Kent to have the best air quality out of the 20 commuter towns we looked at, with an almost perfect value of three (as recorded on 16th January 2023). So, looking for a sensible alternative to the big smoke with better air quality for your young family? If so, Maidstone could be a great option for you.

Swindon and Telford

Also, the data we found for this metric showed that Swindon and Telford have low air pollution levels and good air quality ratings, and the towns scored eight and nine respectively, finishing in second and third place. The data we looked at across the board supports the idea that there are low air pollution levels in commuter towns in England.

Methodology

We picked the 20 most populated commuter towns in England and then used relevant data to help us determine the best commuter towns in England for young families. The goal of our research was to help young families make informed choices about the best places to live outside urban areas.

Our research drew on data across four key areas. These key areas included local crime rates, school OFSTED assessment reports of primary, and secondary schools, and colleges, the number of legally protected green spaces protected by the Field in Trust organisation, and air quality (AQI) levels. We looked at data on these specific areas because they are all factors that play a significant role in making up the minds’ of young families when they are considering which commuter town in England they want to move to.

Sources

Here are the sources which provided us with the data we used to carry out our research into the best commuter towns in England for young families.

https://crimerate.co.uk/

https://www.find-school-performance-data.service.gov.uk/

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/5301c55a8189410b9428a90f05596af4

https://www.iqair.com/uk

The best UK Cities for lovers of live entertainment

Posted on 25 January 20236 October 2023 by CIA

In the post-pandemic world, we all want to get back amongst it and socialise to do all the things we always loved experiencing together. It may be a little cliché, but memories of amazing moments last forever and are priceless. Live entertainment is a massive attraction in the UK, and Brits and international visitors love fun-filled live events with a fervent passion.

But why do we love live entertainment so much in this country? Well, the passion, desire, atmosphere, and memorable times watching our favourite icons perform in the flesh are some of the reasons we love live entertainment so much here in the UK. We have world-renowned live music festivals such as Glastonbury that welcome up to 200,000 music-loving hedonists. Our musical history is rich, and British bands such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Queen are adored all over the world. And of course, we have outstanding music acts with worldwide popularity today, such as Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Stormzy, Dua Lipa, and many more!

Not only is there fantastic music to enjoy when it comes to live entertainment here in the UK. There are also plenty of events for those who love live comedy, theatre, musicals, opera, dance shows, and such like. UK cities such as London, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow, and many more have a strong reputation for throwing unmissable live entertainment events with electric atmospheres at unique venues. We certainly know how to throw a killer party in the UK, no doubt about it!

Whether you’re visiting a UK city as a tourist or living in one as a resident, you must seize the moment and take in live entertainment up close to fully appreciate it. With live entertainment being such an important part of the culture in UK cities, CIA Landlord Insurance decided to perform some insightful research into the best UK cities for lovers of live entertainment.

We took the 12 most populated cities in the UK and carried out various investigations to help us discover the best UK city for lovers of live entertainment. Continue reading to learn more about the most awesome UK cities for live entertainment.

London is the best UK city for lovers of live entertainment

The table below shows the top UK cities for lovers of live entertainment according to the various research metrics we deployed. It turns out that London came out as the winner as the best UK city for live entertainment.

1	London
2	Manchester
3	Glasgow
4	Birmingham
5	Leicester
6	Bristol
7	Sheffield
8	Leeds
9	Belfast
10	Edinburgh
11	Liverpool
12	Coventry

With tons of creative neighbourhoods and awesome live venues, such as the O2 in Greenwich, Wembley Stadium, Hyde Park, Finsbury Park, the Royal Opera House, Prince Albert Hall, the National Theatre, Alexandra Palace, and the Barbican, our investigations unsurprisingly revealed London to be the best UK city for passionate lovers of live entertainment.

The capital truly has everything in regard to top unmissable opportunities to see live entertainment. So, whether you’re planning on visiting London for a short holiday or actually living there, don’t miss out on its impressive array of live entertainment. Most of the biggest and best international music artists, comedians, dancers, and theatre performers make sure they stop off in the old smoke while on tour.

Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham are also great for live entertainment

Famously known by music lovers as ‘Madchester’ for its wild and lively music scene, Manchester boasts energy-infused live music venues such as the Albert Hall and the Ritz. In the research we carried out, we found Manchester to be the 2nd best UK city for live entertainment. Manchester and nearby Salford are home to bands and artists etched in British music history, such as Oasis, Stone Roses, the Smiths, New Order, Joy Division, Happy Mondays, Take That, and plenty more! Want to indulge in a bit of fun nostalgia around one of Manchester’s most iconic musical exports? Check out the Salford Boys Club, the backdrop for the cover of the Smith’s 1986 album – The Queen is Dead.

Our investigations also undercovered Glasgow as a top spot for enthusiastic fans of live entertainment, with it finishing in 3rd place! Are you particularly into seeing musical theatre and opera live? Be sure to head along to the stunning Victorian auditorium the Theatre Royal Glasgow in the city centre. Glaswegians are friendly folk, and this adds to the fun vibe of going to a live event in the Scottish city.

Brum is also a fantastic destination for fans of live entertainment. The Symphony Hall, the Utilita Arena, and the Jam House are prime examples of cool places to go and enjoy yourself in Birmingham. Are you also a fan of the iconic hit TV show Peaky Blinders? Why not try and sandwich in a Peaky Blinders tour to learn more about the history behind the show while you’re in the city centre? The 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham really went a long way in showing the world that Birmingham is a modern city on the up and a top place to host thrilling live events.

London is the best city for central live music venues

Lovers of live music love finding top venues to see their favourite artists that are located bang in the city centre and easy to get to via public transport or on foot. Our research in the table below unveiled that London is the UK city with the highest number of live music venues in central locations. KOKO and Brixton Academy are pretty centrally located outstanding venues you can pop into for an evening of live music.

