Scotland most ‘loyal’ housing region in Britain

The ‘Happy Homes’ project by Beagle Street aimed to explore why people love where they live, and where they would wish live in Britain, regardless of any personal circumstances.

Out of the 11 governmental regions on offer, the Scottish public were by far the most loyal, with 83 per cent of Scots stating ‘Scotland’ as the place they would like to live the most given any opportunity.

The top three reasons why those in the Scots stated like where they live were: ‘green spaces’ (54 per cent), ‘a low crime level (39 per cent), and health services with 39 per cent. In addition, when asked in what circumstances (eg. new job, family commitments, and study) would they move out of the Scottish region, nearly a quarter (22 per cent) stated that they ‘would never move away’ from their local area.

On a more general scale, Scotland (11 per cent) beat London to third place as the area that the 4,000 people polled would like to live the most in Britain, with only 9 per cent of people choosing the English capital as their ideal location.

The general British public are definitely more favoured towards rural surroundings as opposed to ‘urban living’ as 56 per cent of the 4,000 people asked stated ‘green spaces’ as one of the reasons why they liked where they lived the most. This was the highest of all reasons which also included good health facilities and low crime levels.

The South West of England was the most popular surveyed by YouGov. One in 5 (20 per cent) stated that this was the place they would choose to live, with the South East coming in at second (13 per cent). The South West of England was also a loyal region, with 73 per cent of those in the area, stating that their home region is where they would choose to live. The Midlands, both East and West, seemed the least keen on their area, with on 23 per cent (West) and 22 per cent (east) stating they would choose it to live.

As part of a message to encourage people to ‘enjoy life’, Beagle Street believes that the environment is important to day to day wellbeing. With many customers looking to become first time home owners, it wanted to explore what was important to them and what lifestyle choices were taken into consideration.

Beagle Street has created an interactive map named Happy Homes which displays all the region data. The breakdown of the project and results can be found here.