Best places to live & work as a managers and directors in retail and wholesale in South East
Every local authority in South East ranked by the Gera Settle Score for a family with two children — ONS regional pay of £40,299 joined to real house prices, Ofsted school quality, crime and GP access.
Where is the best place to live and work as a managers and directors in retail and wholesale in South East?
As of June 2026, the best place in South East to live and work as a managers and directors in retail and wholesale for a family with two children is Milton Keynes, with a Gera Settle Score of 84.6/100. The ONS ASHE full-time median pay for this occupation in South East is £40,299, against an average home price of £318,038 and 95.3% Good/Outstanding schools. Gera recomputes this quarterly.
| # | Local authority | Settle Score | Regional pay | Avg price | Years to buy | Good+ schools |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milton Keynes | 84.6 | £40,299 | £318,038 | 7.9 | 95.3% |
| 2 | Bracknell Forest | 81.8 | £40,299 | £397,667 | 9.9 | 100% |
| 3 | Slough | 81.8 | £40,299 | £338,287 | 8.4 | 94.4% |
| 4 | Reading | 79.4 | £40,299 | £345,112 | 8.6 | 92.3% |
| 5 | Portsmouth | 79.0 | £40,299 | £250,377 | 6.2 | 90.9% |
| 6 | Medway | 78.1 | £40,299 | £294,322 | 7.3 | 92.5% |
| 7 | West Berkshire | 73.8 | £40,299 | £400,550 | 9.9 | 91.3% |
| 8 | Southampton | 72.8 | £40,299 | £234,150 | 5.8 | 82.4% |
| 9 | Wokingham | 67.0 | £40,299 | £485,606 | 12.1 | 91.7% |
| 10 | Brighton and Hove | 62.9 | £40,299 | £406,137 | 10.1 | 84% |
| 11 | Buckinghamshire | 62.0 | £40,299 | £478,521 | 11.9 | 85.1% |
| 12 | Isle of Wight | 61.1 | £40,299 | £238,239 | 5.9 | 69.6% |
| 13 | Windsor and Maidenhead | 53.4 | £40,299 | £565,201 | 14.0 | 84% |
Find your own best area
Change occupation or family size — the ranking recomputes live from real data.
Your best places to live and work as a managers and directors in retail and wholesale (UK median £38,447/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 | RutlandEast Midlands | 92.3 | £39,069 | £305,174 | 7.8 | 100% |
| 2 | GatesheadNorth East | 91.0 | £31,691 | £158,885 | 5.0 | 96.9% |
| 3 | SunderlandNorth East | 90.4 | £31,691 | £145,293 | 4.6 | 95.7% |
| 4 | WarringtonNorth West | 90.3 | £36,060 | £253,219 | 7.0 | 100% |
| 5 | DoncasterYorkshire and The Humber | 89.6 | £34,655 | £173,624 | 5.0 | 95.5% |
| 6 | Blackburn with DarwenNorth West | 89.5 | £36,060 | £165,813 | 4.6 | 92.9% |
| 7 | MiddlesbroughNorth East | 89.5 | £31,691 | £139,005 | 4.4 | 95.8% |
| 8 | Bracknell ForestSouth East | 89.1 | £40,299 | £397,667 | 9.9 | 100% |
| 9 | CalderdaleYorkshire and The Humber | 89.0 | £34,655 | £190,555 | 5.5 | 94.4% |
| 10 | WiganNorth West | 87.8 | £36,060 | £190,802 | 5.3 | 96.2% |
| 11 | Stoke-on-TrentWest Midlands | 87.6 | £38,606 | £152,101 | 3.9 | 88.1% |
| 12 | Milton KeynesSouth East | 87.3 | £40,299 | £318,038 | 7.9 | 95.3% |
| 13 | WolverhamptonWest Midlands | 87.2 | £38,606 | £215,264 | 5.6 | 90% |
| 14 | South TynesideNorth East | 87.0 | £31,691 | £156,931 | 5.0 | 92.3% |
| 15 | SandwellWest Midlands | 86.5 | £38,606 | £212,547 | 5.5 | 89.1% |
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.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best place to live and work as a managers and directors in retail and wholesale in England?
- Milton Keynes (South East) tops the Gera Settle Score at 84.6/100, combining £40,299 regional pay, £318,038 average home price (7.9 years of pay) and 95.3% Good/Outstanding schools. Source: ONS ASHE + Land Registry + Ofsted, June 2026.
- What is the median salary for a managers and directors in retail and wholesale in the UK?
- The ONS ASHE 2025 full-time median gross annual pay for managers and directors in retail and wholesale is £38,447 (25th–75th percentile £30,000–£52,498), reference period April 2025, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- How is the Gera Settle Score calculated?
- It joins the ONS ASHE regional salary for your occupation to four real area datasets — affordability (Land Registry price ÷ regional pay), school quality (Ofsted % Good/Outstanding), safety (Home Office crime per 1,000) and GP access (NHS England) — each normalised 0–100, then weighted by your family size. Full method at /methodology/gera-settle-score.
- Which area scores lowest for a managers and directors in retail and wholesale?
- Windsor and Maidenhead (South East) has the lowest Gera Settle Score in this ranking at 53.4/100, mainly because a home there costs 14.0 years of local pay. All figures are real government data, June 2026.
Find a home in Milton Keynes
Browse rentals and homes in Milton Keynes and the rest of South East — the top Settle Score areas for your work and family.
Other regions for this occupation
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).