Camden is also a cosmopolitan area of London that is full to the brim with underground live venues. Amy Winehouse and the Libertines made a name for themselves in the borough of Camden. We feel the neighbourhood is worth a visit for music heads and anyone who enjoys smaller, more intense live music nights. Going to a live gig in Camden and making the most of exploring the area during the day may be just perfect for music fans who love attending quirky venues.

Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds and Liverpool are also UK cities with a decent amount of live music venues in their central districts. Being able to attend a memorable night at a live music event at a breathtaking venue just a stone’s throw from the city’s main central station is a real blessing! In this country, the architecture and intricate designs of our quirky music concert buildings are a thing to behold.

For those of you who prefer rocking out to live music outdoors, there are lots of exciting live music shows and festivals held outdoors in urban parks across the UK, in locations such as Glasgow Green in Glasgow, and Heaton Park in Manchester. There’s nothing quite like seeing your fave band play live in the sun, wind, or rain in the UK!

Ranking	City	Number of live music venues in the city centre area
1	London	119
2	Glasgow	111
3	Manchester	105
4	Bristol	104
5	Edinburgh	103
6	Leeds	101
7	Liverpool	101
8	Birmingham	98
9	Sheffield	87
10	Belfast	44
11	Leicester	43
12	Coventry	32

London ranked as the best city for fans of live theatre

Going out to the vibrant theatre show full of twists and turns during the evening is a highly entertaining experience. Theatre-goers, you will be pleased to know there are thousands of theatres in gorgeous buildings across the UK hosting shows throughout the year. You’re truly spoilt for choice!

Carrying out our research, we learnt that London is the UK city with the most theatres, the table below shows it has a staggering 100 in total. The West End with places like Strand and Tottenham Court Road is renowned for its heritage of live theatre performances in atmospheric venues. There’s nothing better than going to a play, pantomime, or musical in London! It’s also a great family activity for your kids to enjoy.

Manchester ranked as the UK city with the 2nd greatest number of theatre venues. Therefore, heading to the North-West is another great choice if you’re passionate about watching entertaining live theatre!

Ranking	City	The number of live theatre venues
1	London	100
2	Manchester	37
3	Birmingham	26
4	Edinburgh	26
5	Liverpool	25
6	Leeds	24
7	Glasgow	24
8	Belfast	22
9	Bristol	22
10	Sheffield	22
11	Coventry	15
12	Leicester	14

London is the best UK city for people seeking a good laugh at comedy clubs

You can find comedy clubs in big and small size venues across the length and breadth of the UK. They say laughter is the best medicine, so what better place to go for a barrel of laughs and some food and drinks with friends and family than a comedy club?

We took a look into the best UK cities for comedy lovers. We found out that London had the most comedy clubs, with a total of 88 venues. Whatever kind of comedy show takes your fancy, you’re sure to find it in London. The 99 Club Leicester Square and the Museum of Comedy are some of the best-known comedy clubs in London that punters flock to in their droves for a good laugh.

Bristol came in 2nd place with 18 comedy clubs. So, Bristol is a cool city to head down to if you are in the mood for going to an enthralling live comedy show. The gigs at the Comedy Box in the Hen and Chicken pub in the city are a must-see and a key fixture in the UK comedy circuit for all reputable comedians!

Ranking	City	The number of comedy clubs
1	London	88
2	Bristol	18
3	Manchester	14
4	Belfast	12
5	Liverpool	8
6	Glasgow	8
7	Leeds	7
8	Birmingham	7
9	Sheffield	6
10	Edinburgh	6
11	Leicester	5
12	Coventry	2

London is the UK city with the most upcoming live entertainment events

Live entertainment can include anything from music shows, to dance, theatre, opera, comedy, and more. But which UK city is the most jam-packed with cool upcoming live entertainment events for you to look forward to? Our findings in the table below from looking at the website of the leading live entertainment ticket sales vendor Ticketmaster are that London has a whopping 18,095 events coming up! If you’re looking for somewhere with a broad range of upcoming live entertainment events, look no further than London! There’s always something going on in London live entertainment-wise.

We discovered that Manchester also has 1175 live entertaining events coming up, and Glasgow 1128. So, London isn’t the only city in the UK with lots of exciting live events coming up on the horizon.

Going out to watch live entertainment up close and personal is a fun activity that we can all enjoy, regardless of age, race, sex, religion, or disability. In the UK, we put on excellent well organised live events and conjure up thrilling atmospheres for audiences.

Ranking	City	The number of upcoming music, sport, arts, theatre, comedy, and family attraction events
1	London	18095
2	Manchester	1175
3	Glasgow	1128
4	Birmingham	766
5	Leicester	552
6	Sheffield	431
7	Belfast	406
8	Bristol	403
9	Leeds	402
10	Edinburgh	331
11	Liverpool	236
12	Coventry	84

Methodology

We chose the 12 most populated UK cities for the purpose of this research into the best UK cities for lovers of live entertainment. We used certain metrics to help us decide the best UK cities for lovers of live entertainment.

We put Google Maps pins in central areas of UK cities and searched the term ‘music venue’ nearby to determine the number of music venues in central areas.

We used Google Maps and searched the term ‘theatre venue’ nearby and counted all the theatres in the list within the boundaries of the city to work out how many live theatre venues each city had.

We then searched the term ‘comedy club’ nearby in Google Maps and added up the number of comedy clubs that came up in each of the 12 chosen cities to determine the cities in the UK with the most comedy clubs.

To work out the UK cities with the most upcoming live entertainment events, we searched each city on Ticketmaster’s website, one of the largest vendors of tickets for live events in the UK.

