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Bored of your hometown? After somewhere new to put down your roots? The level of research that comes with making sure you’re moving somewhere that ticks all of your boxes can be overwhelming. Luckily, the Sunday Times has done it all for you. After surveying the length and breadth of the British Isles, the paper has revealed its guide to the UK’s best places to live in 2026.
To come up with its list of Britain’s greatest places to live, the Times sent a team of judges to villages, towns and cities across the land to chat to locals, check out amenities and assess the quality of transport, broadband speeds and schools.
Once all the intel was gathered, the judges decided on 72 places that offer the best quality of life for Brits in 2026. And claiming the spot this year was the historic city of Norwich.
Once widely known as the ‘Second City’ of England, Norwich is the only part of the UK that has featured in every single edition of the ranking since it started 14 years ago. The Times praised Norwich’s ‘blend of medieval heritage and contemporary cool’ called it a ‘creative, cosmopolitan city with a green conscience and a warm heart’, where residents can ‘enjoy the best of both urban conveniences and rural living, eat like a king — and where homes are affordable’.
The Norfolk capital is England’s most complete medieval city, home to of quaint cobbled alleys, a 900-year-old cathedral, timber-framed Tudor houses and wonky pubs hailing back to the Victorian era. But it also has a modern edge. The Times points out that local unis, The University of East Anglia and Norwich University of the Arts keep the city ‘young at heart’ and that there are ‘vibrant financial services and life sciences sectors, plus a growing cluster of digital start-ups’.
There’s a flourishing population of indie shops, such as department store Jarrolds (with an excellent food hall) and Dormouse Bookshop, and a brilliant array of caffs and restaurants, from the subterranean Grosvenor Fish Bar to posh Spanish joint Bar Cerdita to award-winning cult bakery Two Magpies.
For your fill of culture, there’s six different theatres, a bunch of music venues, the Sainsbury Centre gallery and new outdoor art programme Art in the Close. The Times also highlights the city’s growing wellness scene, citing The Lions’ Den City, a new alcohol-free bar with two rooftop saunas, a summer yoga festival and five different Parkruns.
One Norwich local told the paper that their hometown is ‘such a lovely place to raise children’. Another said it ‘has something incredibly special’ and added: ‘There’s a real buzz here but the pace of life is great and it feels safe because people look out for each other. It’s also surrounded by stunning countryside, has easy access to the Broads, and I can pick up my two children from school and we can be eating fish and chips on the beach in half an hour.’
The average house price in Norwich at the moment is £324,000, making it one of the most affordable areas in the Times’ list of regional winners. Locals have direct access to Cambridge (1 hour 18 minutes) and London Liverpool Street (1 hour 45 minutes) and to international flights from Norwich Airport, consistently named one of the best in Britain. Parents also have a strong selection of state and independent schools to send their kids to.
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