Choosing the right postcode used to be a case of snobbery. Now it can be a matter of life and death: almost 10,000 Londoners die prematurely each year due to long-term exposure to air pollution, according to a government report (Oxford Street has the world’s highest levels of nitrogen dioxide, NO2) and it is thought to claim a further 60,000 lives across Britain (Birmingham, Leeds, Tyneside, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield and Bristol all fail to meet the EU’s safe limits for NO2). For many people, stepping out for some fresh air increasingly means inhaling traffic fumes (from VWs, no less).
If your daily run requires a gas mask, and the dog wheezes when chasing the ball in the park, take a deep breath and make a move. The Sunday Times Clean Air campaign has pinpointed the freshest locations in the UK, the places with the lowest levels of nitrogen dioxide, using data from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs collected back in 2012 (the latest available). It’s no surprise that the remote Shetland Islands top the list, but we’ve identified nine other strong performers, and they’re not all in the wilds. If you care more about your lungs than your fabulous urban lifestyle, buy where the breathing is easy.
1 Lerwick, Shetland
The islands’ main port has a moody atmosphere: the 2013 TV crime drama Shetland, the BBC’s attempt to emulate Scandi noir, was filmed here. More than 100 miles from the mainland, it is Scotland’s most northerly and easterly town, but it’s not as quiet as you’d think. Tourism, oil and fishing keep it busy. The ferry terminal is in the middle of town; Tingwall airport is a six-mile drive.
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With a population of 7,500, a Nordic ancestry and reliably bad weather, you might imagine a stay-at-home crowd. But there are several pubs and restaurants, and the town is gearing up for Up Helly Aa, the annual fire festival in January. Lerwick has three schools and a charming glut of mostly Victorian housing, often three-storey, usually terraced. The dark winters may test the spirits, but the sea and mountain air will do your body no end of good.
Property prices according to Zoopla After a 1% rise in a year, a typical home here costs £135,700.
2 Dornoch, Highland
The Highland air is pure, which is just as well: most of the action in the seaside town of Dornoch (population 1,200) is outside. There’s golf, cycling and an annual walking festival. Hunter-gatherers love it for the shooting, stalking and salmon-fishing on the local estates and rivers, while the Dornoch Firth is a wildlife haven that’s been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
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Many properties are owned by second-homers or investors offering holiday lets or B&Bs. The stock varies from solid stone early-20th-century family homes to less pleasing 1970s bungalows with great views — at least if you’re inside. But travel can turn into trekking, as Dornoch is 43 miles from the nearest big city, Inverness, and it’s five hours or more to Edinburgh from the nearest station, Tain.
Prices The typical home costs £180,849, after a 0.5% annual rise.
3 Elgin, Moray
Lying between Aberdeen and Inverness, but not particularly close to either, Elgin has relatively few commuters, which helps the air quality, as do the bracing winds blowing in from the North Sea. But it’s not nowheresville: it has a charming town centre, a picturesque ruin of a cathedral, good local schools, with Gordonstoun on the doorstep, the Moray coast and the Cairngorms close by, and a mainline railway station, as well as a string of distilleries including Glen Moray, Glen Elgin and Gordon & MacPhail. All in all, well worth a toast.
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The locals work at the nearby RAF and army bases, for public-sector employers such as the hospital and the council, and for those whisky firms. House prices are among the highest in northern Scotland, but if plans for 1,500 homes in Findrassie, north of town, get the go-ahead, the volume of stock could rise.
Prices A typical home costs £161,315, after a 3.1% rise in the past year.
4 Alnwick and surrounding areas, Northumberland
Clean air is the least obvious of Alnwick’s charms: the impeccably preserved market town, with only 8,200 residents, has stone cottages and manicured terraces, but pride of place goes to the Hogwartian castle, home to the dukes of Northumberland for 700 years — it attracts 750,000 visitors annually. A few miles east is the North Sea coast: chilly, undeveloped and crowd-free even in summer. To the west, Northumberland National Park offers attractions such as Hadrian’s Wall, Kielder Forest and the Cheviot Hills.
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In town, indoor types will appreciate the theatre and cinema, and there are golf courses for outdoorsies. Workers use nearby Alnmouth station to get to Newcastle (30 minutes), or take the East Coast line to Edinburgh (70 minutes) or London (less than four hours). For warmer weather, take the A1 to Newcastle airport, named by Which? as the best large airport in the UK.
Prices After a 5.6% rise in the past year, a typical home costs £227,201.
