A Powys border town has been named at the top of a list of the best places to live as a single parent in the UK.

Bishop's Castle was picked out as the UK's top spot for single parents based on affordability and its environment for raising a family.

The ranking was conducted by Richard Nelson LLP, a firm specialising in family law.

The criteria included average house price, salary, council tax rate, quality of schools and nurseries, cost of electricity, crime rate, and amount of public green spaces.

They collected data for each factor for the locations listed in the Times' Best Places to Live guide.

In the study, Bishop's Castle scored 138 out of a possible 173, achieving the highest overall rank.

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The town had the fourth cheapest average house price at £285,400 and the second greatest amount of green space per person - a sizeable 4,278 square metres.

It also scored well for additional affordability factors including average salary, cost of electricity and council tax rate.

Lauren Greenhalgh, consultant solicitor in the family law team at Richard Nelson LLP, said: "Given the current economic climate, there's never been a more challenging time to be a lone parent.

"Despite this, there are more than 2.9 million single parents in the UK therefore we wanted to conduct research to establish which areas of the UK would be best for lone parents to raise their children in."

Ms Greenhalgh further explained: "The transition to being a single parent can be a real challenge for many, with finances, personal confidence, and sense of belonging all thrown into question.

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"Exploring a new life in a different location can be daunting and full of challenges, so we wanted our research to offer some insight for those that find themselves in that position."

In contrast, the least affordable locations for single parents were Wadhurst in East Sussex, Lindfield in West Sussex, and Alresford in Hampshire.

The average house price across these locations is more than £629,000, with an average salary of just £28,000.

Among the locations analysed, Leeds was ranked as the most affordable but suffered from the highest crime rate, the smallest amount of green space, and one of the lower proportions of 'good' or 'outstanding' schools and nurseries.