A Guide to Living in Leicestershire

Leicestershire is a county in the East Midlands region of England. It borders Northamptonshire, Rutland, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. Centred around Leicester, an important economic and cultural centre for the East Midlands, Leicestershire offers an enticing combination of countryside and metropolitan living. The county is also known as “The Garden of England,” due to its abundance of orchards and market gardens and is the birthplace of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Darwin and George Eliot. If you’re looking for a new home, Leicestershire has a lot to offer!

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Best places to live in Leicestershire

HomeViews Top Rated Development ranking takes into account the Star Rating and HomeViews Transparency Rating of every development in the area

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Areas in Leicestershire

Leicestershire is made up of the following areas: Leicester, Hinckley and Bosworth, Melton, Blaby District Council, and Charnwood Borough Council.

Some of the standout areas in Leicestershire include:

Leicester

The City of Leicester, more commonly known as simply “Leicester,” offers a great place for young professionals looking for affordable living within easy reach of London via train from St Pancras International Station (35 minutes). If you need some out from work or study, Leicester’s rich culture offers plenty of entertainment, such as the Curve Theatre and numerous cinemas.

Some areas in Leicester include Clarendon Park, Newtown Linford and Spinney Hills.

Loughborough

An affluent town located on the outskirts of Charnwood Forest, Loughborough is a vibrant market town with a rich cultural and sporting history. Famous for its research-led University, Loughborough is a great place to settle if you’re looking for a peaceful country living, but also want the attractions of nearby Leicester.

Lutterworth

A small market town just south of the larger town of Rugby, Lutterworth offers an excellent quality of life for its residents with great schools and community spirit as well as excellent transport links to Birmingham and London.

Leicestershire universities

The higher education facilities in Leicestershire include the University of Leicester, De Montfort University and Loughborough.

University of Leicester

The University of Leicester is an international research-led university. It boasts an average of 20,000 students and has one of the highest student satisfaction rates in England.

De Montfort University

Situated near to the city centre on a green site with views across the River Soar, De Montfort University has more than 25,000 students including nearly 11,500 at its main campus in Leicester. With roots dating back to 1827, it was one of the first universities in the UK.

Loughborough University

Loughborough’s reputation for sport precedes itself; it dominated British gymnastics for many years and produced some great Olympians too! It also excels academically.

Leicester is a fantastic city with plenty on offer for students and professionals alike: it ranks highly as London’s greenest city, has one of the UK’s largest student populations outside university towns and provides world-class sports facilities.

Top schools in Leicestershire

The best schools in Leicestershire include The Trinity Catholic School, Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College, Ellis Guilford Grammar School – all ranked ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted inspectors.

Population of Leicestershire

The population figure for 2020 puts the county’s total at around 1,053,486 people living in an area of 832 square miles, with the vast majority of the population living in the City of Leicester.

Reviews in Leicestershire

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Happy living here

Verified Resident

Review Date Nov 2021

The local area is fantastic with a great range of shops, pubs and restaurants in the village and in the surrounding areas with bigger towns not too far away. On the edge of the village so straight into the countryside but the village is also lovely to walk around.

Please review your development:

Design of houses – fine but they seem less ‘designed’ than on other developments.
Garden – mine (and others) not finished to standard but the developer has sorted this thankfully.
Parking is adequate for me but a fair bit of on street parking makes the road look messy but I think this is common on new estates unfortunately.
Developer is quick to respond to any issues with the property.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

Nothing really. Very happy here.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

House issues – responded quickly
Garden issues dragged on a bit but that was due to third-party companies being involved

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Lovely first time home

Verified Resident

Review Date Nov 2021

We have off road parking and the street is quiet with regular bin collections. The town centre is a 30min walk and the closest shop is 20mins, easier with a car. The town centre has lovely independent shops, cafes and restaurants. There is a large park nearby good for kids and walking dogs. There is a train station with direct trains to London but that is a 45min walk.

Please review your development:

We love our house it is a two bedroom semi-detached with open plan downstairs. It is small but a perfect first home. It is light and airy and has a good sized garden. The process buying the property was very long as it was shared ownership and we bought it during the pandemic. So far repairs have been very difficult to get resolved through our housing association. We are still waiting for our end of defects period inspection and have lots of settling cracks throughout the home.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

As the house is shared ownership it doesn’t come with an carpets only flooring in the wet rooms. We didn’t realise this so it was an unexpected expense.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

We had a gas leak and had to ring the emergency services to turn it off at the mains. We had no heating for a few days and had to ring up repeatedly to get this resolved by Avant. We are also waiting for other repairs in the home and settling cracks to be fixed.

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Nice development and good houses but customer service could be improved

Verified Resident

Review Date Nov 2021

On the outskirts of town so not many local amenities near by but not an issue if you have a car or are happy to walk.

Please review your development:

Like the design of houses and land nearby. Found it a bit difficult to get snagging issues sorted when I first moved in but got there eventually. Really disappointed that a mistake was made with my boundary initially and took the developer a long time to sort out.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

Ask as many questions as you can prior to reserving a plot.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Took a while to get major issues resolved satisfactorily.

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Great location, design, features and fittings – AVANT Homes has unprofessional finishing and worst customer service

Verified Resident

Review Date Nov 2021

Great location, nice views, quiet area, friendly neighbours

Please review your development:

The properties design and facilities are very contemporary, nice, useful features, premium fittings, smart meters fitted, fibre to the property installed, close to Farndon Fields Farm Shop, local fields for walks, jogging, bike rides etc.
However, AVANT Homes Ten Locks Village building/site management and property management are incredibly unprofessional, low quality and borderline customer bullying. This culture is spread across every single level of the company and I would not recommend them to anyone. Complaint procedure is designed in such a way so to waste property owners/customers time in the hope that they will eventually let go. Shocking behaviour even from the CEO!

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

If we knew how AVANT Homes does operate I would have avoided at all costs!

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Building management has targets of 4 days to acknowledge and 28 days to resolve to any problems or issues an owner raises with them. However, they fail every single time their own targets. They do not manage, quality check or follow up issues and rely on customer to chase and micro-manage each job. Total waste of time, nerves and resources. A problem they are made aware of could take anything between 2 months and a year (yes, a whole year!) to resolve.

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