VetoFor industryStart free
OverviewStoriesPlans← Buyers & renters
Log in

Veto story: Buying agent

“My client is moving to Cambridge for work with two young children. They work from home, so broadband matters, and they want a quiet street and a good primary school. I need to show them what the evidence says about each area before we waste a Saturday on viewings.”

What they chose for the client

In the short interview for the client they said they have children at primary school and work from home, that schools, quiet and broadband are their priorities, and that road safety worries them.

So Veto looked at:

Schools in reach. Nearby schools, their latest Ofsted judgement and results, and how far each is from the address.

Quiet. Modelled road and rail noise at the address and the traffic count on the nearest road.

Broadband for working from home. Which broadband is available at the postcode, as the share of premises that can get gigabit.

Safe roads for the school run. Police-reported injury collisions within 500 metres.

Two addresses, same checks

Address one · Cambridge, CB1

56/100

Incomplete picture

  • The nearest primary, 310m away: 48% of children reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in 2024.
  • Gigabit broadband reaches 100% of premises.
  • Modelled road and rail noise is lower here. No traffic count was available within 1.5km, so the report marks the road picture as incomplete.
  • 6 police-reported injury collisions within 500m across 2022-2024: 2 serious and 4 slight. 1 involved a pedestrian and 2 a cyclist.
  • 112 street-level crimes on record within 250m over 24 months. The trend is rising: the last 12 months are 87% higher than the 12 before.
  • A park 357m away, and a bus route 59m away. Cambridge station is about 1.8 miles away.

Address two · Cambridge, CB4

66/100

Fair match

  • The nearest primary, Shirley Community Primary School, is 220m away: 44% of children reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in 2024, and 9% the higher standard.
  • Gigabit broadband reaches 97% of premises.
  • Modelled road and rail noise is lower here. The nearest counted road is about 1.1km away and carries 9,211 motor vehicles a day.
  • 10 police-reported injury collisions within 500m across 2022-2024: 3 serious and 7 slight. 6 involved a cyclist.
  • 415 street-level crimes on record within 250m over 24 months, the trend broadly flat.
  • A nature reserve 248m away. Cambridge North station is about 624m away.

What the Veto report made clear

The first address came back with an incomplete picture (56) and the second as a Fair match (66), and neither wins outright. The first has no traffic count nearby, so the road can't be confirmed, and recorded crime there is up 87% on the year before. The second has fewer unknowns, but its nearest primary has weaker results, 44% against 48%, and more recorded injury collisions, 10 against 6.

Both are on the client's own answers. The agent can show the client the evidence for each before a Saturday is spent on viewings.

From the written report for address one:

You asked for three things to work every week: schools, quiet, and broadband. Two of those come back strong. Broadband here is about as good as it gets, gigabit and superfast both reach 100% of the postcode, and the strategic noise modelling puts this address in a quieter band, with daytime road noise at 50.9 dB Lden. For a work-from-home base, that combination is the headline: fast, resilient internet and a calm backdrop to work against. Mobile signal backs it up too, with indoor 4G from at least one network reaching 100% of homes in the constituency.

Schools are the more complicated piece, and it is why the overall score sits at 56 rather than higher. There are three relevant schools close by, the nearest just 310 metres away, which is an easy walk for a school run. But the detail needs reading carefully rather than taken as a tick: the closest primary's 2024 results show only 48% of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, against results elsewhere that are often higher, and admissions are not guaranteed by distance alone. Alongside that, within 500 metres there have been 6 police-reported injury collisions over three years, including 2 serious ones and incidents involving a pedestrian and two cyclists, which matters directly if the school run means crossing local roads on foot or by bike. Neither finding is a dealbreaker on its own, but together they mean schools need a site visit and a call to the council before you treat this as settled.

More stories: Estate agent, Relocation team

An example story. The firm and the client are illustrative. The addresses are real reports run in October 2026, shown by postcode district only.