Wokingham, Elmbridge and St Albans named ‘financial resilience capitals of the UK’

Wokingham, Elmbridge and St Albans are the best places in the UK in terms of people’s overall personal finances, according to Hargreaves Lansdown.

The investment platform’s Savings and Resilience Barometer has shone light on exactly which towns and cities are doing the best at managing their money.

The barometer brings together 16 separate measures from official government datasets to build an ‘overarching’ picture for each borough in the UK.

The key factors include how much savings people have, whether they are on track for a reasonable retirement income, housing costs and ownership, debt levels and various other metrics.

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There is evidence of the clear gap between south east England and most other parts of the UK in financial security terms. Of the top 20 boroughs , 17 are in the south east, with the remaining three in east England.

Top 20 places for overall financial resilience:

	Local Authority Borough	Region
1	Wokingham	South East
2	Elmbridge	South East
3	St Albans	East
4	Hart	South East
5	Epsom And Ewell	South East
6	Waverley	South East
7	South Oxfordshire	South East
8	Mole Valley	South East
9	Surrey Heath	South East
10	South Cambridgeshire	East
11	Tandridge	South East
12	Guildford	South East
13	Windsor And Maidenhead	South East
14	Horsham	South East
15	East Hampshire	South East
16	Winchester	South East
17	Wealden	South East
18	Sevenoaks	South East
19	Fareham	South East
20	Three Rivers	East

On the other side of the coin, the 20 boroughs with the lowest scores are much more spread out around the UK.

Kingston Upon Hull is the lowest ranked, followed by Nottingham and Liverpool. Parts of Scotland, the Midlands and three London boroughs also feature.

Bottom 20 places for overall financial resilience:

Dan Olley, CEO, Hargreaves Lansdown said: “At the start of a new year, households up and down the country will be thinking about their budgets and how they can do more with their money, while at the same time companies like HL are thinking about how we can do even more this coming year to help people to secure their financial futures.  

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“As the government conducts a comprehensive review of pensions, it couldn’t be a more important time to assess the nation’s preparedness for their retirement, and as ever the findings in this Barometer paint a bleak picture. There has been a fall in the proportion of householders achieving adequate pension savings across all income levels, as the value of a pot required for a moderate retirement has increased 40% since 2019. 

“Looking regionally, this trend is sadly exacerbated, with a gap of 24% in pension adequacy between richer South East pockets compared to those less affluent London boroughs and North East England.”

Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at the platform, added: “There’s a vast gulf between the capitals of resilience and the tougher areas where money is stretched and the future looks much harder. Among the top 10 most resilient local authorities, 79% of households have enough cash left at the end of the month to be resilient, compared to 54% among the bottom 10.”