YOU lucky people!According to new figures from the Halifax bank, Suffolk people enjoy the best quality of life in East Anglia - and one of the best lifestyles in the country.

Paul Geater

YOU lucky people!

According to new figures from the Halifax bank, Suffolk people enjoy the best quality of life in East Anglia - and one of the best lifestyles in the country.

The bank has compiled the league table taking into account factors such as employment, earnings, crime rates, life expectancy, education, and health facilities.

That puts Suffolk seventh on the national list - above Essex (16th), Cambridgeshire (22nd), and far above Norfolk which is in 38th place.

Suffolk also scores highly as an affordable place to live - the average price of houses here is considerably less than that in some of the higher-placed counties such as Buckinghamshire, Surrey, or the London borough of Bromley.

One person who has seen much of the world and knows just how good Suffolk is as a place to live in is Ipswich Town chairman David Sheepshanks.

He said: “Suffolk used to be one of the world's best-kept secrets. It now looks as if that secret has been well and truly blown!

“There are many things that make Suffolk such a wonderful place to live, I think one of the best is its location and its beauty.

“If you go out of your door in one direction you can be in London in little more than an hour. If you go out in the other you are straight into glorious countryside, big skies, and a wonderful coastline and beaches.

“I'm not surprised Suffolk has come out well in this survey - it is a wonderful place to live.”

The Halifax survey used statistics from other sources - for instance in 2006 the life expectancy for males in Suffolk was 78 years, two years higher than the national average. For women the life expectancy was 82, a year more than the national average.

Suffolk is one of the driest counties in England - although you might have had difficulty in knowing that last week - although is not as arid as Cambridgeshire or Essex which have the lowest rainfall in the country.

The survey uses a number of different factors to establish the league table - and while Suffolk itself is top in no individual indexes, its high position in every table keeps it near the top.

Top ten counties/boroughs:

1. Buckinghamshire

2. Surrey

3. Berkshire

4. Bromley

5. Hertfordshire

6. Oxfordshire

7. Suffolk

8. Vale of Glamorgan

9. Richmond Upon Thames

10. Sutton, London