Yorkshire spa town rated top for working from home

HARROGATE has been named the best place to work from home due to fast internet speed, good schools and lots of green space.

The Victorian spa town in North Yorkshire boasts broadband with 60 megabytes per second (Mbps), which falls into the “superfast category”, making it ideal for being productive when away from the office, according to Uswitch’s remote working index.

Situated on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, it has the most green space compared with more than 100 other areas of the UK as well as being next to Nidderdale – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It also has among the highest average Ofsted ratings for its schools and one of the lowest crime rates, the index by the price comparison website revealed.

Bath and the Mendip district, both in Somerset, came next in the rankings, followed by Derry in Northern Ireland and Wigan in Greater Manchester.

Among the least desirable places to work remotely were Blackpool, Leicester and Ipswich, the report said. London and Birmingham, two of the UK’S big

gest cities, ranked 88th and 82nd. The number of people working exclusively from home has risen from 21 per cent to 24 per cent in the past month, the Office for National Statistics reported.

Meanwhile, a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that almost two thirds of employers believe staff are at least as productive when working from home.

History does not relate what Agatha Christie was doing when she disappeared for 11 days in 1926, but she was eventually found in Harrogate. Was she writing one of her famous detective novels? If so, Mrs Christie obviously knew long before the rest of us that this green and pleasant spa town is also an excellent place to labour in – indeed, it has just been named as the best place in the country to work from home. Today that is thanks in part to its fast internet speed and good schools; then and now, its abundance of green space also weighs heavily in Harrogate’s favour (not to mention its cream teas and Turkish baths). Harrogate also has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. So perhaps not the best place to set a whodunnit, but certainly a good location to plot one.