Bedford

What is it like to live in Bedford?

Homes sold for a typical £327,500 in the 12 months to August 2026. At 1,799 of the 2,175 postcodes Ofcom reports on, every home and business can get gigabit broadband. The Environment Agency counts 275 homes and businesses at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, at 179 of its 2,287 postcodes. It has 20 primary schools, 7 secondary schools and 4 all-through schools at its postcodes within 12 km of its centre. At least 5 GP practices are at its postcodes. The nearest railway station is Bedford St Johns, 1.4 km from the middle of its postcodes in a straight line.

We don't rate places; here are the figures so you can judge.

Sources: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data; Ofcom Connected Nations; Environment Agency flood risk; Get Information about Schools; NHS GP practices; NaPTAN. Each figure is from a section of this page, which gives its date.

What do homes cost in Bedford?

Homes in Bedford sold for a typical £327,500 in the 12 months to August 2026, across 797 sales, HM Land Registry's figures show. The 12 months before gave £322,000 from 1,051 sales: not a change larger than chance would explain, given which homes happened to sell.

• Detached £485,000 187 sales
• Semi-detached £348,000 253 sales
• Terraced £290,000 218 sales
• Flat or maisonette £170,000 139 sales

Each bar is that kind's typical price, against the most expensive kind here.

Across the whole MK41 district, Bedford's main postcode district: a typical £350,000.

Sales at the postcodes ONS places in Bedford: standard sales of homes at market value. A typical price is the median, the middle sale. Sales take weeks to be registered, so the last month or two are incomplete. Each postcode page gives the figure for its own postcode sector.

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, files dated 28 September 2026.

Are new homes being built in Bedford?

82 of the 2,287 postcodes now in use in Bedford came into use in January 2020 or later, ONS says. In the 12 months to August 2025, 22 of the 1,051 homes sold in Bedford were newly built (2%), HM Land Registry's records show; across the MK41 district, 0%.

The newest postcodes

A new postcode is often a new street or estate, but Royal Mail also makes new postcodes when it reorganises old ones, so not every one means new homes. Only postcodes still in use are counted.

New homes among the homes sold

Standard sales of homes at market value that HM Land Registry marks as newly built. New homes take longer to be registered than other sales, so the latest 12 months count fewer of them than were sold. A share is given from 5 sales or more.

Sources: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026; HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, files dated 28 September 2026.

What broadband can you get in Bedford?

Ofcom reports on 2,175 of the 2,287 postcodes in Bedford. At 1,799 of them every home and business can get gigabit broadband.

Ofcom gives each postcode's share of homes and businesses, not how many there are, so these count postcodes. Each postcode page has its own figures. A provider's checker answers for one address.

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations, Connected Nations, Spring 2026, data for January 2026.

Is Bedford at risk of flooding?

179 of the 2,287 postcodes in Bedford have a home or business in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, the Environment Agency says. At those, it puts 275 homes and businesses in an area at high or medium risk.

High: 3.3% or more a year (1 in 30). Medium: 1% to 3.3% a year. Low: 0.1% to 1% a year. Very low: under 0.1% a year (1 in 1,000). Each band is the chance of flooding in any one year.

Homes and businesses in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, as the Environment Agency counts them, added up over the postcodes. It is for the land, not each building, and leaves out surface water, groundwater and sewers. Each postcode page has its own figures and its flood warning areas.

Source: Environment Agency flood risk, published 6 July 2026.

Which schools are in Bedford?

The open schools at the postcodes in Bedford (the first 8 primaries by distance from its middle). A school for ages 4 to 18 is listed under both. Distances are straight lines from the middle of its postcodes. Distance is not a catchment: each council sets its own admission rules. Special schools and alternative provision, which children join by referral, are not listed.

An orange bar: the school has as many pupils as places, or more (Department for Education's figures).

Source: Get Information about Schools, read 17 October 2026. Each school opens its own record there.

How far is the station from Bedford?

The nearest railway station to the centre point of the postcodes in Bedford is Bedford St Johns Rail Station, 1.4 km away in a straight line.

• Bedford St Johns Rail Station Railway station 1.4 kmCycle
• Bedford Rail Station Railway station 1.5 kmCycle
• Kempston Hardwick Rail Station Railway station 6.2 kmDrive

Straight-line distances from the centre point, not routes. Walk: under 1.2 km. Cycle: 1.2 to 5 km. Drive: further.

Straight-line distances from the middle of the postcodes, not routes. Each postcode page lists its own nearest stations and bus stops. The Department for Transport's register does not say how often services run.

Source: NaPTAN, read 17 October 2026.

Which GP surgeries are in Bedford?

The GP practices at the postcodes in Bedford, the first 5 by distance from its middle. Each practice sets the area it takes patients from, so check with it before registering.

• The De Parys Group Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report February 2016, over 3 years old · Phone 01234 351341 150 mWalk
• Goldington Avenue Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report January 2020, over 3 years old · Phone 01234 349531 400 mWalk
• Ashburnham Road Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report October 2019, over 3 years old · Phone 01234 358411 1.4 kmCycle
• Linden Road Surgery Care Quality Commission rating: Requires improvement CQC report March 2023, over 3 years old · Phone 01234 273272 1.4 kmCycle
• London Road Health Centre Care Quality Commission rating: Good CQC report August 2016, over 3 years old · Phone 01234 266851 1.5 kmCycle

Sources: NHS GP practices, read 17 October 2026; Care Quality Commission, ratings of 1 October 2026.

Is Bedford safe? Crime recorded around it

Police.uk records 7,061 crimes and reports of anti-social behaviour within a mile of the middle of the postcodes in Bedford over the 12 months from September 2025 to August 2026. August 2026 is the latest month it has published. These are counts, not a rate: we hold no count of the people who live, work or pass through, so we do not say whether a place is safe.

Each month, September 2025 to August 2026

By kind, over the 12 months

Also: burglary 223, other crime 164, robbery 151, bicycle theft 129, possession of weapons 82, theft from the person 67.

Police.uk says its locations "always represent the approximate location of a crime". Each crime is moved to the nearest of a fixed list of map points, each over a street centre, a public place or a commercial premises, chosen so that every point covers at least eight addresses or none. A mile is a wide circle: in a town it takes in the centre and its shops, where much crime is recorded.

Source: police.uk, data to August 2026, from its download of 30 September 2026.

Who runs Bedford?

Council

Bedford

Parliamentary constituencies

Bedford (2,094), North Bedfordshire (135) and Mid Bedfordshire (58)

Police force area

Bedfordshire

Region

East of England

Country

England

Where the place crosses a boundary, a row lists each side with its number of postcodes. Check a postcode for its own. What council am I in?

Source: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026.