Note: This is the first of a series called Corners of Britain, in which I will profile unusual or under-reported parts of the country using Census 2021 data. Get the data for your area or build your own custom area.1
Inside and outside the M25
‘Inside the M25’ and ‘outside’ or ‘beyond the M25’ are often used as metonyms for London and ‘the UK outside London’ respectively.
The phrases are sometimes employed to draw attention to demographic, cultural and political differences between London and the rest of the country.
Introducing the Inner Home Counties
But this distinction is not completely clear-cut. As the map above shows there are slivers of the Home Counties that are inside the M25 belt but outside Greater London.
They include the towns of Watford and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire; Ashford and Epsom in Surrey and Dartford in Kent.
I’m calling these places the Inner Home Counties to distinguish them from the Outer Home Counties outside the M25.
About one million people live in the Inner Home Counties, or 1.7 per cent of the population of England and Wales.
What can we learn about the Inner Home Counties from Census data?
Hybrid working
Working people in the Inner Home Counties are more likely to be able to work from home. Some 40.2 per cent of people in employment spend most of their time working from home compared to 31.2 per cent across England and Wales.
We know that people in top professional jobs are more able to work from home than those who don’t work in an office such as factory and retail workers. People from the Inner Home Counties are more likely than the population as a whole to work in these kinds of roles. Some 18.1 per cent of them said at the last Census that they worked in ‘higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations’ compared to only 13.1 per cent across England and Wales.
A small minority of the Inner Home Counties take the train to work but it’s a larger minority than across the country. Central London will be the destination for most of these people on weekdays.
Home ownership
People who live inside the M25 but outside London are more likely to own a home with a mortgage than the rest of the country. It’s likely that these people are currently squeezed by higher payments on their mortgages because of the recent base rate rises - or will be later this year.
Homes in these inner portions of Surrey, Kent, Essex and the other counties that ring London are larger than average. More than a quarter - 26.5 per cent - of households have four or more bedrooms at their disposal compared to 21.1 per cent across England and Wales.
Lived here a long time but not necessarily born here
The vast majority of people who live inside the M25 but outside London were born in the UK. However the proportion of people who were not born here but have lived in this country for 10 years or longer is higher than the rest of England and Wales - 13.8 per cent to 9.8 per cent.
The Inner Home Counties is an affluent area where house prices are high. I expect the trajectory for many immigrants in this area will have been: move from abroad to London, move forward in your chosen career and then move outwards to buy a home (with a mortgage).
Family may well enter the equation here: 49.8 per cent of people in this area are married or in a civil partnership compared to 44.6 per cent of the country at large; while there are four or more people in 24 per cent of households compared to 19.8 per cent across England and Wales.
Conclusion
That was an introduction to the Inner Home Counties: inside the M25 but outside London. By and large it is a well-to-do area with plenty of people in large homes and well-paid jobs.
As I said at the start, this will be a series. If you have any ideas for places that you would like me to profile, leave a comment to let me know.
I work on Census 2021 at the Office for National Statistics