{"id":460901,"date":"2026-03-06T15:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/460901\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T15:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:11:09","slug":"the-10-best-places-to-retire-in-england-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/460901\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 Best Places to Retire in England in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

After grinding week in, week out for more than 40 years, retirees deserve to be well looked after. But how well looked after you are depends a lot on where you live. Now, the Times<\/a>\u00a0has revealed exactly where in England OAPs are the healthiest and happiest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The research was compiled for the paper by health tech company Health Connect Global.\u00a0The company\u00a0dug into\u00a0stats across six factors: average life expectancy, GP provision, A&E wait times, the referral period for trauma and orthopaedic services, number of care home beds and where each location ranks in the ONS\u2019s annual happiness index.<\/p>\n

Once all that data was crunched,\u00a0the Times\u00a0revealed that Windsor and Maidenhead is home to England\u2019s\u00a0best place to grow old\u00a0right now. The royal borough, just 20 minutes from London, has the second highest average life expectancy (83.2 years) after Wokingham (84 years) and is joint first in England for the proportion of referrals to trauma and orthopaedic services within 18 weeks. It\u00a0also got high scores when it came to happiness, GP provision, the number of care homes and A&E waiting times. You can read more about\u00a0why Windsor and Maidenhead is such a great place to retire\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Second place went to\u00a0Hartlepool in County Durham, a runner-up that the Times\u00a0said \u2018turns assumptions on their heads\u2019. Although it is known for being one of the\u00a0most disadvantaged towns in England, Hartlepool ranks as a great place to grow old because it has one of the best performing A&Es in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hartlepool,
\nPhotograph: Shutterstock <\/p>\n

H\u2019pool\u00a0ranked first in the country for A&E waiting times and fourth for referrals for trauma and orthopaedic services within 18 weeks. Beyond being well looked after\u00a0in hospital, a local retiree there told the paper that \u2018there are so many activities you can be involved with\u2019 from sewing classes to reading groups to calligraphy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Solihull,
\nPhotograph: David Hughes \/ Shutterstock.com <\/p>\n

Solihull in the West Midlands landed in third place. It did best in the happiness category (claiming fourth spot), which was based on the Office for National Statistics\u2019 index of the public\u2019s\u00a0life satisfaction, happiness, and anxiety levels. It also performs well in terms of life expectancy \u2013 it\u2019s joint fifth in the UK with an average life expectancy of 82 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of the top 10 is taken up by towns and cities in the Midlands and the north. See below for the full list.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 10 best places to retire in the UK in 2026, according to the\u00a0Times
\n
\nWindsor and Maidenhead
\nHartlepool
\nSolihull
\nWolverhampton
\nYork<\/a>
\nWokingham
\nSefton
\nStockton-on-Tees
\nSheffield
\nReading <\/p>\n

Find the\u00a0Times\u2019 full article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plus:\u00a0The best new things to do in the UK in 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up to our\u00a0free Time Out UK newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After grinding week in, week out for more than 40 years, retirees deserve to be well looked after.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1422,59,57,58,50,1423,1420,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-460901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-categories-things-to-do","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-news-city-life","tag-things-to-do","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}