REVEALED: The best places to live and work in South East England

The UK job market is incredibly competitive – and it’s expected to get worse before it gets better.

It was revealed in January 2025 that permanent job vacancies have declined at their fastest pace for four years, amid febrile markets and a lack of confidence in the economy. What’s more, house prices have risen monthly for the past five months, and real-term wages continue to look grim, with stagnating wages set to continue.

So, where does that leave young families and the career-driven in 2025? As it turns out, relocating to a new location could put you ahead of the pack.

In this piece, property expert Kevin Brown, Marketing Director of The Heritage Window Company, offers insight into the best towns in the South East for people to set up their careers. 

He has collected data on a range of factors, including job competitiveness, average salary and average property prices to find the best places for families and professionals to start a life in 2025. The results may surprise you.

Key takeaways:

• Bracknell is the South East town with the best overall career and opportunity score, topping the list with a score of 57.02 and the second-best salary-to-population ratio.
• Guildford, Eastleigh, Working and Basingstoke narrow out the top five highest-ranking towns for total career and affordability.
• High property prices, population and an incredibly competitive job market mean that London has the worst total career and affordability score of 7.83. 

How has the data been collected?

The ranking of the top 15 South East towns has been determined by five total factors:

1. Job vacancy rate (%) – how likely it is jobs will be advertised in the town or city.
2. Salary-to-population ratio (%) – How the location’s average salary compares to its population size, providing a score for the earning potential per capita.
3. Property affordability index (%) – This percentage represents how affordable a property is when the average salary of the town is taken into account, providing a score.
4. Overall opportunity score – This comparative score combines the job vacancy rate with the salary-to-population rate, helping calculate the likelihood of someone managing to be hired on a comparatively well-paid salary.
5. Total career and affordability score – this final score for the town considers all the above factors, providing a final score for the life satisfaction of those living and working in the town.

Data has been collected through a range of sources, with the average salary-to-population ratio being calculated using the latest salary data and population data from the ONS, job vacancies calculated by collating the total jobs advertised online within 5 miles of each town, and property prices totalled using the latest end-of-year reports from Rightmove.

Here are the rankings of the top 10 towns based on the Total Career & Affordability Score, which factors in job vacancy rates, salary-to-population ratios, and property affordability:

Brown had this to say about the findings: “We always knew that the South East was a fantastic place to live and work – that’s why we have continued to install aluminium windows here for over 30 years. The quality of traditional housing here is fantastic, as well as newer properties, built with heritage stylings in ways that are in keeping with the South East’s rich history.

“We are sure the people of Bracknell are especially chuffed to hear how fortunate they are to live in the town brimming with the most opportunity in the South East – as well as the people of Guildford and Eastleigh who were both narrowly in competition for second place.

“Going into 2025 and beyond, we hope more people continue to visit and make a life for themselves in this beautiful part of the country!”

For those interested in the full results, here are the rankings of all 15 towns in the study, including all metrics and ranked in order of highest Total Career & Affordability Score: