Council say four fifths of residents like living in the borough

There has been an angry response to a survey by a property search company which claimed that Hounslow Borough was the second most miserable place to live in the country.

Right Move says it surveyed 25,000 people across the country to determine how happy there were with the place in which they lived. Their results showed that nine of the top ten most unhappy places in the country were London boroughs with only Barking and Dagenham beating Hounslow in the glum stakes. To make matters worse the happiest place in London was determined to be next door neighbour Richmond Upon Thames. Harrogate was ranked the happiest place in the country.

Also in the top ten were the boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, Hillingdon and Harringey.

The survey looked at responses to questions on a range of issues including area upkeep, pride, safety, costs, amenities and neighbourliness.

Hounslow Council Leader Cllr Steve Curran said: “A comprehensive survey of local residents, carried out by an independent company within the last year, across a wide-ranging and truly representative group of people, shows that four fifths of local people (82 per cent) are satisfied with their local area as a place to live, using words like ‘good’, ‘nice’ and ‘friendly’ to describe it.

“So, while we are all too aware of the difficulties some of our residents are having in coping with the cost of running their homes and so on, and are doing all we can to help them, Hounslow people tell us a different story to the one told here. We know there is much more to do to make life better for all, but a lot of local people are clearly happy and proud to live here.”

August 7, 2015