Sources
https://www.google.co.uk/maps
https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/

The Best European Capital Cities for Vegan Dining

Posted on 19 January 20232 December 2024 by Grace Cruttwell

The number of people choosing plant-based meals, egg replacements, vegan milk or opting to take up a fully vegan diet has risen drastically in recent years across the globe. Food consumers are now far more aware of how much meat and animal products they are consuming. Google searches for “vegan food near me” experienced a more than 5000% increase in 2021.

Today the public is more conscious about health issues related to consuming too much meat, animal welfare matters are discussed frequently across social media, and there are lots of restaurants and supermarkets that keep up with the trend by offering a broad range of vegan products. These are all examples of the recent rise in the popularity of veganism, and how the service industry has begun to adapt to customers’ plant-based culinary wishes.

At CIA Landlord Insurance, we wanted to gain insight into how attitudes towards veganism have changed across Europe. Just how easy is it to get great vegan food out and about in the capital cities of the old continent in 2022?

With this in mind, we collected relevant data on the 12 most populated capital cities in Europe to help us determine the best capital European cities for vegan dining. Carry on reading to discover more!

Warsaw is the best capital city in Europe for vegan dining

Rankings	Best European capital cities for vegan dining
1	Warsaw
2	Paris
3	Vienna
4	Budapest
5	Bucharest
6	Berlin
7	Stockholm
8	Madrid
9	Rome
10	London
11	Minsk
12	Kiev

Our research unveiled Warsaw to be the best European capital city for vegan dining. This result may surprise some of you since traditional Polish cuisine isn’t known as particularly vegan-friendly. However, you’ll find the Śródmieście Południowe central district with its iconic art nouveau buildings is now buzzing with an impressive array of vegan restaurants and cafés.

Warsaw also has 108 supermarkets with an extensive range of vegan products for customers to choose from. So, getting your hands on vegan products and ingredients should be no hassle if you’re a vegan going on holiday to Warsaw that has chosen to stay in self-catered accommodation.

Paris came in 2nd place in our overall rankings, not surprising for a city that prides itself on its world-famous gastronomic heritage. So, whether you’re eating out, rustling up something plant-based at home, or looking for a quick bite to eat, Paris has all bases covered when it comes to catering for vegans.

Vienna came in 3rd place. Our data showed that Vienna has a whopping 93 different vegan burger joints! When visiting Vienna today, you will even come across vegan-friendly ice cream and Schnitzel! The cosmopolitan Austrian capital has adapted and rapidly become a vegan-friendly hotspot.

According to our findings, the two least vegan-friendly places out of the top 12 most populated European capital cities are Minsk in Belarus and Kiev in Ukraine respectively. We found that Minsk has only 8 vegan-friendly burger outlets in the city for you to grab a plant-based bun.

Paris has the most vegan cafés and restaurants per capita

Rankings	Vegan cafés and restaurants per capita
1	Paris – 1 per 23,226 inhabitants (95)
2	Kiev – 1 per 32,024 inhabitants (93)
3	Warsaw– 1 per 32,045 inhabitants (56)
4	Berlin – 1 per 33,371 inhabitants (107)
5	Vienna – 1 per 40,834 inhabitants (48)
6	Bucharest – 1 per 44,632 inhabitants (40)
7	London – 1 per 46,090 inhabitants (207)
8	Budapest – 1 per 47,979 inhabitants (37)
9	Madrid – 1 per 62,264 inhabitants (54)
10	Rome – 1 per 65,119 inhabitants (66)
11	Minsk – 1 per 66,083 inhabitants (31)
12	Stockholm – 1 per 69,960 inhabitants (24)

Paris is renowned for its splendorous food outlets. The 16th arrondissement area and the pedestrianised street Rue Cler in the 7th arrondissement are especially well known for their excellent restaurants. Out of all the capital cities we looked at, beau Paris came out on top in 1st place for having the most vegan cafés and restaurants per capita.

Kiev and Warsaw came in 2nd and 3rd place for the most vegan cafés and restaurants per capita. This follows a general trend whereby the larger cities in Eastern Europe are making a concerted effort to be more accommodating to vegans.

Stockholm is the European capital city with the most supermarkets with extensive vegan options per capita

Rankings	Supermarkets with an extensive range of vegan food options per capita
1	Stockholm – 1 per 15,127 inhabitants
2	Budapest – 1 per 16,286 inhabitants
3	Vienna – 1 per 16,334 inhabitants
4	Warsaw – 1 per 16,616 inhabitants
5	Minsk – 1 per 17,361 inhabitants
6	Bucharest – 1 per 19,837 inhabitants
7	Madrid – 1 per 25,000 inhabitants
8	Paris – 1 per 31,077 inhabitants
9	Berlin – 1 per 34,007 inhabitants
10	Rome – 1 per 38,034 inhabitants
11	London – 1 per 72,277 inhabitants
12	Kiev – 1 per 130,879 inhabitants

You may not always feel like eating out in a restaurant. Having enough supermarkets with a decent range of vegan options is important for tourists and residents alike.

Out of the European capital cities that we looked at, we found Stockholm to have the most supermarkets offering a significant range of vegan-friendly options per capita. Looking at the results from the research we carried out on vegan dining in European capitals, rest assured you can always rely on being able to find top-notch vegan food options in supermarkets in Stockholm!

The decision to take up a vegan diet has become more commonplace amongst the Swedish population in recent years. In fact, veganism has a long history in the country which can be traced back to the gröna vågen (green wave) in the 1970s.

Budapest and Vienna came in 2nd and 3rd place in our study into vegan-friendly supermarkets per capita. So, you will find no shortage of vegan options in supermarkets if you should decide to visit the Hungarian or Austrian capital anytime soon.

Stockholm has the most vegan burger joints per capita!

