Rother and Arun have been named as two of the top ten most popular destinations for retirement in Britain.

Pensioners have picked out the two Sussex districts as great places to live.

Rother, which includes Bexhill, Battle and Rye, is the fourth highest in the country, with 28.4% of its residents at or beyond retirement age.

The West Sussex district of Arun, encompassing Littlehampton and Arundel, came ninth in the Prudential survey, with a pensioner proportion of 26.3%.

The leader of Rother District Council, Carl Maynard, said: “Clearly Rother has a unique offer for people who chose to retire here.

“There are great facilities in terms of recreation, there are great historic towns, and of course there are the beaches.”

Councillor Maynard said the local authority had invested heavily in the area, citing the £5.5 million put towards the regeneration of Bexhill’s seafront and the £1 million refurbishment of the Bexhill museum.

But Mr Maynard said the council needed to make sure that people wanted to come to live and work in the district and not just retire there, as some residents complained the area does not offer enough for younger generations.

Sylvia Sigfusdottir, who sits on the Bexhill Youth Council, said: “This place is a ghost town.

“The area is massively geared towards pensioners rather than young people.”

Sylvia, who is 16 next month and wants to read philosophy at university, said: “The number of elderly people is extremely noticeable, you see them absolutely everywhere.

“It’s just charity shops – there is no proper shopping.

“Now they’re taking away the bowling alley we have all loved for years and replacing it with a Marks & Spencer, which is symbolic of the whole problem.”

Christchurch in Dorset topped the list as the country’s retirement capital, where nearly one in three residents is a pensioner.

The South West was also the most populous region for retirees, with just under one in five people beyond working age.

The South East, where 17.2% of the population are pensioners, came fifth in the survey.

Coun Maynard added: “Over the last 40 years people have chosen to retire to seaside towns and that is clearly set to continue.”