FOUR areas in the Bradford district are considered to be Leeds’ most desirable commuter towns.

The city was recently revealed as the most expensive place to live in West Yorkshire. 

New research, from food tech provider Selecta UK, has shown Bingley, Shipley, Baildon, and Ilkley feature in the top 10 most favourable places to live for Leeds commuters.

The data focuses on several categories including train travel time to Leeds, annual season ticket cost, school ratings, crime ratings, and available wellness facilities.

Of the 19 towns analysed, Bingley (7.26) ranks in first position overall.

It is followed by Shipley (6.09) and Normanton (5.89) in the second and third places.

Baildon (5.70) and Sowerby Bridge (5.62) complete the top five towns.

Castleford (5.61) ranked sixth; Ilkley (5.34) ranked seventh; Knaresborough (5.11) eighth; Brighouse (5.10) ninth and Pontefract (5.09) tenth. 

Bingley performed well in most of the categories, but especially in the percentage of outstanding schools (74 per cent), for which it received the highest score out of all the towns listed.

The town also had high scores in the annual train season ticket cost and shortest train journey categories, ranking third for shortest train journey into Leeds at just 19 minutes.

It has an annual season ticket price of £1,240 – four times cheaper than the most expensive town listed.

Shipley received the highest score of all the towns analysed for the number of wellbeing facilities available to locals and has the cheapest annual season ticket at £1,232 per year.

It also has the shortest commute into Leeds with a 14-minute train into the city centre, giving residents a better work/life balance.

However, it missed out on the top spot due to its poor crime rate. There were 13.9 crimes per 1,000 residents recorded in June 2023. This equated to 401 crimes committed in this month, the highest of all towns listed. 

Ilkley – famous for its moorlands and spas – proved to be the most ‘Instagrammable’, with more than 231,000 Instagram posts. 

A spokesperson for Selecta UK said: “It’s interesting to see workers are not solely concerned with travel times into Leeds, but also about their local community and amenities.

“We hope people find our research informative and it helps those looking for a good commute location to Leeds to support both their professional and personal preferences.”