Blog | Kingston upon Thames Crowned as Top Borough for Vitality

Kingston upon Thames has been ranked as the top borough to live and work in Greater London by Lambert Smith Hampton’s Vitality Index 2023.

The index looks at 3 pillars; Economy & Business, Living and Health, and Environment (see below), and uses 18 datasets to assess the vitality of boroughs.

Kingston scored well across all three categories, with its standout performance being in the ‘Living’ category, achieving top place due to its strong educational achievement & house price growth.

Kingston also finished strongly in fifth on the ‘Health & Environment’ category, with high recycling rates, large supply of green space and lowest crime rates in Greater London contributing to this placing.

In the ‘Economy & Business’ category, Kingston scored well above the London average with one of the highest GVA (Gross Value Added) growth forecasts.

Inner London boroughs filled the top 5 places in the ‘Economy & Business’ pillar, but were held back by lower scores for ‘Living’ due to low or negative house price growth, as changes to working patterns mean outer London boroughs are seen as more desirable places to live. They also,on the whole, had lower scores for Health & Environment, with higher crime rates and poor air quality.

Kingston is going from strength to strength. In 2022, Kingston was also listed as 4th in the Harper Dennis Hobbs UK Vitality Ranking, which determines the health of high streets and shopping centres, rising from 20th place in 2019.

With such a strong and invested business and local community, all working together to make Kingston a place where everyone has an amazing experience, we know Kingston will continue to shine! 

• Economy & Business takes into account wage growth, workforce jobs growth in specific sectors, new enterprises and business density, GVA per capita, GVA growth, and forecast and commercial property investment volume per capita.
• Living encompasses an analysis of education, lifestyle and consumption, including house price growth, GCSE results, NVQ4+ attainment, households in specific MOSAIC categories, comparison goods retail spend and retail vacancy rates.
• Health & Environment comprises cardiovascular mortality rate, life satisfaction, recycling rates, energy consumption per capita, CO2 emissions per capita, green space per capita and recorded crimes per capita.