Lock in, because The Sunday Times Best Places to Live have been revealed, and two Greater Manchester areas have been given the accolade this time. The Sunday Times’s expert judges have visited all the locations and assessed factors from schools to transport, broadband speeds and mobile signal to culture, as well as access to green spaces and the health of the high street.
The chosen locations come in all shapes and sizes, from the Scottish Island of Tiree and the remote Welsh village of Maenclochog to vibrant market towns, and suburbs of big, lively cities such as Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, London and, of course, Manchester.
The four Heatons (Chapel, Mersey, Moor and Norris) together make one super Greater Manchester suburb, squashed between the middle of Manchester and Stockport‘s increasingly zeitgeisty centre – and has been named one of the best places to live in the city region.
Described by The Sunday Times as family-friendly but funky, the Heatons offer trendy indie stores and enough quirky cafés and cool coffee shops to keep the buzz going whatever the hour. This is a relatively affordable place to bring up a family, too, in a substantial Victorian or Edwardian red-brick villa on a tree-lined street.
The other area to claim the best places to live title is former mill town Mossley, Tameside, which the newspaper selected due to it offering fresh air, awesome scenery, good schools plus fast direct trains to Manchester Piccadilly – with a dash of non-conformist creativity thrown into the mix. It’s divided into Top Mossley, which has the views, and Bottom Mossley, with stores, cafés, restaurants and an incredible number of pubs – you really can’t go wrong.
Instagram post via @leehamilton1868
Add to that the Vale — where carnival artists learn their trade at the Arts Council-funded Northern Carnival Centre for Excellence — along with theatre, music and art-house cinema, The Sunday Times said there’s something for everyone in Mossley. Plus, viewing point, Hartshead Pike, is not too far away if you fancy a hike.
There are more new entries than ever before in this year’s guide and no place for many previous winners including York, Winchester and Altrincham. As always, the judges looked for thriving locations with a strong sense of community rather than famous names with high house prices.
Woolton in Liverpool has been named the best place to live in the Northwest in the annual Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide, and Saffron Walden in Essex was named as the best place to live in the UK.
The full list of North West locations in the Best Places to Live list is as follows:
- Woolton, Liverpool (regional winner)
- The Heatons, Greater Manchester
- Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
- Knutsford, Cheshire
- Malpas, Cheshire
- Mossley, Greater Manchester
- Parbold, Lancashire
Helen Davies, editorial projects director and Best Places to Live editor, says: “It is easy to feel overwhelmed by everything going on in the world, but there really is so much to celebrate as we look closer to home. From small gestures that lift the everyday – like verges blooming with daffodils and volunteer-run dementia cafés, to larger initiatives from repair cafés to new railway stations.”
You can find the full list of Best Places to Live for 2025 here.