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This is officially the cheapest place to retire in the UK

A Merseyside town has been crowned Britain’s most affordable retirement spot

Amy Houghton
Written by
Amy Houghton
Contributing writer
St Helens, Merseyside
Photograph: Pete Stuart / Shutterstock.com
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However old you are, it’s likely that what you’ll be doing once you retire has crossed your mind a few times. Whether it’s being close to your family, escaping to the seaside or being around a community of fellow retirees, we’ll all have different priorities when it comes to life after work. 

If you’re after somewhere where you can comfortably afford to fill every second of all of that new-found free time, loan company Sambla has your back. Researchers looked into the cost of living without rent in the top 100 most populated towns in the UK to discover which towns and cities are the most affordable to retire to. 

And the winner was, drum roll please... St Helens, a Merseyside town between Liverpool and Manchester best known for its rugby league team. The town apparently has an average cost of living at £565 per person per month. 

Overall, 14 out of the top 20 cheapest places to retire were in the north of England, although Leeds actually came out at the second most expensive place to retire with cost of living (after London, obviously) with the average cost of living at £843. 

Rochdale at £583, Preston at £584, Harlow at £589 and Blackburn at £598 completed the ranking of the top five cheapest areas to retire to. Here’s the full list of the cheapest places to retire in the UK, according to Sambla: 

  1. St Helens
  2. Rochdale 
  3. Preston
  4. Harlow 
  5. Blackburn
  6. Kingston upon Hull 
  7. Rotherham
  8. Wigan
  9. Bolton
  10. Oldham
  11. Warrington
  12. Dudley 
  13. West Bromwich
  14. Doncaster
  15. Aberdeen 
  16. Sunderland
  17. Slough
  18. Telford 
  19. Chester 
  20. Bradford

You can read more about Sambla’s study on the official website here

ICYMI: this is the UK’s best city for roast dinners.

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