Ranking	Vegan burger outlets per capita
1	Stockholm – 1 per 16,960 inhabitants
2	Warsaw – 1 per 19,506 inhabitants
3	Vienna – 1 per 21,076 inhabitants
4	Paris – 1 per 21,632 inhabitants
5	Bucharest – 1 per 24,318 inhabitants
6	Bucharest – 1 per 26,646 inhabitants
7	Berlin – 1 per 32,461 inhabitants
8	Madrid – 1 per 33,673 inhabitants
9	Rome – 1 per 69,321 inhabitants
10	London – 1 per 86,732 inhabitants
11	Kiev – 1 per 94,069 inhabitants
12	Minsk – 1 per 256,071 inhabitants

You can get amazingly tasty vegan burgers these days, made of wholesome meat-free ingredients, such as mushrooms, beans, legumes, tofu, seitan, and vegan cheese. We discovered that Stockholm (once again coming out on top) is the European capital with the most vegan burger outlets per capita, with 99 in total!

Nevertheless, the Swedish capital ended up finishing 7th in the overall rankings due to it having a relatively low number of vegan cafés and restaurants compared to its 1,679,050-strong population.

The city with the 2nd most vegan burger outlets per capita is Warsaw, and the 3rd Vienna. So, Stockholm isn’t the only European city where you can get your hands on yummy plant-based vegan burgers in restaurants and takeaways. Warsaw and Vienna are also examples of great European cities to find delectable 100% vegan burgers.

You should now understand a great deal more about the best European capital cities for vegan dining, a real help if you or somebody you’ll be travelling with follows a vegan diet. Are you thinking about actually packing up and moving abroad to a European capital city? If so, this piece should serve as a useful guide for you to look at and reference.

Methodology

We carried out research into the best capital cities in Europe for vegan dining. This involved gathering together data and statistics for the top 12 most populated capital cities in Europe on 3 different metrics. Our chosen metrics to focus on were vegan cafés and restaurants, vegan-friendly supermarkets, and vegan burger outlets, all on a per capita basis according to their population.

We used Google maps and searched the terms ‘vegan grocery store’ and ‘vegan burger’ nearby to help us get the numbers of vegan-friendly supermarkets and vegan burger outlets for each city. We then divided these totals by the cities’ individual populations so we could get per capita readings.

We utilised happycow.net/searchmap to get the numbers of vegan cafés and restaurants in each city. We then divided these numbers by the city’s population to help us also obtain per capita readings for this metric.

Below you will find examples of the sources we look at to help us write this piece and get relevant statistics for our data.

Sources
https://www.happycow.net/searchmap/
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/
https://worldpopulationreview.com/continents/europe/capitals

Average Cost of Floodproofing Homes in High Flood Risk Towns and Cities in the UK

Posted on 9 January 202321 December 2023 by Grace Cruttwell

With the harmful effects of climate change and extreme weather events becoming increasingly prevalent, the risk of coastal, surface, and river flooding has elevated across the UK in recent years.

Flood water entering your property is a nightmare situation for renters and homeowners. It can considerably devalue your property and damage your precious personal possessions, not to mention the risk to human health that contaminated flood water brings. Therefore, floodproofing your property as much as possible if you live in a high flood risk area makes perfect sense.

Floodproofing your home by putting up flood-resistant defences to keep your home dry and flood water at bay of course costs money. To provide you with some insightful advice on how much you can expect to pay to floodproof your home in high flood-risk areas of the UK, we at CIA Landlords have done the research for you.

The top 10 towns and cities in the UK with the highest flood risk

Town/City	Annual rainfall mm	Days of rainfall >1mm
Blackburn	1314.25	175.42
Glasgow	1208.14	174.34
Cardiff	1203.28	153.39
Manchester	1197.22	170.27
Bolton	1197.22	170.27
Newport	1110.7	137.93
Preston	1058.07	157.89
Leeds	1057.27	156.47
Bradford	1049.26	156.47
Burnley	1041.25	No data available

From our findings and looking through the data from the period 1991-2020 on annual rainfall and days of rainfall, we found the town of Blackburn turned out to be the place that received the most rainfall in the UK. Blackburn is a town on a hill in Lancashire with an oceanic climate, which explains why it rains so much there!

How to floodproof a property

We worked out how much floodproofing homes in the 10 towns and cities in the UK at the highest risk of flooding would cost on average. We did this by working out the daily rate we would have to pay for the tradespeople we need to fully floodproof a house and keep it nice and dry. This may also involve some retrofitting if homes are old or more difficult to floodproof. These daily rates are based on an 8-hour working day.

Anti-flood air bricks and vent covers

Air bricks contain ventilation holes that allow more airflow into your property than regular bricks do. Want to do a good job of floodproofing your home? Getting a bricklayer to install air bricks is a must.

Anti-flood air bricks are a great functional way to keep your home flood resistant and prevent flood water from entering. Air bricks work by allowing air to pass freely through them, but not water. When water enters an air brick, the valves close, stopping flood water from getting through. Air brick covers provide you with extra floodproofing as well as keeping nasty slugs and bugs from passing into your home through air bricks.

Large swathes of flood water can lead to the foundations of your home cracking and becoming unstable, bursting pipes, a sagging roof, and much more. Damages from excessive flooding can cost an arm and a leg to repair. That’s why it’s a wise idea to be aptly prepared and install anti-flood air bricks to floodproof your home.

Here are the daily rates for how much it will cost in the 10 most flood-prone towns and cities in the UK to pay a bricklayer to install anti-flood air bricks and vent covers in your home.

	Average cost for a bricklayer
Blackburn	£180
Glasgow	£220
Cardiff	£203
Manchester	£219
Bolton	£288
Newport	£198
Preston	£206
Leeds	£206
Bradford	£190
Burnley	£171

Check valve piping

Flooding can lead to excessive pressure building up in pipes, causing them to burst. Pipes bursting greatly exacerbates any other damage caused by flood water and means the damages and repairs you need to do afterwards will skyrocket in price.

