Is Halstead, Essex a nice place to live?

Is Halstead a nice place to live or is Halstead a bit rough? For us there are a number of factors that make any town a nice place to live, like a low crime rate, low levels of deprivation, the good health of the residents, rent affordability and excellent wages. In this article we will see if Halstead meets our criteria.

How likely are you to a victim of crime in Halstead?

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Halstead. They are a measure of how likely you are to be a victim of personal or material crime in an area, such as muggings or burglary. Naturally rural areas have less crime than urban areas, but for this part of our town assessment we've looked at the 10 wards nearest to the centre of Halstead. To pass this section, 8 out of 10 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5

#	Ward	Crime Rank
1	The Colnes	28440
2	Hedingham	26518
3	Gosfield & Greenstead Green	24297
4	Coggeshall	22361
5	Bocking Blackwater	21608
6	Halstead St Andrew's	21569
7	Halstead Trinity	17459
8	Bocking North	15607
9	Braintree Central & Beckers Green	13430
10	Bocking South	13342

Is Halstead a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Halstead, you want to know if the place is likely to put you on a downward spiral of ill health. For this section of the town assessment, we've examined government health statistics from the 2021 Census General Health question and the Indices of Multiple Deprivation's health element.The table below shows what percentage of Halstead residents answered saying their health was either bad or very bad. To pass this section, the local authority has to have a percentage score less than or equal to 7%.

Local Authority	%
Chelmsford	3.59
Colchester	4.18
Babergh	4.41
Braintree (Halstead)	4.44

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Halstead. They measures the risk of premature death and the impairment of quality of life through poor physical or mental health, lovely! We've collated an average LSOA rank for 10 wards nearest to the centre of Halstead. To pass this section, 8 out of 10 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5.

#	Ward	Health Rank
1	Hedingham (Best)	26124
2	Gosfield & Greenstead Green	25786
3	Coggeshall	25162
4	The Colnes	24315
5	Bocking Blackwater	22665
6	Halstead St Andrew's	20480
7	Halstead Trinity	18474
8	Bocking South	16865
9	Bocking North	16836
10	Braintree Central & Beckers Green (Worst)	15723

Is Halstead rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Halstead. In layman's terms, this is how rough the ward is based on mutiple measures of deprivation including; employment, income, health, crime, housing and outside space. To pass this section as the town assessment, 8 out of 10 wards must have a ranking higher than the English average of 16422.5

#	Ward	Deprivation Rank
1	Bocking Blackwater	24664
2	The Colnes	23040
3	Coggeshall	22538
4	Hedingham	21609
5	Gosfield & Greenstead Green	21293
6	Halstead St Andrew's	21182
7	Halstead Trinity	18370
8	Bocking South	15078
9	Bocking North	14330
10	Braintree Central & Beckers Green	14034

How affordable are the rents in Halstead?

Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These market rental statistics are dated September 2023. We have used the median rental figure for this assessment as we believe this is a more realistic figure than the average (mean) that can be skewed by artificially low and high rents. To pass this section, Halstead rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Essex.

Beds	Braintree	Essex
1	£675	£750
2	£810	£900
3	£1025	£1150
4	£1400	£1500

How much can I earn in Halstead per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Halstead, you'll want to know how much you can earn in a job in the town. Every year the government publishes statistics on gross weekly pay, these figures are for September 2023. To pass this section Halstead's local authority needs to be in first or second place compared to the three nearest local authorities.

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Colchester	£715.90
2	Braintree (Halstead)	£695.20
3	Chelmsford	£682.80
4	Babergh	£635.20

So, is Halstead a nice place to live?

Halstead has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, Halstead does more pockets of deprivation than the average town.  However, Halstead does have a number of wards were crime is worse than the national average.

* Probably.