Remoting working continues to be practiced, post-COVID and it presents a popular choice for many workers. However, the location that an employee elects to set up shop can make the different between an effective day’s work and a frustrating one, plagued by weak connections.
A new survey has assessed parts of the U.K. and found Kingston upon Hull to rank as the best area of England for remote working, offering the best Internet download speeds and highspeed availability as well as some of the country’s lowest house prices.
The port city was found to have not only the best internet speeds in England, but also across Scotland and Wales, averaging 228.4 Mbps download speeds.
The survey comes from the digital tool provider TinyWow, who analysed several factors including average Internet download speeds, house prices, household energy and gas consumption, distance to green space and the proportion of houses with garden access.
For the assessment, each area was given a total score out of 100, with internet accessibility, home prices and energy consumption weighted as the most important factors within each area’s overall score.
Stoke-on-Trent ranks as England’s second-best area for remote work, offering residents some of the closest access to green space. Stoke-on-Trent has 88.4 percent of homes with access to ultrafast broadband. Average internet download speeds were found to be 128.8 Mbps, which is higher than the national average of 109.1 Mbps.
Burnley ranked as the third best area for remote working in England with a score of 71.67 and South Tyneside ranked as the fourth best area for remote work with a score of 71.40, while London Borough, Tower Hamlets, ranked fifth with a score of 71.12 out of 100.
The top 10 areas for remote work in England were found to be:
| # | Area of England | Remote work score / 100 |
| 1. | Kingston Upon Hull | 77.92 |
| 2. | Stoke-on-Trent | 74.76 |
| 3. | Burnley | 71.67 |
| 4. | South Tyneside | 71.40 |
| 5. | Tower Hamlets | 71.12 |
| 6. | Knowsley | 70.99 |
| 7. | Redcar and Cleveland | 70.87 |
| 8. | Liverpool | 70.75 |
| 9. | St. Helens | 70.75 |
| 10. | Middlesbrough | 70.58 |
With the table, nine factors were taken into account to determine an area’s overall remote working score:
(1) average internet download speed, (2) percentage of homes with access to ultrafast broadband, (3) average home sale price, (4) average household electricity consumption, (5) average household gas consumption, (6) average distance to nearest park, public garden or playing field, (7) average number of parks, public gardens or playing fields within a 1km radius, (8) percentage of houses with private outdoor space and (9) average size of outdoor space.
At the other end of the scale, Derbyshire Dales was the least remote work friendly area in England, offering some of the lowest internet speeds and only 14.4 percent of homes equipped with ultrafast broadband. The district offers some of the poorest Internet speeds on average at 58.4 Mbps and just 14.4 percent of homes were found to have access to highspeed internet. Homes in the area were also found to have above average gas and electricity consumption compared with the national average.