Protect your home by getting a plumber in to install a reliable check valve that will close shut to prevent backflow if a flood should occur. Check valves will also help to prevent the drinking water in your home from being contaminated.

Here is the average daily rate a plumber will charge to come and install check valve piping to significantly increase your home’s flood defences.

	Average cost for a plumber
Blackburn	£232
Glasgow	£256
Cardiff	£228
Manchester	£231
Bolton	£239
Newport	£226
Preston	£244
Leeds	£220
Bradford	£225
Burnley	£255

Floodproof doors and windows

People living in flood-risk areas should stay prepared by floodproofing their windows and doors. By the time you start putting sandbags down, it will already be too late and the damage will be done.

Flood water can easily seep into your property through doors and windows. Installing floodproof doors and windows is therefore a top solution to protect against flood water building up and gradually getting in to cause extensive damage. They both use durable compression seals as a flood defence and provide your home with extra protection against surface runoff and flooding.

Here are the average daily rates to hire a carpenter or joiner to fit new floodproof doors and windows in your home in the top 10 flood-risk towns and cities in the UK.

	Average cost for a carpenter/joiner
Blackburn	£170
Glasgow	£173
Cardiff	£180
Manchester	£195
Bolton	£189
Newport	£183
Preston	£162
Leeds	£178
Bradford	£172
Burnley	£186

Flood-resistant flooring

Flooring should be properly sealed so water doesn’t get into the subfloor. Flood water will ruin wooden and laminate floors since they are quickly warped after coming into contact with water. To floodproof floors in high flood-risk areas, we recommend installing highly flood-resistant flooring materials, such as ceramic or porcelain tiles.

Here we have found the daily rates for a tiler in the 10 towns and cities in the UK most at risk of flooding.

	Average cost for a tiler
Blackburn	£163
Glasgow	£176
Cardiff	£181
Manchester	£178
Bolton	£172
Newport	£187
Preston	£189
Leeds	£171
Bradford	£172
Burnley	£200

Protect your household appliances

It’s important to try and protect household appliances in the event of a flood. After all, dishwashers, washing machines and so on don’t come cheap these days. In particular, it’s crucial to ensure your electrical appliances, including plug sockets and live cables, don’t come into contact with flood water. A sensible floodproofing solution is to hire an electrician to rewire your outlay and move your plug sockets further up the wall, safely away from where any water may pool on the floor.

Here we have looked at the average daily rate for electricians in the 10 towns and cities most at risk of flooding by having the greatest amount of rainfall in the UK.

	Average cost for a tiler
Blackburn	£223
Glasgow	£251
Cardiff	£210
Manchester	£221
Bolton	£222
Newport	£210
Preston	£217
Leeds	£234
Bradford	£230
Burnley	£243

Flood-resistant paint

Keep floodproofing in mind when decorating a rental property. Flood-resistant paint will help protect walls and home decorations from the effects of flood damage. Water-resistant paint only protects against the penetration of water to a certain extent, and not completely. Whereas flood-resistant paint with coatings such as Xylan and Teflon are practically impermeable to water.

It can be better to get the professionals in so you can floodproof a property with flood-resistant paint. We have drawn up the average daily rate for painters and decorators in the towns and cities at the highest flood risk in the UK.

	Average cost for a painter and decorator
Blackburn	£149
Glasgow	£163
Cardiff	£172
Manchester	£164
Bolton	£158
Newport	£171
Preston	£146
Leeds	£158
Bradford	£154
Burnley	£156

Grade your garden slope away from your house

Make sure the garden is landscaped in a way that prevents surface runoff from flowing towards the property. Regrading the gradient of your garden slope may well involve requesting the services of a landscape gardener, and it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to floodproofing measures. Along with this, you must also surround the property and garden space with efficient downspout guttering.

We have found the average daily rate for landscape gardeners in the top ten towns and cities with the most rainfall in the UK.

	Average cost for a landscape gardener
Blackburn	£214
Glasgow	£233
Cardiff	£163
Manchester	£192
Bolton	£200
Newport	£176
Preston	£216
Leeds	£144
Bradford	£145
Burnley	£193

Overall average cost

So, where are the cheapest and most expensive places to floodproof your property? Our results show Bradford to be the cheapest place to floodproof a property and Glasgow to be the most expensive. Recent research found Bradford to be the most affordable UK city to live in, with an average monthly cost of living of £1,015 including rent.

This could well help explain why paying tradespeople to floodproof your property is more affordable in the Bradford area. Whereas house prices in Glasgow are currently rising higher than the average rate in Scotland, and this could be having a knock-on effect of making the cost of having household renovations done to floodproof your property more expensive.

	Overall cost of flood proofing a home
Bradford	£1288
Leeds	£1311
Blackburn	£1341
Newport	£1351
Preston	£1380
Cardiff	£1397
Manchester	£1400
Burnley	£1404
Bolton	£1468
Glasgow	£1472

Does high flood risk affect landlord insurance?

It is certainly more difficult for landlords of properties in high-risk flood areas to get insurance from a dependable provider. You may need to have extensive insurance coverage to cover your back if your property is located in a high-risk flood zone, and this means it may cost you a bit more than taking out a standard basic landlord insurance policy. There is the government-backed Flood Re scheme (flood re-insurance) that offers reasonably affordable insurance rates to owners of homes in high-risk flood areas.

Your buy-to-let property may well be one of your main ways of generating income, and every extra bit of money helps, especially if you’ve got a large family to look after! You want to protect your asset, and that’s where a robust landlord insurance policy can come in handy. Your bank balance will thank you because covering property repairs from flood damage is pricey if you don’t have landlord insurance! Taking out landlord insurance is the smartest way to safeguard your financial future and protect your investment.

