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For a long time, Slough was the butt of the joke. It was where Ricky Gervais set ‘The Office’ and has often been thought of as a bit of suburban wasteland. But now Slough will have the last laugh, as it’s been named London’s best commuter town. Take that, St Albans!
In the Telegraph’s rankings of the UK’s ultimate commuter towns, Slough came up on top. The Berkshire town was lauded for its ‘fast access to London, high employment and excellent schools’. Fun fact: Slough is also where Mars bars were invented, and was home to the first zebra crossing and wheelie bin. Now that’s wheelie impressive! (Sorry)
Slough is also the location of the world’s second-largest data centre hub. This, alongside its proximity to Heathrow, means there are employment opportunities galore. The schools are excellent, too, with 13 schools rated outstanding or good by Ofsted.
For the ranking process, the Telegraph took into account employment levels, quality of schools, house prices, time it takes to reach London, the cost of a ticket to central London, restaurants and pubs in the area and, surprisingly, if it was close to a beach.
Slough beat Chatham in Kent and Basildon in Essex, which came in second and third place respectively. On this list of 100 towns, Haslemere in Surrey was officially the worst place for commuters to live.
An average house in Slough will set you back £358,000 and it will only take you 33 minutes to reach the centre of London. In Haslemere however, the average house costs £748,000, and it will take you a whopping 56 minutes to get into London. We know where we’d rather commute from.
Forget Margate. We’re all moving to Slough!
Did you see that Aldi is opening two brand-new London stores?
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