Brighton & Hove’s next economy needs more confidence

Brighton and Hove has always had a complicated relationship with itself.

Depending on who is talking, it is either one of the most creative, entrepreneurial and culturally alive places in the country, or a city sliding into decline, with empty shops, high rents, visible poverty and public frustration doing the rounds as evidence.

As ever, the truth is more interesting than either version.

In a recent Sussex And The City podcast, Gavin Stewart, Chief Executive of Brilliant Brighton and Executive Director of the Brighton Economic Growth Board, offered a grounded view of the city’s economy. His is neither complacent or gloomy, but alert to the gap between perception and reality.

Brighton city centre often feels, to residents and visitors alike, as if it is under pressure. Some much-loved independent businesses have disappeared, costs are rising and footfall patterns are changing.

Yet the Business Improvement District area has a vacancy rate of around 3.6%, with the wider city centre at around 8.5%, compared with a national average of roughly 14%.

That doesn’t mean everything is fine, but it means that Brighton’s problem is not simple decline, but the harder challenge of managing success, fragility and expectation at the same time.

Brighton’s independent business culture remains one of its greatest assets. The North Laine and Lanes still give the city a texture many comparable places have lost. Planning decisions dating back decades, which protected smaller units from being knocked through into larger chains, have helped preserve that character. The result is a city centre that can still feel distinctive, human and surprising.

But this distinctiveness is not guaranteed. As Gavin Stewart points out, landlords are one of the most powerful forces shaping the future of the high street. When national or international brands pay over the odds for smaller units, this can reset rental expectations across a street and landlords will take this over a new independent. Small, solo shops then face higher costs because the property market around them has shifted.

Brighton’s city centre economy is obviously a mix of shops, restaurants, visitor economy, cultural life, housing market, universities, public realm, nightlife and transport – which all form part of the same ecosystem.

That is also why Brighton has often struggled to sell itself economically as well as it might. It has strong lifestyle appeal, a serious creative and digital base, access to the South Downs and coast, good cultural infrastructure and international recognition. Yet it has lacked a clear inward investment proposition: the landing page, pitch, evidence and coordinated story that other places use to attract employers, investors and talent.

Could Sussex devolution help

change this?

A future Sussex mayor will not be able to magic away high rents, antisocial behaviour, homelessness or weak transport connections. But they could help set a more coherent economic story for the region, with Brighton & Hove playing a central role without behaving as if the rest of Sussex is merely its hinterland.

Brighton & Hove, as the biggest city in the South East outside of London, is an economic engine, a visitor magnet and a cultural shop window. But its success has not always translated into visible benefit for Hastings, Chichester, Crawley, Worthing, Lewes or rural Sussex. A stronger regional economy needs more than Brighton doing well. It needs the ripple effects to be designed, visible, communicated and celebrated.

The emerging Local Visitor Economy Partnership points in that direction. The message is come to Brighton, but also explore the South Downs, the wine economy, the coastal towns, the independent food scene and the wider cultural offer. But campaigns need to become investment and communications infrastructure.

The bigger question is what growth should mean. Brighton contains businesses generating serious revenue with small teams. It has cultural and social value that does not show up neatly in Treasury metrics, and retail areas that may need to become even more experiential, circular, cultural and locally rooted.

The next decade should not be about preserving Brighton in amber, or pretending its problems are charming quirks. It should be about confidence to protect what makes the city different, to challenge the property dynamics that weaken independence, to invest in public experience, and to position Brighton as a net benefit to the wider Sussex economy.