The Sunday Times Best Places to Live Guide 2024: Leeds, Sheffield and Saltaire are among top Yorkshire postcodes - and these are the areas that missed out

Guide editors have this year favoured towns and suburbs with a ‘thriving community of small businesses’ attracting support in the wake of large retailers retreating from city centres.

In Yorkshire, the market town of Skipton, which was the overall UK winner in 2014, has returned to the Guide after an absence of several years. The mill village of Saltaire and commuter village Boston Spa have been included for the first time since the pandemic, and the Sheffield suburb of Nether Edge represents the city which fell out of the Guide after the tree felling scandal. Leeds is also back, and the list is completed by a new entry – the Yorkshire Wolds in the rural East Riding.

Yet there is no place for any of Yorkshire’s coastal towns and villages, which have been deemed ‘too touristy’ for residents, and former industrial towns such as Huddersfield, Halifax and Doncaster, despite improving, have not quite ‘come up’ yet.

We spoke exclusively to Guide editor Tim Palmer about the places that were chosen, those that came close and those that didn't make it – including recent winners York and Ilkley, which have won the UK title before.

Leeds

The city has been named the best place to live in the north and north-east this year and Mr Palmer describes it as the ‘true northern powerhouse’.

Its high wages have been a major factor in its selection this year, as well as its wealth of popular suburbs such as Chapel Allerton, Roundhay and Horsforth, which have all appeared in the Guide independently in past years.

"The highest average salaries outside London really tipped it for us, as people can earn more than in big science hubs such as Cambridge. You can hope to earn a decent living in Leeds. It has very solid foundations as a city.”

Mr Palmer said that public transport issues had been a major downside for Leeds in previous Guides, but the announcement that construction of the Mass Transit tram system will begin in 2028 has boosted confidence.

Boston Spa

The ‘handsome’ commuter village near Wetherby is handy for the A1(M) and Leeds. It has a wealth of fine Georgian architecture dating from a curious period in which it was promoted as a spa town, but was never quite able to compete with Harrogate. The high street is ‘thriving’ and Mr Palmer points out that the community is an example of a place that has been enhanced by new housing and incoming families.

"It remains the smartest place to commute into Leeds from. It has the aspirational bells and whistles, and cracking houses. It is an argument against opposition to new housing; it was quite flat before the Church Fields development was built, but it has brought life and interesting people. They make the high street sustainable and the area has become younger. Boston Spa Academy has come on in leaps and bounds. It’s just about rural enough.”

Saltaire

Another old favourite making a return, its inclusion was secured by nearby Bradford’s City of Culture year in 2025.

"It's great if you don't mind houses that are too small for a tumble drier! The commute to Leeds is fantastic, as is the canal, which is designed for walking. It’s near great countryside and the people are fun. The Caroline Street Social Club is a modern version of a working men’s club. Saltaire has helped other places in the Aire Valley, like Shipley and Bingley, come up with it.”

Nether Edge, Sheffield

A popular suburb for families, close to the Peak District and with a coffee culture and sought-after Victorian houses.

"We omitted Sheffield because of the city centre’s decline and the tree felling scandal, but it’s now on the cusp of a big improvement and there are interesting regeneration projects. We’d not come across Nether Edge before, but it’s more down to earth than Totley and Dore. It’s handy for the Peaks and there’s a good little community and a villagey feel. Unlike in Leeds, people tend to go for the best suburbs rather than taking a punt on somewhere that is the next big place. The city centre is starting to find a new path in the post-retail era.”

Skipton

Ten years on from its 2014 triumph, Skipton is back on the map.

"It’s been in the shadow of places like Ilkley, and it’s that little bit further from Leeds. But it’s close to the heart of the Dales, has good schools, and the market is still at the centre of things. It has bags of character.”

Yorkshire Wolds

A new entry, the Wolds are becoming a focus for buyers priced out of York and offer a rural lifestyle of farm shops and big skies, centred on towns like Driffield and Pocklington.

“They’re still very good value, untouristed and offer good, old-fashioned rural living. You can get to the coast, York and Hull easily, and you're not cut off. Places like Pocklington may have been overlooked in the past but people are moving there and making them better.”

The nearly theres and the not considered

Ilkley missed out a year after it won the overall title, but Hull and Doncaster are finally on the Guide's radar.

"We’ve got a separate guide to up and coming places out soon, and Hull is in there, with Doncaster only narrowly missing out. We like Airedale, places like Bingley and Silsden we have our eye on. The town centres of Halifax and Huddersfield let them down, but we love the old mill villages.

"We’re not keen on the coast, as many of the villages are dominated by holiday homes. Scarborough has improved but is quite fragile. Whitby is too touristy. In the moors, Malton’s food scene is excellent but it is very busy with traffic, and places like Pickering and Helmsley feel a bit ‘coach party’.

"Beverley isn't featured because its town centre relied a lot on posh chains that are not what they used to be.

"South Yorkshire has nowhere that’s really putting its hand up other than Sheffield. West Yorkshire has most of the interesting things going on now, the hives of energy. We used to focus on North Yorkshire more, which is more traditional, but West Yorkshire is more innovative than almost anywhere in the country now.”

Read the full Guide here