Best places to live & work — the Gera Settle Score
Where should you live to both work in your job and raise your family? Pick your occupation and family size and we rank every English local authority on salary-adjusted affordability, schools, safety and GP access.
How do I find the best place to live and work for my job and family in England?
The Gera Settle Score ranks all 128 English local authorities for 40 occupations and four family sizes, joining ONS ASHE regional salary to HM Land Registry house prices, Ofsted school quality, Home Office crime and NHS GP access. As of June 2026, it returns your personal best areas to both live and work. Gera recomputes quarterly.
Your best places to live and work
Pick your occupation and family size — the ranking recomputes live from real government data.
Your best places to live and work as a other nursing professionals (UK median £42,300/yr), ranked by Gera Settle Score for a family with two children:
| # | Local authority | Settle Score | Local pay | Avg price | Yrs to buy | Good+ schools |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GatesheadNorth East | 91.5 | £40,832 | £158,885 | 3.9 | 96.9% |
| 2 | RutlandEast Midlands | 91.2 | £39,216 | £305,174 | 7.8 | 100% |
| 3 | SunderlandNorth East | 90.9 | £40,832 | £145,293 | 3.6 | 95.7% |
| 4 | WarringtonNorth West | 90.0 | £39,501 | £253,219 | 6.4 | 100% |
| 5 | MiddlesbroughNorth East | 89.9 | £40,832 | £139,005 | 3.4 | 95.8% |
| 6 | DoncasterYorkshire and The Humber | 89.4 | £39,071 | £173,624 | 4.4 | 95.5% |
| 7 | Blackburn with DarwenNorth West | 89.2 | £39,501 | £165,813 | 4.2 | 92.9% |
| 8 | CalderdaleYorkshire and The Humber | 88.9 | £39,071 | £190,555 | 4.9 | 94.4% |
| 9 | Bracknell ForestSouth East | 88.2 | £42,038 | £397,667 | 9.5 | 100% |
| 10 | WiganNorth West | 87.5 | £39,501 | £190,802 | 4.8 | 96.2% |
| 11 | South TynesideNorth East | 87.5 | £40,832 | £156,931 | 3.8 | 92.3% |
| 12 | Stoke-on-TrentWest Midlands | 87.1 | £40,594 | £152,101 | 3.7 | 88.1% |
| 13 | Stockton-on-TeesNorth East | 86.8 | £40,832 | £169,540 | 4.2 | 93.3% |
| 14 | WolverhamptonWest Midlands | 86.7 | £40,594 | £215,264 | 5.3 | 90% |
| 15 | Milton KeynesSouth East | 86.5 | £42,038 | £318,038 | 7.6 | 95.3% |
Salary is the ONS ASHE full-time regional median for your occupation; every other figure is the real Land Registry, Ofsted, Home Office and NHS value for the area. See the Gera Settle Score methodology.
By family size
By region
By occupation
- Book-keepers, payroll managers and wages clerks
- Bus and coach drivers
- Business and related research professionals
- Care workers and home carers
- Chefs
- Cleaners and domestics
- Construction operatives n.e.c.
- Customer service occupations n.e.c.
- Data analysts
- Delivery drivers and couriers
- Electricians and electrical fitters
- Engineering professionals n.e.c.
- Engineering technicians
- Human resources and industrial relations officers
- IT business analysts, architects and systems designers
- IT managers
- Kitchen and catering assistants
- Large goods vehicle drivers
- Management consultants and business analysts
- Managers and directors in retail and wholesale
- Marketing associate professionals
- Nurse practitioners
- Nursing auxiliaries and assistants
- Other administrative occupations n.e.c.
- Other health professionals n.e.c.
- Other nursing professionals
- Programmers and software development professionals
- Property, housing and estate managers
- Quality assurance and regulatory professionals
- Receptionists
- Sales accounts and business development managers
- Sales and retail assistants
- Secondary education teaching professionals
- Security guards and related occupations
- Senior care workers
- Social workers
- Teaching assistants
- Vehicle technicians, mechanics and electricians
- Warehouse operatives
- Welfare and housing associate professionals n.e.c.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Gera Settle Score?
- A 0–100 score per English local authority and occupation that combines how far your regional salary stretches against local house prices, school quality (Ofsted), safety (Home Office crime) and GP access (NHS England), weighted by your family size. Every input is real Open Government Licence v3.0 data.
- Does it include commute time?
- No. No authoritative open commute-time dataset is currently held, and Gera never estimates a number it cannot source, so commute is transparently excluded and documented on the methodology page rather than guessed.
- How often is it updated?
- Quarterly, on the cadence of the underlying government releases (Land Registry, Ofsted, crime and NHS data). Current edition: June 2026.
See also the Gera Settle Score methodology, the Gera Rent Index and UK house prices.
Contains public sector information published by Gera Systems and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Gera Settle Score — ONS ASHE salary joined to HM Land Registry, Ofsted, Home Office and NHS England area data (June 2026, published 19 June 2026).