Property website Rightmove asked people to rank twelve factors about their local area, ranging from how friendly the neighbours are and how much people feel that they can be themselves, to how good the local services are.
Richmond upon Thames came top in London – beating all other boroughs for its nature and greenspaces, friendly and polite residents, a borough with a ‘sense of belonging’ and community spirit. The borough scored 8th in the UK.
Leader of Richmond Council, Cllr Paul Hodgins, said:
"It is great to come top again and get confirmation of how we feel about Richmond locally. It is a superb place to live and work, and our residents and businesses are happy as a result of the quality of life in the borough.
“We go a step further in our friendly rivalry with other boroughs and say that Richmond is the best borough to live in. One of our borough's Freeman, Sir David Attenborough, says it is his favourite place in the world. We agree.
“We have physical beauty in parks, open spaces, and our stretch of the Thames. But more importantly we have an incredibly active community, with over 18,000 volunteers.
“Our resident survey last year showed that 97% of residents were satisfied with local area. And, we have worked closely with local people over the past few years on a number of local regeneration programmes across the borough.
“We are the best in London and almost the whole country for value for money. We have outstanding schools, and we are one of the safest boroughs.
“As a result, our borough offers a strong community with a high quality of life, and this survey shows that residents are happy. That may not make the small group of opposition Liberal Democrats happy, but the rest of us certainly are."