CREWE is the best place to live in the UK outside London, according to new research by a leading trade magazine.

The town ranks top for affordability and employment, amenities, schools, internet connectivity and accessibility to public transport.

The research was commissioned by Property Week, and has seen Crewe, Chester and Stockport top the table, largely on account of cheap prices, great neighbourhoods and access to jobs.

Crewe has jumped two places from third last year to head the top 50, with Chester in second, down one, and Stockport up 15 places to third.

“Some people like to perpetuate the myth that London is the only place to live,” said Property Week editor Liz Hamson.

“As someone currently enjoying the resurgence of interest in Margate, I know first-hand this is far from true, and it’s fantastic that this independent research has highlighted the wide variety of great places to live.”

Each town was given a scored and an A to E grade for each category, with A being high and E being low. The score for each category was added up to create the overall ranking.

Crewe scored A for school provision and local amenities, B for public transport accessibility and C for affordability and internet connectivity.

It scored 74.3 per cent, with Chester on 71.7 per cent and Stockport on 71.5 per cent.

Warrington is eighth in the top 50 table, down three places from last year, on 68.9 per cent. The north west boasts nine towns in the top 20.

Because of the very high property prices in London a separate ranking has been created for the capital.

The research for the Hot Housing Index found that every London borough scored very low on affordability compared with other parts of the UK, meaning that if the entire country was treated as one ranking the capital would not feature in the top 50 at all.