A SUSSEX town has been named as the fourth best place to move to in the UK.

Crawley fended off competition from the likes of Exeter, Aberdeen and Richmond to take a top five spot in the rankings, put together by mortgage broker RM Mortgage Solutions.

The company compiled the list based on factors including each area's quality of life rating, job density, average monthly income, average rent and rent as a percentage of income.

And, when the results had been calculated, Crawley only finished behind Warrington, in first, Warwick and Derby.

The town had a higher quality of life rating (304) than both Warrington (269) and Derby (213), while it narrowly missed out on Warwick's score of 305.

This data, provided by the Office for National Statistics, was based on self-assessments of how residents in each area feel using four factors - life satisfaction, anxiety, "worthwhileness", happiness. These are ranked and average to create a quality of life score out of 403.

Crawley also had one of the highest job densities of the top four with 0.84, beating Warrington with 0.69 and Derby with 0.55. This time, it was only beaten by Warwick, which posted an impressive score of 1.21.

This score is calculated by dividing the number of people of working age in the town by the number of roles available.

Crawley did, however, have the highest average rent in the top five with £1,000 per month.

This meant it made up 35.3 per cent of the average income of residents, giving the town another unwanted top spot and leaving it in fourth place in the overall standings.

A spokesman for RM Mortgage Solutions said: "Situated between Brighton and London, Crawley has great transport links to major hubs of employment.

"The South Downs and High Weald area of outstanding natural beauty are also both within easy reach for residents here.

"Crawley marries the quality of life often associated with access to nature and a more relaxed lifestyle, with some of the strongest transport links in the UK. Rent here is inflated by this, however."

Yet, while Crawley was competing for the top spot, another Sussex town received the lower overall score out of all areas of the UK, making it the worst place to move to, according to the ranking system.

Eastbourne finished at the bottom of the pile.

Richard Moring, director at RM Mortgage Solutions, said: "It’s really interesting to see how the results vary across the UK.

"Some places score very well for quality of life, but the cost of living is much higher. At the end of the day, moving location is a balancing act - one area won’t necessarily fulfil everything that you are looking for.

"Prioritising certain elements, or making a checklist of likes and dislikes that you can tally up, are both great ways to decide if you’d like to live in one area over another.

"Many of the areas ranking highly are well connected and have strong transport links to the largest UK cities.

"The top five - Warrington, Warwick, Derby, Crawley, and Tewkesbury are all situated near major motorways. You can change many aspects of a property but not the location - or the convenience of the commute."