Wokingham has the best quality of life out of any of Britain's local authority (LA) areas, a new survey has claimed.

A report from Halifax reveals that home insurance holders in the south-eastern LA are most likely to be contented with their lot in life - with around 95 per cent of them in good or fairly good health.

Life expectancy in the LA for newborns is one of the highest in the country, at 80 years - and average earnings are in the top five per cent of all LAs, at £744 per week. Approximately 84 per cent of households are owner-occupied, and houses are larger than the UK-wide average, at 6.2 rooms.

Home insurance customers have less need to worry about slippery customers hiding in darkened street corners, with Wokingham receiving around hour and a half more sunshine per week (29.5 hours) than the UK average.

And the LA's children also do comparatively well academically, scoring better-than-average results in their GCSEs.

"People living in Wokingham have the best quality of life in Great Britain. They tend to be healthy, live in larger houses and have relatively high earnings. Wokingham also has good school results and the weather is better than average. However, living in Wokingham comes at a price with house prices £45,000 above the average for the South East," Martin Ellis, chief group economist at Halifax, commented.

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