2. A picture of East Sussex
Overview
In 2021, East Sussex had a population of around 550,000, supported some 246,000 jobs and generated economic output of around £9.9 billion. But beyond these headlines, sustainable prosperity is rooted in the distinctive assets and characteristics of the county and the five districts and boroughs (Eastbourne, Hastings, Lewes, Rother and Wealden) that it comprises. This chapter sketches a ‘spatial picture’ of East Sussex and its environmental, cultural and economic character.
Environmental quality
East Sussex enjoys a superb natural environment, much of which is of national and international significance. In the west of the county, the South Downs National Park covers 92 square miles of Lewes, Wealden and Eastbourne districts, extending to the coast around Beachy Head. England’s newest National Park (and, in population terms, its largest), the South Downs closely borders the major settlements of Eastbourne and Lewes.
In the east and north, the High Weald National Landscape encompasses most of Rother, much of Wealden and part of Hastings. It incorporates some of England’s most important ancient woodland, including the Ashdown Forest near Crowborough.
Beyond these two nationally protected landscapes, other important areas of environmental significance include the Romney Marsh in the far east of the county and the Pevensey Levels between Bexhill and Hailsham. In addition, the county boasts some 65 Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Consequently, most of East Sussex’s land area is covered by some form of environmental designation. This is an important contribution to quality of life and to a distinctive ‘sense of place’, as well as a key element of the county’s offer as a high-quality, sustainable visitor destination.
Distinctive places
With most of inland East Sussex embraced by the county’s protected landscapes, the largest urban settlements are along the coast.
Eastbourne, with a population of around 103,796, is an important retail and service centre with a growing concentration of digital tech businesses. It also contains important cultural and leisure assets within the Devonshire Quarter, including the Towner Eastbourne contemporary art gallery, the Congress and Devonshire Park Theatres, Devonshire Park Tennis Centre and the Welcome Building.
To the north of Eastbourne, Hailsham is the main administrative centre for Wealden, and there are important opportunities for growth along the A22 and A27 corridors.
To the west, the smaller towns of Seaford, Peacehaven and Newhaven follow the coast towards Brighton, with Newhaven an important light industrial centre and ferry port for (mainly) freight connections to France.
Inland from the coast, Lewes (with a population of around 18,000) is the historic county town, located within the National Park, and with significant cultural institutions such as the Glyndebourne opera house and festival located some four miles outside the town.
In the east of the county, Hastings and Bexhill-on-Sea together form East Sussex’s largest contiguous urban area, with a combined population of around 139,000. Hastings has a vibrant cultural and creative scene, with recent investment including the Hastings Contemporary, Observer Building, the Heritage Action Zone area and, at Bexhill, the De La Warr Pavilion. But Hastings is a significant centre for advanced manufacturing too, especially linked with the county’s established strengths in vacuum technology.
The centre and north of the county is extensively rural, with important local centres including Uckfield, Crowborough, Heathfield, Battle and Rye.
Rural East Sussex makes an important contribution to the county’s economy: it has a relatively high business density and mostly rural Wealden accounts for some 36% of the county’s total business stock. Small and micro enterprises are taking advantage of new technology to overcome the challenges of relative remoteness, there is evidence of innovative businesses quite widely distributed across the rural area (SQW/ East Sussex County Council: Innovation and Productivity in East Sussex, 2022), and there are emerging opportunities in sustainable rural production, making use of local materials (Urban Foresight/ Rother District Council: Rother Rural Economy, Emerging opportunities for the rural economy in the protected areas of Rother, 2023). Food production is an important sector, with farming activities complemented by a wider supply chain, and the county’s environmental quality protected and enhanced by agriculture and forestry.
Within rural East Sussex, the quality of the natural environment also underpins a thriving visitor economy, linked with the county’s cultural attractions, food and drink offer and rising demand for sustainable tourism opportunities. The viticulture sector is an especially distinctive opportunity for growth: the chalk aquifer that serves the Champagne region re-emerges in East Sussex, providing a superb environment for wine production.
Note: Town populations are based on Built-up Area Mid-Year Population Estimates (ONS, 2020).
Connections and flows
All districts and boroughs in East Sussex experience net commuting outflows (ONS: Census 2011 - although this census is now quite old, data from the more recent 2021 census is limited in reliability due to the effect of Covid-19 on travel to work), although the pattern in Eastbourne is almost in balance, reflecting the town’s large concentration of employment. Within the county, the largest inter-district flows are from Wealden into Eastbourne, and within the Hastings and Rother economic market area.
Connections beyond the county boundary are very important too. Brighton is a major cultural, educational and employment centre, with good access to Lewes and the west of the county. The west of the county is also close to Crawley, Gatwick and the A23/M23 Corridor, while to the northeast, Tunbridge Wells is an important employment hub and service centre for much of Rother and Wealden, as well as for Hastings. London is not far away: historically, proximity to London was an important factor in the growth of East Sussex’s coastal resorts, and today, the capital is both an important travel-to-work destination (albeit an expensive one) and a key market for the county’s leisure and visitor offer.
