Best place in Yorkshire to make a living? It’s not Leeds

The South Yorkshire town beats the more affluent Leeds in a list compiled by the credit card comparison website

TotallyMoney.com.

Wakefield and Doncaster also score more highly than Leeds, with York, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull and Huddersfield trailing behind.

But all the Yorkshire centres lost out to Blackburn, Derby, Cambridge and Sunderland.

The list was compiled using average mortgage prices, median wages, the cost of living and the health of the job market.

London is 26th while Gloucester is the worst place on the list.

Property expert Kate Faulkner said: “We regularly hear about the issues of ‘affordability’ that the younger generation are facing.

“What this analysis clearly shows is that it is still possible to strike a balance between work and play and there are towns and cities you can live in with successful economies where homes and a good standard of living are still affordable.

“So if you want to achieve a great work-life balance, it is worth researching the areas identified.”

Alastair Douglas, TotallyMoney.com CEO, said: ”Far too often, only house prices are taken into account when trying to identify the best place to live. And this can produce some very misleading results.

“When we take into consideration job prospects and the cost of living as well as property prices we start to see a very different picture - some of the UK’s less frequently celebrated places start to look much more attractive.”