Witham Town
Braintree 017 · 7 sub-areas · 12,466 residents
Braintree 017 is a residential part of Braintree in the East of England, home to around 12,500 people. A typical two-bedroom home lets for about £1,112 a month — close to the UK median for a 2-bed — and with a rail commute to London of under an hour, it draws a notably high share of home-workers and out-commuters compared to many Essex towns.
Witham Town is a commuter neighbourhood within Braintree — train into London runs in around 56 minutes, and the rhythm of weekday mornings is shaped by it.
Overview
What's it like to live in Witham Town?
The area is unusually green for its density — 6 parks and 2 playgrounds sit within five minutes' walk of the centroid; Crime sits around the national average — neither a notable concern nor a notable selling point; Public transport is genuinely strong; most errands and a fair share of social life don't need a car; rents are roughly in line with the national norm, at around £1,227 a month for a typical home; gigabit broadband is effectively universal.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 7 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
Witham Town in Braintree
Living in Witham Town
Braintree 017 sits in the wider Braintree district and has the feel of a settled, car-dependent Essex suburb — the kind of place where most people drive rather than catch a bus, and where a sizeable share work from home rather than commute daily. Around a third of residents work from home, which is well above the national norm, and over half get to work by car. Public transport use is low, at under 6% of residents.
Rents here are moderate by East of England standards. A 2-bed runs just over £1,100 a month — roughly in line with the UK median — and 3-beds come in around £1,368. That's significantly cheaper than the commuter belt towns closer to London, and you get more space for the money. The deposit hurdle is manageable too: at 4.5 years' savings to a typical deposit, it's not painless, but it's far from the 7–10 years you'd face in outer London. The trade-off is that 55% of take-home pay going on rent is a stretch, so it suits dual-income households better than single renters.
The neighbourhood skews toward families and owner-occupiers. Around 60% of homes are owned outright or with a mortgage, and 20% are households with children. There's a meaningful social-rented sector too — around 17% — which is a touch above the East of England average. The age profile is relatively spread, with a roughly even split across under-18s, young adults, and working-age residents, plus 18% aged 65 and over.
The nearest mainline rail station is roughly 1.3 km away — about a 16-minute walk — and gets you into London in just under an hour by public transport. That makes this area workable for occasional commuters, even if daily travel would be a commitment. Gigabit broadband covers 100% of the area, which matters given how many residents work from home. For more on how the area breaks down street by street, see the sub-areas list below.
What you'll need on day one
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Frequently asked
- Is Braintree 017 a nice place to live?
- It depends what you're after. It's a settled, suburban part of Braintree with good home-ownership levels, decent green space within walking distance, and full gigabit broadband — which matters if you work from home. The trade-off is that public transport is limited, schools in the catchment area underperform the national average, and rents absorb a high share of take-home pay.
- What is the rent in Braintree 017?
- A typical one-bedroom home runs around £860 a month, a two-bedroom around £1,112, and a three-bedroom around £1,368. These are estimates scaled from district-level data using local sale prices. Rents rose by about 4.9% over the past year.
- Is Braintree 017 safe?
- The crime rate is around 99.5 incidents per 1,000 residents annually, which is above the UK national average of roughly 80. That puts it in the higher half for Essex suburban areas, though it's not at the level of a dense urban neighbourhood. The area sits in IMD decile 6 — middle of the national deprivation range — so it's not a concentrated pocket of disadvantage.
- What's the commute from Braintree 017 to London?
- The public transport commute to London takes just under 56 minutes. The nearest mainline station is about 1.3 km away — roughly a 16-minute walk. Most residents drive rather than commute by public transport, and about a third work from home, so the train is mainly used for occasional rather than daily travel.
- Who lives in Braintree 017?
- Mostly longer-term, owner-occupying households — about 60% own their home. Families with children make up around 20% of households, and under-18s account for 20% of the population. It's not a particularly diverse area, and the population is predominantly UK-born. Around a third of single-person households adds a mix of older and younger solo residents.
- What schools are near Braintree 017?
- There are 57 schools within typical catchment distance. Around 56% are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted — below the national share of roughly 89%. The nearest Outstanding school is approximately 2.5 km away. It's worth checking individual school Ofsted reports and Essex County Council's admissions guidance before committing to the area for school reasons.