Do you provide tenants with furniture and other items? When owning a buy to let in a high-risk flood zone, you need to cover these items with reliable contents insurance. Paying to replace sofas, chairs, dishwashers, washing machines, and more can really add up if you don’t have adequate contents insurance.

Find out lots more about our specialist landlord insurance by visiting our website or calling us on 01788 818 670.

Methodology

We looked at towns and cities with a population above 100,000 inhabitants in the UK and used met office data on average rainfall (in mm) and days of rainfall (>1mm) from weather stations within 10 miles to discover the areas at the highest flood risk due to excessive rainfall.

To work out the average cost involved in suitably floodproofing a property in our list, we researched the renovation work that would need to be done and collated the average hourly rate charged by local tradespeople in the different areas.

On average, UK homes have 2.95 bedrooms, so we based our findings on 3-bedroom homes.

Sources
https://www.hamuch.com/
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-climate-averages

The Best UK Cities for Active Families

Posted on 9 January 20232 December 2024 by CIA

A new study by CIA Landlords has found that Southampton is the best city in the UK to raise a fit and active family.

Today, there is much more awareness than in times gone by about the benefits of leading a healthy and active lifestyle. It’s about convincing people of the upsides of getting fit and eating a balanced diet, and teaching them just how fun being active can be. It’s best to start them young and ensure your kids stay active and healthy. This awareness of healthy living can be spread through advice from GPs and trained medical professionals, health campaigns with children in schools, better access to leisure centres and community fitness programmes, and education.

When considering raising a family in an urban area, it’s wise to try to find a city which provides an ideal setting for your kids to follow an active lifestyle. CIA Landlord Insurance has analysed various factors to look into the best city in the UK to raise an active family. Aspects considered in this study contributing to an active lifestyle include access to green spaces such as parks and fields, local swimming pools, the number of athletics clubs nearby, and air quality.

Southampton ranks as the best city for active families

It’s crucial to think carefully before moving to a new city with your family. Your top priority must be ensuring the health of your kids of course! So, why not move to an urban environment perfectly set up with lots of green space and tons of activities for your energetic family to take part in?

We took the 9 most populated cities in the UK and looked at which one was the best for active families. Southampton was the city that came out on top. Living somewhere full of amenities that is relatively pollution free with an abundance of lovely fresh air, like Southampton, is a blessing! After all, nobody wants their family to go through the adverse effects and unpleasantness of inhaling toxic fumes whenever they go outside.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne is the second-best UK city for active families

The city of Newcastle in the northeast of England came in 2nd place as the next best city to live in for active families. The city also managed to get 2nd place ahead of Sheffield for the number of athletics clubs for residents, 3rd just behind Glasgow and Manchester for the best access to green space and 3rd for best air quality! So, the toon is also a pretty good place to live and raise an active-minded fit family.

The table below shows our list of the best cities in the UK to raise an active family.

Rank	City	Access to green space index score	Athletics clubs/run together groups per capita	Swimming pools per capita	Air Quality rating (0-500)
1	Southampton	294	0.00007307692	0.00014624505	10
2	Newcastle	1064	0.00007	0.00009	22.3
3	Manchester	522,000	0.0000440613	0.00008876811	31
4	Glasgow	3710	0.00003307086	0.00007244094	19.7
5	Liverpool	579	0.00003636363	0.00008080808	20
6	Leeds	217.5	0.00004457364	0.00005585585	16.6
7	Sheffield	498	0.0000647482	0.00005765765	23.5
8	London	935.8	0.00000988669	0.00011976047	43.5
9	Birmingham	1053.1	0.00001484716	0.00003493449	36.7

*Note – Access to green space index score was calculated using the total population of a city and dividing it by the number of residents not living within a 10-minute walk of green space. So, the higher the score, the better access residents in that city have to green spaces within a 10-minute walking distance.

Manchester’s residents enjoy the best access to green space

Are you a family who loves sports and exercising in natural green spaces on your doorstep? CIA Landlord Insurance carried out a study into UK cities with the best access to green space. Manchester came in 1st place for access to green spaces receiving a perfect score, meaning no residents living in areas under Manchester City Council are more than a 10-minute walk away from green spaces. So, Manchester is a great place to raise a fit and healthy family who are passionate about exercising outdoors. Our survey used data from the 2022 Green Space Index conducted by the Fields in Trust conservation charity as an annual barometer of park and green space provision in Great Britain.

Are your family mad about cycling? If so, then you will also be excited to learn that Manchester is home to the national cycling centre – the Manchester Velodrome Arena. This epic venue has an Olympic standard indoor cycling track and a capacity of 3,500. Who knows, maybe your kids could be riding around it representing their country one day!

Glasgow and Newcastle respectively came in 2nd and 3rd place as the UK cities where residents enjoy the next best access to green spaces. Therefore, the stereotypes aren’t true, it isn’t grim living up north!

Rank	City	Access to green spaces for residents index score
1	Manchester	522,000
2	Glasgow	3710
3	Newcastle	1064
4	Birmingham	1053.1
5	London	935.8
6	Liverpool	579
7	Sheffield	498
8	Southampton	294
9	Leeds	217.5

London’s swimming pools boast impressive buildings

London is a breathtaking cosmopolitan metropolis that welcomes millions of visitors every year.

London can also be a great city for active families and residents, with many splendorous parks, sports facilities, stadia, and so on. The 2012 Olympic Games were a spectacular showcase for the capital and its sporting prowess.

Do you have eager swimmers in your family? In the CIA research, London came in 2nd place behind Southampton as the city with the most swimming pools for its population size. If you’re raising a family in London, you can visit public swimming baths with amazing settings in historic listed buildings with your kids. There is even the option of outdoor swimming at iconic Lidos from the victorian era in places like Brockwell and London Fields.

