Newcastle has found itself landing in the top five worst cities in the UK to live – but we couldn’t disagree more.
Tyneside has shown its best just last week when almost 300,000 Geordies lined the streets and gathered at the Town Moor to celebrate Newcastle United’s Carabao Cup success. They are scenes that will live long in the memory for the Toon Army.
The rankings of the worst places to live was originally published by The Mirror last year and based on findings from major consultancy firm PWC, which assessed each city on 12 criteria: health, income, jobs, safety, skills, work-life balance, housing, commuting to work times, income equality, high street shops environment and business start-ups. And, after all of the data was totted up, it left Newcastle rounding out the top 5 of the worst places to live.
It’s already causing quite the stir with many branding Newcastle’s position placement as “ridiculous”.
Topped by Swansea and Sheffield in second, North East neighbour Sunderland was named third ‘worst’ place to live on the list ahead of Manchester landing in forth. Whilst the likes of Plymouth and Bristol were named ‘best’.
Maybe to little surprise, the lists resurgence on social media was quickly met with resounding Geordie backlash defending the city against the ‘worst’ title. So we asked people in the city whether they agreed.
“Outrageous!”, blasted Sam Milburn. “That’s a joke. Newcastle is mint, you’ve got everything you could want within 10 minutes of each other like the quayside and walks to Jesmond Dene and then only 30 minutes to the beach.”
Originally from Hartlepool, Sam chose to move to Newcastle as a university student and has continued to work in the city since graduating two years ago. He added: “I don’t like huge cities but Newcastle is the ideal size.
“It’s full of great bars, restaurants and you always get loads of tourists from across the country visiting. Its cheap as chips compared to other cities prices and better than home.
“It’s lovely in Newcastle. Everyone is dead canny and if I could afford to buy here I would but prices are all relative like everywhere – depends where you’re looking.”
Matthew Hutton said: “I disagree that it’s the worst to live, I quite like the place. The architecture and buildings are lovely and part of the appeal often we take it for granted and forget to look up like tourists do.
“There’s so much history in the city even such as the ghost stories from the castle. I’m proud to call myself a Geordie and be from here.”
Luke Harrison was also shocked at ranking. He said: “I’m very surprised by that especially after last week’s trophy parade. All the lads from work were so proud seeing everyone come together for the football.”
Luke commutes into Newcastle city centre once a week for work from Middlesbrough – but says he would aspire to live here, adding, “The people, the community, the buildings, bars and restaurants all make Newcastle and its honestly great.”
Becky Sweeny is from Birmingham but visits Newcastle often for work says its a “lovely city.” Comparing Newcastle to her home, she said: “It definitely feels a lot safer to walk here at night-time, everyone is friendly.
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