Acton, Great Waldingfield & Bures
Babergh 006 · 4 sub-areas · 7,135 residents
Babergh 006 is a rural corner of the Babergh district in Suffolk, home to around 7,100 people and a long way from city life in the conventional sense. A typical two-bedroom home lets for about £919 a month — noticeably below the UK national median for a two-bed — and over three-quarters of residents own their homes outright or with a mortgage.
Acton, Great Waldingfield & Bures is a settled residential pocket of Babergh. The bigger gravitational centre is London, around 119 minutes away by direct train, but most days don't require leaving — local life is what people are here for. The population skews older, with a long-settled feel and a high share of retirees; most homes are owner-occupied, so turnover is low and many residents have been here a long time.
Overview
What's it like to live in Acton, Great Waldingfield & Bures?
Greenspace is on the doorstep — a park or playing field is within walking distance of most homes; The streets feel safe by national standards — police-recorded crime is well below the country-wide median; 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 £969 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.
Acton, Great Waldingfield & Bures in Babergh
Living in Acton, Great Waldingfield & Bures
Babergh 006 sits within the Babergh local authority in Suffolk, part of the East of England. This is overwhelmingly rural and owner-occupied territory: the landscape is quiet, the commute patterns are car-dependent, and the population skews older than you'd find in any nearby town. If you're arriving from a city, the contrast is immediate.
Rents here are genuinely affordable by national standards. A two-bedroom property runs around £919 a month, well below the UK national two-bed median of roughly £1,200. A one-bed is typically around £719, and a three-bed comes in at about £1,113. Even so, with a rent-to-take-home ratio of around 52%, renters here are still stretching for their housing — partly because local salaries are modest, with the median resident earning around £30,000 a year.
The population of around 7,100 is notably older: more than a quarter are aged 65 or over, and a further 23% are between 50 and 64. That means fewer than one in six residents is aged 18 to 34. Families with children make up around 19% of households, and nearly a quarter of households are single-person. Almost 96% of residents were born in the UK, and the ethnic diversity index is very low at 4.1 — this is one of the more homogeneous parts of the East of England.
Practical move-in note: the nearest mainline rail station is roughly 4 km away in a straight line — around a 50-minute walk, so in practice you'll need a car or taxi. Public transport is used by fewer than 2% of residents for their commute; nearly 61% drive, and a striking 32% work from home. The rail journey to London takes around two hours. See the streets and sub-areas below for more.
What you'll need on day one
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Frequently asked
- Is Babergh 006 a nice place to live?
- It depends what you're after. If you want quiet rural living, low crime, and affordable rents compared to the national average, it's a genuinely comfortable place to settle. The trade-off is real isolation — no metro service, car-dependent travel, and an older population. It suits remote workers, retirees, and established families more than young professionals or those relying on public transport.
- What is the rent in Babergh 006?
- A typical one-bed runs around £719 a month, a two-bed around £919, and a three-bed around £1,113. These are estimates scaled from council-level ONS data using local sale prices. Rents rose about 4.6% in the past year. All figures sit noticeably below the UK national two-bed median of roughly £1,200.
- Is Babergh 006 safe?
- Yes, by national standards. The crime rate here is around 34 incidents per 1,000 residents a year — less than half the UK national rate of roughly 80 per 1,000. Rural Suffolk communities tend to have low crime rates generally, and this area is no exception.
- What's the commute from Babergh 006 to London?
- The rail journey to London takes around two hours by public transport. The nearest mainline station is roughly 4 km away — you'll need to drive to it, as there's almost no local bus service. Nearly two-thirds of residents commute by car, and a further 32% work from home.
- Who lives in Babergh 006?
- Mainly older, settled owner-occupiers. More than half the population is over 50, and nearly 79% own their home. Fewer than one in six residents is aged 18–34. It's a low-diversity, predominantly UK-born community with a relatively small private rental market.
- What schools are near Babergh 006?
- There are 6 schools within typical catchment distance, but only around a quarter are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted — well below the national average of roughly 89%. The nearest Outstanding school is about 11.7 km away. If schools are a key factor, check Ofsted's website for current ratings before committing.