North Yorkshire is the best place to live in Britain, according to an analysis today of the Government's new "quality of life barometer".

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has outlined 13 "indicators" which will be used to measure people's everyday concerns, such as health, air quality, educational achievement and wildlife, as well as jobs and economic prosperity.

He says environmental and social concerns are just as important as traditional ways of judging the nation's performance, which tend just to look at inflation, unemployment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Good schools, thriving wildlife and clean air are as important under the new criteria as big incomes.

"These new indicators will act as a barometer of the quality of life in Britain," said Mr Prescott, who hopes local authorities, individuals and businesses will be encouraged to do their bit to create "cleaner" growth.

Today, after conducting an assessment of the 13 different indicators, The Times named North Yorkshire and Northumberland as the best places to live in Britain.

It said York and North Yorkshire scored top marks time and time again, with some of the lowest levels of unemployment and rural air pollution and the best GCSE results in the country.

The county is also said to be one of the last remaining areas of Britain with a thriving skylark population, and has one of the cleanest rivers - the Wharfe.

Traffic congestion is also considerably better than in other areas such as the south east.

Knowsley in Merseyside is said to be one of the worst places to live, languishing near the bottom of the league table with a range of poor feel-good factors.

While York is said to enjoy a GDP which is 126 per cent the national average, Knowsley has one that is only 71 per cent of the average.

While unemployment in North Yorkshire stands at 3.5 per cent, Knowsley suffers from 17.7 per cent. And more than twice as many people in North Yorkshire are said to have five GCSEs (at grade C or higher) than in Knowsley.

Stephen Warburton, conservation manager with the York-based Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said today it was "absolutely wonderful" that such criteria were now being brought into play.

"If they had been brought into play in the late 40s and 50s, we would not be in the appalling mess we are in today."

But he had doubts about North Yorkshire's performance on the wildlife front.

see COMMENT 'Looking on the bright side'

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