Abstract
The local environment influences people's perceptions of their quality of life and their overall well-being in many different ways. Whilst there are a wide range of local environmental factors that can impact on individuals' well-being, there is relatively little empirical evidence on this subject. In particular, there is a dearth of knowledge on their economic valuation, commonly expressed in terms of how much money individuals are prepared to pay for improved conditions. In this paper stated preference experiments are used to explore individuals' willingness to pay, in terms of council tax, to obtain improvements or to avoid deteriorations in a wide range of local quality of life and environmental factors. These include: local crime; local school quality; traffic noise at home; road traffic levels; pavement condition; urban quiet areas; fly-tipping; litter; fly-posting; graffiti; dog-fouling; discarded chewing gum; trees; light pollution (obscuring the stars); light intrusion (into the home) and odour. Values are derived for a both a categorical change and, for the environmental factors, for a one unit move along a 11 point rating scale. This study provides what we believe to be the first value for access to urban quiet areas and also indicates how important quiet areas are relative to a range of other local environmental factors.