Northampton - so average it's special
Here's a blog post from Wake Up To Money's Andy Verity:
They sent us to Northampton because of a dubious honour. Northampton is the town adopted by 5 Live Breakfast as its "recession town". This is because it's, well, average. So average you could even call it special.
The vital statistics:
67 miles from London - close to the M1. Population 200,0000.
Employers: Carlsberg, Barclaycard, Avon, Traveis Perkins, Schweppes & National Grid.
Football club: the Cobblers.
Unemployment: 5.2%- about average.
Average Northamptonshire house price: £154,000 - the average for the UK.
When we arrived, we were kindly ferried around by a native of Northampton who is far from average. In fact, Helen Blaby is rather famous for Northampton and very good at avoiding hold-ups on the roads!
(left-right) Andy interviews the local shoppers, checking out Northampton's house prices and the Super Sausage Cafe - our home for the morning.
When we asked our Helen to name someone from Northampton even more famous than her, she had to phone her mum - a daughter of the town for 60 years. "Um, there was Bradlaw". "Who?" An MP opposed to birth control apparently. Um, Monty Panesar plays for Northamptonshire...Um, the cricketer Graham Swann. Then we struck gold - Matt Smith. Not the 5 live presenter, but the new Doctor Who, due to pilot the Tardis from 2010. Nothing average about that.
But the most not-average thing about Northampton is another reason we wanted to come back; to find out what's happened to the housing market.
Northampton is the negative equity capital of the UK, with more people estimated to have mortgages bigger than the value of their homes than anywhere else.
So how does that affect how they're feeling about how well off or poor they are? What has that done to the "feelgood factor"?
Are there signs of recovery - green shoots - here in average town? And, more to the point, is it safe to think it's going to get better? Do those green shoots really have roots?
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