What it's like to live in Huntingdon

Huntingdonshire is a mostly owner-occupied area: 69% of homes are owned, 16.8% are privately rented and 12.9% are social rented, below the England figure of 17.1%. Most of that social housing is held by housing associations (10.5%) rather than the council (2.4%), so the landlord on a swap here is more likely to be an association.

The biggest social landlords in the district are Places for People Living+ with around 6,110 homes, then bpha with 956, Accent Housing with 684, Cross Keys Homes with 672 and Muir Group with 670. Average weekly social rents in 2024/25 were about £100 for a one bed, £116 for two and £127 for three.

The age profile is a little older than England as a whole: 20.2% are 65 or over and 27.5% are aged 45 to 64, with 17.9% under 16. For context on demand, 3,041 households were on the Huntingdonshire housing register at 31 March 2025, and 716 social homes were let through the council in 2024-25, which is part of why mutual exchange is worth pursuing.

There is a good choice of primary schools close in. Huntingdon Primary School, Stukeley Meadows Primary School, Hartford Junior School, Hartford Infant and Junior Schools and Hartford Infant and Preschool are all within a mile, so most central addresses have more than one option within pram-pushing distance.

For older children, St Peter's School and Hinchingbrooke School are both under a mile from the centre, and Spring Common Academy serves pupils with special educational needs. Huntingdonshire Regional College gives sixth-formers and adults a local route into further education and training without travelling to Cambridge or Peterborough.

Family life outside school hours is well served. Bloomfield Park is almost on the doorstep, with Nursery Road Play Ground, Castle Hills, Spring Common and Riverside Park all nearby for weekends. The Huntingdon Youth, Child and Family Centre, Huntingdon Community Centre and The Maple Centre run community activities, and Hinchingbrooke Hospital is less than a mile away, which is reassuring with young children.

Huntingdon station is about half a mile from the centre and sits on the East Coast main line route, so trains are a genuine option for commuting rather than an afterthought. If you work out of town but do not drive, this is probably the single biggest reason to consider Huntingdon over a smaller village.

Huntingdon Bus Station is right in the middle of town, which makes local and longer bus trips straightforward, and there are dedicated bus bays at Hinchingbrooke School for the school run. Having the bus station, the library, the shops and the market square clustered together means one trip in can cover several errands.

On foot, the central area is flat and compact, and most of the schools, parks, pharmacies and supermarkets listed here are within a mile. By car, the A14 and A1 routes meet near the town, so Cambridge, Peterborough and the wider road network are easy to reach, though traffic around the town at peak times can be slow. Parking in the centre is paid in most places.

Green space is Huntingdon's quiet strength. Riverside Park by the Great Ouse is the one people take visitors to, while Castle Hills, Spring Common and Bloomfield Park give you everyday walking and somewhere for the children to run about without getting in the car.

Indoors, there is Cineworld about a mile and a half out, three gyms to choose from including Anytime Fitness in the centre, The Gym Group and Sports Direct Fitness, and Huntingdon Library and Archives in the middle of town for books, computers and local history.

Eating and drinking centres on the old market square. The Market Inn, The Falcon Tavern and the Three Tuns are traditional town pubs, with Sandford House and Da Vinci's close by for something different. It is a small enough scene that you will start recognising faces, which some people love and others find limiting. For bigger nights out, Cambridge and Peterborough are both reachable by train.

Across the Huntingdonshire council area, 61.6% of adults are in work, above the England average of 57.4%, and unemployment sits at 2.3% against 3.5% nationally. Benefit claimant figures tell the same story, at 2.3% of working-age people compared with 4% for England. On paper, this is one of the stronger local job markets in the East.

In the town itself, the obvious large employers are in health, education and retail: Hinchingbrooke Hospital, the Linnea Cromwell Hospital, Huntingdonshire Regional College, the schools and the town centre supermarkets and shops all draw staff locally.

Plenty of people here commute. With the station in town and the A14 and A1 close, Cambridge, Peterborough and St Neots are all within realistic daily reach, and London is doable by train for those who need it. That said, commuting costs money, so it is worth pricing a season ticket or fuel before you commit to a swap on the basis of a job elsewhere.