By Jane Dreaper BBC News health correspondent

The village is popular with residents

The idea is that you live in a specially designed community with facilities and activities laid on - but you still have your own front door.

The foundation says the villages can help provide savings in healthcare, and create jobs in local communities.

But some critics question whether these communities are simply ghettos, albeit with rather fancy gates.

At Elmbridge Retirement Village, in the heart of the Surrey stockbroker belt, the mower is gliding over one of the lawns, getting the grass in shape for the croquet players.

On Friday evenings, the more sprightly of our mainly menfolk go along and play table tennis Bill Harris

Lunchtime business is building up at the nearby bar and restaurant.

About 300 people aged between 60 and 99 live here - all in their own homes.

"Did you hear my hideous bell?" jokes Maisie Noot, as she answers her door to the sound of electronic Big Ben chimes.

The doorbell was left by a previous resident, but Maisie is planning to change it.

Separate homes

Maisie and her partner Bill Harris, who are both in their mid seventies, have been living in separate homes at the village for five years.

It's all very well talking about this idealistic idea of the young person with kids dropping in to look after the old person next door - but we all know it doesn't really happen Jon Gooding

Their social calendar is packed with the community's choir and line dancing sessions, and they also organise dancing parties.

With a Peggy Lee CD playing in the background, Maisie tells me: "I have to keep up to date ready for the social evenings, so I have to keep buying new CDs and listening to them, wondering how they'll like them."

Bill adds: "On Friday evenings, the more sprightly of our mainly menfolk go along and play table tennis.

"We've had very few accidents so far! And the darts is something else!"

But do they miss living in a community with a mix of age ranges?

Maisie answers: "My grandson was here this weekend - he's 30 odd - and he said he thought it was a wonderful place to live and why didn't they build villages like this for people his age?"

Bar staff

A short walk away, the bowling contest is hotting up - and builders are sprucing up the bar.

"We provide the bar but it's run, staffed and operated entirely by the residents - so they run a rota to put someone behind the bar," says Jon Gooding, managing director of the firm which runs this retirement village and five others.

He denies they are closed off environments: "We really resist that ghettoisation argument.

"It's all very well talking about people in the community and this idealistic idea of the young person with kids dropping in to look after the old person next door - but we all know it doesn't really happen."

The residents at Elmbridge seem to thrive on the company and security that the retirement village offers them.

But with the properties costing six-figure sums and annual service charges of three thousand pounds, clearly this isn't an option for everyone.

And as one of the nurses Helen Humphries explains, the village isn't designed for those who are very frail.

"One of the criteria is that they are healthy when they come here - they've got to be able to be self-caring, they've got to be fully mobile and they really need to be totally mentally alert."

Helen helps look after the residents' safety by responding to a system of alarms and movement sensors which are discreetly placed in the homes, and indicate if someone's in trouble.

It's that sort of touch that makes residents like Maisie Noot feel safe.

"Bill's cousin came to see us a while back from Liverpool - and after he'd been here a few days he said this place is incredible - it's like going back 50 years.