Despite this close proximity to other major centres, transport connectivity is relatively weak, reflecting the protected environment of much of the county. Rail connections run from London to Lewes, Eastbourne, Uckfield and Hastings, and east-west along the Coast from Brighton to Ashford via Eastbourne and Hastings. The main road network follows a similar pattern, with the A27/ A259 running along the coast, and the A21 and A22 running north to join the M25. The county also enjoys a number of strategic active travel links, including the South Coast and London to Eastbourne routes on the National Cycle Network. The draft Local Transport Plan (LTP4) will seek to further improve transport connectivity and support economic prosperity.
Digital connections have improved significantly in recent years: in Rother and Wealden (the two most rural districts in the county), full fibre coverage stood at 53% and 54% of premises respectively in 2023, compared with just 6% and 17% two years earlier (source: Ofcom, 2023). However, while there are great opportunities in rural East Sussex for increased remote working and the use of digital technology to overcome relative isolation, it is important that infrastructure investment keeps pace with the economic potential.
Key economic assets
Consistent with its polycentric settlement pattern and the presence of larger centres nearby, other economic assets are quite widely distributed. In higher education, the University of Sussex is located right on the Brighton and Hove/ East Sussex border, and is a major research and teaching institution, with globally significant strengths in sustainability and environmental sciences and a major presence in life sciences and computer science. The University of Brighton is a world-renowned higher education institution that offers students an outstanding undergraduate education across a diverse range of subject areas. Linked with the county’s extensively rural character, Plumpton College near Lewes is a specialist land-based institution, offering both university-level and further education provision. Mainstream further education is largely united within East Sussex College Group and delivered from main campuses at Eastbourne, Hastings and Lewes (with a smaller specialist presence in Newhaven).
There are relatively few larger private sector employers in East Sussex: overwhelmingly, the county has a small and micro-dominated business base. Nevertheless, larger firms represented in the county include historic businesses such as Harvey’s at Lewes; advanced manufacturers such as Kurt J Lesker in vacuum technology at Hastings; the insurance firm Hastings Direct at Bexhill; and, linked with Eastbourne’s growing digital cluster, the software engineering and AI business, Switchplane. This brief illustration of the larger business stock highlights East Sussex’s sectoral as well as geographical diversity.
The county’s business stock is explored further in Chapter 6. But two points are worth highlighting here. The first of these is the relationship between ‘economic’ and ‘quality of life’ assets. This includes the direct economic value of the county’s cultural institutions and events, as well as the connections between food and drink production, creativity and the visitor economy currently championed by the ‘Sussex Modern’ initiative. It also includes the role of environmental quality and proximity to coast and countryside as a factor in some location decisions by business owners, especially given reasonable access to London and the greater South East.
Second, local business networks are important, at town and district, as well as county level. This includes recent sector-focused coalitions of entrepreneurs (such as the tech-based Chalk consortium in Eastbourne), and active local chambers of commerce and business associations. These represent small and micro enterprises, as well as generating pride in place.
Conclusions: Implications for strategy
From this brief sketch of the county’s geography and key assets flow three key implications for a long-term economic strategy:
- First, protecting and enhancing East Sussex’s environmental quality is economically important, as well as being of inherent value. With most of the county covered by landscape designations, and in the light of the climate emergency and its implications for flood risk, land use and so on, a prosperous economy must also be a sustainable one, with opportunities for growth going with the grain of East Sussex’s natural and historical inheritance.
- Second, there is much local distinctiveness, as well as features which are common to the county as a whole. As outlined earlier, there is considerable contrast between the rural north and centre and the coastal towns – and great diversity at a local level. It follows that the strategy to 2050 will need to reflect the scope for local differentiation, and how local strengths can contribute to the success of the whole.
- Third, future strategy needs to be ‘outward facing’. East Sussex’s neighbours (particularly Brighton and Hove, but also London and the wider South East) are very important economically and should be seen as assets from which local people and businesses can benefit, within the context of the need to ensure that travel patterns are sustainable. The county is not an island – and being part of a generally affluent wider region ought to be a source of strength.
Finally, the assets described in this chapter yield, for many people and places, a superb quality of life. But these are at risk from some significant economic challenges, to which the next chapter turns.
The East Sussex Economy
People
- Population of 550,700 in 2022 (12%
increase since 2000). - Over the next 20 years, the overall population will continue to rise – but with a fall in the number of people of working age.
- Between 2018 and 2043, the number of people aged 65+ is expected to rise by 47% (compared with growth of 10% in the population overall).
Jobs and skills
- There were 246,000 jobs in East Sussex in 2022 – an increase of about 14% over the preceding decade.
- About 78% of the working age population are economically active – broadly in line with the national picture.
- Workforce skill levels have improved steadily over time. But qualification levels lag the national average: 39% of people aged 16-64 are qualified to RFQ4+, compared with 46% in the UK.
Businesses
- There were around 23,000 enterprises in East Sussex in 2023 – 90% of which employ nine people or fewer.
- ‘Enterprise density’ is relatively high, with 718 enterprises per 10,000 people of working age, compared with 646 across the UK. But growth in the business stock has been slower than the national average over the past decade.
Carbon footprint
- CO2 emissions are relatively low in East Sussex – and lower than in the county’s South East neighbours.
- Between 2005 and 2021, per capita emissions fell by 42% (compared with 39% nationally), with the biggest falls in waste management and commercial emissions.