Rank	City	Swimming pools per capita
1	Southampton	0.00014624505
2	London	0.00011976047
3	Newcastle	0.00009
4	Manchester	0.00008876811
5	Liverpool	0.00008080808
6	Glasgow	0.00007244094
7	Sheffield	0.00005765765
8	Leeds	0.00005585585
9	Birmingham	0.00003493449

For keen runners, Southampton again is the place to be!

Integrating running/jogging around your local area into your daily life is a great way to stay fit living in a city. Since lockdown, running has become a popular hobby in this country, with people of all ages giving it a shot! So, why not get fit and be sociable at the same time by joining an athletics club or a run-together group? It doesn’t have to be something you take super seriously that takes over your life. You can start by going for a 5 or 10-km run once a week and seeing how you get on. Cities can be lonely places, so making new friends at a running group or club may be what you and your family need.

In the CIA Landlord Insurance study into the city with the most athletics clubs and run-together groups, Southampton came out the winner. That said, there are plenty of wonderful athletics clubs and running groups dotted around cities across the UK that families can join. Wherever you live, going out for a run in the local area and mixing with others in a club or group is much better than your family sitting around on the sofa all day playing video games!

Southampton has the best air quality, and London has the poorest

Exposure to air pollution can affect your family’s health. When we breathe in polluted air, it can enter our bloodstream and cause coughing, itchy eyes, lung diseases and even cancers. So, try finding a city to live in which has great air quality!

You want to raise your family in a city with the best possible air quality to keep them fit and healthy and able to go outside and exercise as young people should. Doing fun family activities and exercising outdoors without excessive pollution getting the way is fun and healthy. The air quality index of 0-500 gives us a measure of how polluted a city is, and an AQI value of over 300 is hazardous air quality. In our research, using an average from readings recorded in the inner city and suburban areas, we discovered that Southampton had the best air quality of the UK cities we looked into, with a rating of just 10.

The table below reveals the air quality rating of the 9 UK cities we selected.

Rank	City	Air Quality rating
1	Southampton	10
2	Leeds	16.6
3	Glasgow	19.7
4	Liverpool	20
5	Newcastle	22.3
6	Sheffield	23.5
7	Manchester	31
8	Birmingham	36.7
9	London	43.5

Methodology

In order to reveal the best city to raise an active family in the UK, we took statistics from the 9 most populated UK cities (the number of residents in the council’s local authority area). We included metrics such as green space provision per person, total green space provision, the number of residents without access to green space within a 10-minute walk, the number of athletics clubs and swimming pools, and urban pollution ratings. The cities were ranked according to these metrics to tell us the best location for raising an active family.

Sources

Here are the sources which provided the data we used for our study on the best UK city to raise an active family.

https://www.fieldsintrust.org/green-space-index

https://www.iqair.com/uk

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/

https://www.englandathletics.org/find-a-club-results/

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Mansions vs Maisonettes: How do house sizes differ around the world?

Posted on 3 January 202318 January 2023 by Charlotte Crowther

House sizes vary massively across the world, and what’s considered an average size in one city may be vastly different in another. So which cities, in the UK and across the globe, can you expect to find the biggest properties in?

To find out, the research team at CIA Landlords Insurance has analysed average house sizes in 30 of the UK’s most populous cities. They’ve also looked at this data on a global scale, to reveal how our homes compare with the rest of the world.

Norwich, Bournemouth, and Swansea top the leaderboard for the biggest average house size

The UK city with the largest average house size is Norwich, a vibrant yet historic city nestled in the heart of East Anglia.

Our research reveals that the size of a standard home in this historic city is 95.9 m2 and properties of this size typically cost homeowners £314,083.49, on average.

Although Norwich ranks best for overall house size, there are typically 2.41 people living in each home, which is more than in Bournemouth and Swansea, the two cities which complete the top three. This means that despite the larger size, Norwich households have less personal space than other locations, with each resident having 39.8 m2 to themselves.

The coastal town of Bournemouth ranks as the second-best UK city for overall house size with the average property being 95.5 m2 in size. However, less space means paying more in this city, the average price per m2 is £4,000 in Bournemouth compared to Norwich where prices for the same space are £3,274.

Swansea ranks third in the UK for having the best house size with residents having 41.1 m2 of space. Whilst this means people here have less space than those in Bournemouth they pay almost half the price – just £2,200 m2.

The table below shows the top 15 cities in the UK with the largest average house sizes:

Rank	City	Region	Average price to buy per m2 (£)	Average space per resident per city (m2 in 2018)	Average household size per city (m2)	Average house size per city (m2)	Average price per house (£)
1	Norwich	East	3,274.50	39.8	2.41	95.9	314,083.49
2	Bournemouth	South West	4,000.00	41.5	2.30	95.5	381,800.00
3	Swansea	Wales	2,200.63	41.1	2.32	95.4	209,834.47
4	Southend-on-Sea	East	3,000.00	37.8	2.41	91.1	273,294.00
5	Portsmouth	South East	3,133.33	36.9	2.45	90.4	283,268.70
6	Middlesbrough	Yorkshire Humber	2,166.67	39.1	2.31	90.3	195,695.80
7	Peterborough	East	1,785.00	36.2	2.41	87.2	155,726.97
8	Milton Keynes	South East	4,000.00	35.5	2.45	87.0	347,900.00
9	Plymouth	South West	2,500.00	37.7	2.30	86.7	216,775.00
10	Liverpool	North West	3,935.71	37.6	2.29	86.1	338,880.37
11	Stoke-on-Trent	West Midlands	900.00	36.1	2.38	85.9	77,326.20
12	Newcastle upon Tyne	North East	2907.0	38.0	2.2	85.1	247,443.84
13	Brighton	South East	6,483.33	34.7	2.45	85.0	551,180.30
14	Bradford	Yorkshire Humber	1,650.00	36.7	2.31	84.8	139,882.05
15	Sunderland	North East	3,000.00	37.7	2.24	84.4	253,344.00

Coventry is the UK city with the smallest average house size

At the other end of the scale, the UK’s smallest houses can be found in Coventry, where the average home size is 72.4 m2 and costs £209,531.39 to buy. Although this is 23.1 m2 smaller than in Swansea, homes in Coventry are only around £300 cheaper (£209,834.47).

