Billing & Riverside
West Northamptonshire 026 · 4 sub-areas · 6,540 residents
West Northamptonshire 026 is a residential area within West Northamptonshire, home to around 6,500 people. A typical two-bedroom home lets for about £942 a month — noticeably below the UK average for a 2-bed — though rents are rising, up around 4% in the past year. Social housing makes up a higher share here than you'd typically find across the wider county.
Billing & Riverside is a green, lower-density part of West Northamptonshire — parks within walking distance of most addresses, a slower weekday rhythm, and a population skewed toward longer-tenure households rather than transient renters.
Overview
What's it like to live in Billing & Riverside?
2 parks and 4 playgrounds are within five minutes' walk, so greenspace is reliably close at hand; Recorded crime is higher than the national norm — common for built-up urban areas, but worth weighing if you're looking for a quieter base; Transport links are limited — a car or e-bike is a practical assumption for most regular trips; rents are roughly in line with the national norm, at around £1,070 a month for a typical home; gigabit broadband is effectively universal.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 4 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
Billing & Riverside in West Northamptonshire
Living in Billing & Riverside
This part of West Northamptonshire sits firmly on the affordable end of the local rental market. Two-bedroom homes run about £940 a month, and even three-bedroom properties come in around £1,150 — genuinely reasonable compared to most parts of the East Midlands, let alone the South East. It's the kind of neighbourhood where your money stretches further, though that comes with some trade-offs on transport connectivity.
The cost picture is one of the stronger draws here. Rent-to-take-home sits at around 49% — which is on the high side — but median rents are still well under the UK average for comparable property sizes. Council tax (Band D) runs roughly £2,487 a year, which is in line with the broader West Northamptonshire area. The median home sale price is around £238,000, and a deposit takes roughly 3.6 years to save at typical local earnings.
The population skews younger than you might expect: nearly a quarter of residents are under 18, and just over one in five is aged 18–34. About 26% of homes are social housing — well above the national norm — while just over half of households own their property. The degree-qualification rate, at around 24%, sits below the national graduate average, pointing to a workforce that's more mixed in occupation and sector than some nearby commuter areas.
Getting around here is largely a car-dependent experience. Around 65% of residents drive to work, and with the nearest mainline rail station roughly 6.9 km away (about an 86-minute walk, or realistically a short drive), public transport is limited — only around 8% of residents use it for commuting. Nearly one in five works from home, which partly compensates. On the upside, gigabit broadband covers around 96% of the area, making remote work genuinely practical. See the streets and sub-areas below for more.
What you'll need on day one
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Frequently asked
- Is West Northamptonshire 026 a nice place to live?
- It depends on your priorities. Rents are below the UK average for most property sizes, and nearly two-thirds of homes are owned or social housing, giving it a settled feel. The trade-off is a high car dependency, a crime rate above the national average, and a smaller share of schools rated Good or Outstanding compared to the rest of the country.
- What is the rent in West Northamptonshire 026?
- A one-bedroom home runs around £742 a month, a two-bedroom around £942, and a three-bedroom roughly £1,150. These are estimates based on local sale prices scaled from council-level ONS data. Rents have risen about 4% in the past year.
- Is West Northamptonshire 026 safe?
- Crime runs at about 144 incidents per 1,000 residents a year — roughly twice the UK average. The area sits in the lower third nationally on the deprivation index, which typically correlates with higher crime. It's worth researching specific streets before committing, as conditions vary within the neighbourhood.
- What's the commute from West Northamptonshire 026 to the nearest major city?
- By public transport, London takes around 136 minutes, Birmingham around 146 minutes, and Manchester over three hours. The nearest mainline rail station is roughly 6.9 km away, so most residents drive to it. Around 65% of commuters use a car for their daily journey.
- Who lives in West Northamptonshire 026?
- Mostly families — around a quarter of residents are under 18. Just over half of households own their home, and about 26% are in social housing, which is well above the county average. Around one in five residents aged 18–34 adds a younger working-age layer to the mix.
- What schools are near West Northamptonshire 026?
- There are 33 schools within typical catchment distance. Around 64% are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted — below the national average of roughly 89%. The nearest Outstanding school is about 1.7 km away. Parents should check catchment boundaries carefully, as ratings vary considerably between nearby schools.
- How affordable is buying a home in West Northamptonshire 026?
- The median sale price is around £238,000, and at typical local earnings it takes roughly 3.6 years to save a deposit — more manageable than many southern areas. The resident median salary is around £33,000 a year, which makes this one of the more accessible parts of West Northamptonshire for first-time buyers.