Milton Keynes chosen for Sunday Times 'Best Place to Live' guide for first time ever

Milton Keynes has been selected by the Sunday Times to appear in its popular ‘Best Places to Live’ guide.

The city will be named, for the first time ever, as one of the 10 best places in the southeast when the guide is published this weekend.

The Sunday Times judges state: "Forget the 1970s image of concrete cows, endless roundabouts and ugly architecture, the new town turned city deserves its place on the Sunday Times list. It has swathes of parkland, contemplative canal walks and oodles of traffic-free strolling and cycling on the Redways.”

They add: “From Bletchley Park to its fleet of delivery robots, MK has been one of the UK’s most willing testbeds of innovation, and it has affordable homes and convenient rail links.”

The news come as a refreshing change for Milton Keynes, which hit the headlines only last month as one or the 50 worst places to live in the UK.

More than 100,000 people cast their votes a survey run by the satirical iLivehere website and our city emerged as number 35 on the worst place list.

One voter had described MK as “‘a huge sprawling Sim City of buildings that are lucky if they see 40 years use”.

But the Sunday Times expert judges made a special visit here and assessed factors ranging from schools to transport, broadband speeds to culture, as well as access to green spaces and the health of the high streets.

They voted the best town in the southeast to be Folkestone, which they described as “transformed by its eye-catching culture-led regeneration”, impressive schools, state-of-the-art sports facilities and high-speed trains to London.

The eight other southeast locations in the guide are Chorleywood, Farnham, St Albans, Sevenoaks, Stockbridge, Wadhurst and Winchester.

Helen Davies, editorial projects director and Best Places to Live editor, said of the top 10: “These are all places where you can feel grounded as well as upwardly mobile: they have a mature sense of community, lively, supportive high streets and an eye to the future, whether that is eco-friendly measures, transport and regeneration, or imaginative inclusion of new housing.”