Leicester follows with Birmingham closely behind, with house sizes in these cities averaging 77.3 m2 and 79.7 m2 respectively.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, London also scores poorly for house sizes, ranking 20th overall. Properties in the fast-paced capital typically house 2.55 people, which is more than any other location we analysed with the average price per m2 being £12,247.

The table below shows the top 15 cities in the UK with the smallest average house sizes:

Rank	City	Region	Average price to buy per m2 (£)	Average space per resident per city (m2 in 2018)	Average household size per city (m2)	Average house size per city (m2)	Average price per house (£)
30	Coventry	West Midlands	2,896.00	30.4	2.38	72.4	209,531.39
29	Leicester	East Midlands	2,500.00	32.9	2.35	77.3	193,287.50
28	Birmingham	West Midlands	5,653.02	33.5	2.38	79.7	450,715.28
27	Southampton	South East	4,000.00	33.4	2.45	81.8	327,320.00
26	Sheffield	Yorkshire Humber	4,829.17	35.5	2.31	82.0	396,016.09
25	Kingston upon Hull	Yorkshire Humber	2,216.67	35.7	2.31	82.5	182,802.12
24	Bristol	South West	6,375.00	36.0	2.30	82.8	527,850.00
23	Manchester	North West	3,925.74	36.2	2.29	82.9	325,435.99
21	Derby	East Midlands	3,774.19	35.4	2.35	83.2	313,974.87
22	Nottingham	East Midlands	3,309.72	35.4	2.35	83.2	275,335.61
20	London	London	12,247.73	32.8	2.55	83.6	1,024,400.14
19	Northampton	East Midlands	2,500.00	35.6	2.35	83.7	209,150.00
18	Cardiff	Wales	2,485.00	36.1	2.32	83.8	208,123.72
17	Swindon	South West	2,066.67	36.6	2.30	84.2	173,972.28
16	Leeds	Yorkshire Humber	7,166.67	36.5	2.31	84.3	604,257.78
15	Sunderland	North East	3,000.00	37.7	2.24	84.4	253,344.00

The average houses in Canberra are bigger than any other capital city in the world

Canberra ranks number one in the world as the city with the biggest houses, with residents of Australia’s capital city enjoying 214 m2 of space on average.

Of course, a higher price tag comes hand in hand with the larger homes, with the average house in Canberra costing £1,102,493.76 overall or £5,151.84 per m2 in the city centre.

Wellington, New Zealand ranks next with home sizes averaging 202 m2 and American’s capital, Washington, takes third place with 201 m2. Although homes are typically smaller by 1m2 in Washington, they are slightly more expensive, with the price to buy a city centre home here averaging £6,427.12 per m2. The equivalent in Wellington costs £6,212.57.

The table below shows the top 23 cities in the world with the largest average house sizes:

Country	Capital	Average price to buy in city centre (£ per m2)	Average home size (m2)	*Average home price (£) (based on column CD)**
Australia	Canberra	5,151.84	214	1,102,493.76
New Zealand	Wellington	6,212.57	202	1,254,939.14
United States	Washington	6,427.12	201	1,291,851.12
Canada	Ottawa	4,227.14	181	765,112.34
Denmark	Copenhagen	6,630.47	137	908,374.39
Greece	Athens	2,244.71	126	282,833.46
Luxembourg	Luxembourg	10,590.93	126	1,334,457.18
Belgium	Brussels	3,438.60	120	412,632.00
Netherlands	Amsterdam	7,423.81	117	868,585.77
France	Paris	11,130.09	112	1,246,570.08
Germany	Berlin	7,191.86	109	783,912.74
Austria	Vienna	7,226.52	97	700,972.44
Spain	Madrid	4,831.81	97	468,685.57
Japan	Tokyo	7,502.51	95	712,738.45
Ireland	Dublin	6,556.81	89	583,556.09
Portugal	Lisbon	4,881.83	84	410,073.72
Sweden	Stockholm	8,912.93	83	739,773.19
Finland	Helsinki	6,915.88	82	567,102.16
Italy	Rome	5,937.61	81	480,946.41
United Kingdom	London	12,025.21	76	913,915.96
China	Beijing	14,965.14	60	897,908.40
Russia	Moscow	6,139.69	57	349,962.33
China	Hong Kong	25,099.05	45	1,129,457.25

Our research reveals that there is no one-size-fits-all definition of an ‘average-sized house’ in the UK or internationally, with property sizes varying greatly from place to place. Internationally, Canberra tops the leaderboard for the largest average house size but looking at the UK alone, Norwich is the place to be for lovers of large living spaces.

Now that you know which cities to find the biggest homes in, would you consider relocating to get more space for your money?

Sources and methodology:

We started with a seedlist of the UK’s 30 most populated cities and ranked them based on the following metrics.

Average price to buy per m2
Average space per resident per city (m2 in 2018)
Average household size in UK cities
Average house size per city (m2) – Multiplication of the average space in square metre per resident by average household size.
Average price per house – Multiplication of average size of homes in the UK in square metres by average price per square metre.

Every city was assigned a weighted score for each metric which was combined to create an overall index score out of 10.

The same methodology was carried out for the global ranking using the following metrics:

Average price to buy per m2
Average price per house – Multiplication of average size of homes in the UK in square metres by average price per square metre.