Britain's happiest town

Chorleywood West has been named in a government study as having the best quality of life, coming ahead of 32,482 other neighbourhoods.

The stockbroker-belt town near the end of the Metropolitan line came top of a league based on 37 criteria, which included everything from the chances of being burgled to the number of detached houses.

The accolade came after an exhaustive study of officially available statistics made by civil servants working for Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

The town scored well for its high employment and low crime rate, while half of all households have at least two cars, and 40 per cent of adults have a university degree - far above the national average.

Researchers took account of school results, access to shops and post offices, and even the number of residents suffering from anxiety and depression.

Ministers ordered the research to identify Britain's most deprived neighbourhoods - but created a quality-of-life league table. The unprecedented study drew on the huge range of information collected by government departments, and will now be used by civil servants and councils to help formulate policy.

In Chorleywood, councillor Chris Brearly said: "It is an area where people like to live. All the schools and hospitals are good and it is a vibrant community."

But surely not everyone can be happy all the time? Anthony Voss, 38, who has lived here 30 years and runs Chorleywood Sports shop, said there was little for people to complain about.

"There's nothing much that springs to mind to be honest," he said. "People here are fairly contented. It's a very friendly community, the kind people move to or move back to if they were born here, because it's nice but handy for London."

Next door, Vanity Fair hairdressers was filling up with elderly ladies queuing for their weekly wash and set. The owner was too busy to elaborate but said: "Yes, this is a lovely place."

At the Stratton Tea Rooms, Sally Cratchley, 54, was welcoming a steady stream of customers. "People know each other here and say hello," she said.

"I was born here, but unfortunately I can't afford to live here - there is a three-bedroom semi on sale for £400,000 round the corner. But then a lot of people here have good jobs so they can afford those prices." Sheryl Shurville, 47, who runs the Chorleywood Bookshop, said: "It's a delightful place. People are friendly, gentlemen raise their hats to ladies and people talk to each other. It's still got that spirit of gentility."

But she admitted: "Although the crime rate is low, the bank was raided recently and the children's clothes shop.

"That's one of the disadvantages of living close to the M25, they can use it as a fast getaway route."

The government survey suggests life in Metroland is better than anywhere else in Britain.

All of the top 10 neighbourhoods are from London's commuter belt with four in Hertfordshire, two in Buckinghamshire, one in Hampshire and one in Buckinghamshire. Two neighbourhoods in Farnham, Surrey - Boundstone and The Bourne - made it into the top 10.

And within the capital's 32 boroughs the highest-scoring neighbourhoods were the south-west suburbs of East Sheen, Carshalton and Wimbledon Village.

Manchester and Liverpool were home to Britain's most deprived neighbourhoods.

The equivalent in the South-East is the Church Street Estate in Lisson Grove, Westminster, which suffers from high unemployment and crime.