5 Ballymoney, Co Antrim
A healthy home town doesn’t have to be a boring one. The people of Ballymoney (population 11,000) love a good time, whether on stage at the annual drama festival — its patron, until his death this year, was the playwright Brian Friel — in the streets (Santa rides through the town every December) or in the fields (there’s a century-old agricultural show each summer). Its greatest son is the TT champion motorcyclist Joey Dunlop, who died in 2000 and has a sports centre named after him.
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An hour’s commute from Belfast and Londonderry, the town is expanding, with starter homes on the outskirts for those priced out of Coleraine. But what makes this place special is its proximity to great scenery, including the Giant’s Causeway, Drumaheglis Marina and the fabled Glens of Antrim.
Prices Detached houses sell for less than £250,000, after a 3% dip this year.
6 Penrith, Cumbria
The residents of this Lake District town don’t only breathe clean air, they soak up history. Step out of the station (just over three hours from London) and you see the famous ruins of Penrith Castle. Wander east to the two oldest streets, 13th-century Burrowgate and Sandgate, and you’re in the historic heart, its quiet charm complemented by the modern New Squares shopping centre. And if it’s Tuesday, it must be market day.
Tourists are plentiful, especially when it’s too wet to go walking in this eastern stretch of the Lake District, but locals move here for the schools, including Hunter Hall, an independent primary.
Prices After a 0.8% rise this year, an average home costs £229,887.
7 Filey, North Yorkshire
If a North Sea resort perched at the end of a 110-mile hiking trail doesn’t have clean air, where does? Cannes this is not. Instead, it’s old-school Yorkshire seaside, with beach huts, a prom, golden sands with donkey rides, a caravan camp atop the cliffs and a reliably cold wind.
The old town centre is sweet — part Regency, part Victorian, mostly terraced, all charming — with 1930s and more modern homes on the fringe. The 7,000 permanent residents have two primary schools and one secondary, and have good connections: Scarborough is 18 minutes away by train, Hull 65, and it’s an hour’s drive to York. Or you can walk all the way to Helmsley on the Cleveland Way. But why go far when you can take in the sea air and the coastal scenery from the elevated beauty spots Filey Brigg and Bempton Cliffs?
Prices The average home is a snip at £162,867 — up 1.6% in a year.
8 Heslington, North Yorkshire
If you want to make yourself unpopular, call Heslington a suburb of York. Although it’s only 1½ miles southeast of the city centre, the locals (and estate agents) prefer the term “suburban village”. There is a villagey feel in parts: it has two pubs, a primary school, banks, a post office and a parish council. Bustle is provided by the University of York, which is spending £750m on its Heslington East campus. A payoff for local residents is use of the uni’s sports centre, gym and pool. Expect to see plenty of students wandering the streets, and academics buying large Georgian homes (newer executive housing is available, too). Their kids go to favoured schools such as Lord Deramore’s and Fulford secondary.
Prices A typical home costs £291,019, after the past year’s 1.8% hike.
9 Newstead, Nottinghamshire
The 1,200 residents of Newstead are a lucky lot: they’re surrounded by woodland and countryside, with the Newstead and Annesley Country Park on the doorstep. Entertainment is thin on the ground — the village website boasts of a miners’ welfare club, a pub, a bowling green and allotments — but basic needs are met by a shop, a primary school and a post office, and the station lets you reach the bright lights of Nottingham in 20 minutes. The good air here belies an industrial past: the village was built in the late 19th century to provide housing for Newstead colliery. Before it closed in 1987, the pit was the scene of disputes in the miners’ strike.
Prices Despite a rise of 2.3% in a year, the average home costs just £89,030.
10 Wrexham, North Wales
With a history of iron-smelting, brewing, leather-making and mining, who’d have foreseen Wrexham being a clean-air town? That was then. Its Victorian terraces remain, but today there’s plenty of tourism — Erddig Hall, the Ceiriog Valley and Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a Unesco World Heritage Site, are all attractions.
Today, the town has a spring in its step. Eagles Meadow shopping centre is doing well, despite opening in the downturn, and the edge-of-town industrial estate is one of the biggest in Britain. A community school is being considered, but the best existing options are King’s and Queen’s, 12 miles away in Chester. There are seven country parks nearby, and the coast is a 45-minute drive — if you find yourself longing for the smoke, Manchester is an hour away.
Prices A typical home costs £170,760, after a 4.4% rise in the past year.