The effective integration of housing, transport and employment are
key to supporting economic development. Economic growth in the Greater Brighton & Coastal West Sussex area has been heavily concentrated in Brighton & Hove and, to a much lesser extent, Chichester. This is where most jobs growth has occurred, where residents are most highly qualified and where most value added activity takes place. Half (49%) of all jobs in GBCWS are now in Brighton & Hove or Chichester, compared with just 35% in 1997. This is a feature of the agglomeration effects that concentrated urban centres, well served by supporting facilities (including universities), can bring.

The South Down Project can help rebalance this.

Much of the rest of the Coastal West Sussex sub-region has not yet shared fully in this economic success. Its resident population is much older and less well-qualified and it has not yet developed a sufficiently diverse economy to support higher value added employment. Current forecasts suggest that there will be around 57,000 more jobs in GBCWS by 2031 and that a disproportionate number of these are likely to be in Brighton & Hove and Chichester. Meanwhile population projections suggest that Coastal West Sussex will have an even larger dependent population of older people.

However, Brighton & Hove may be over-heating and may struggle to continue to grow within its existing physical constraints. High house prices and an unbalanced stock are “forcing” young people, in particular, into rented accommodation and out of the city to neighbouring areas, when their housing needs change. This increases the pressure on the already stretched transport infrastructure, as they commute back into the city to work.

Policy makers are considering a “polycentric” approach to economic development, where each of its constituent parts develops a clear and complementary role to support economic growth. Currently, the Coastal West Sussex districts/boroughs have only a “minor role” in office market terms and much of its economy is reliant on traditional sectors that seem unlikely to be significant growth drivers.

However, many of the major employment sites, including the South Down Project, are located outside its most productive centres. These could help to spread employment growth more evenly, but only if they are brought forward, more effectively linked to each other through better transport connectivity, and linked to where suitable housing is located.

The unreliability of the A27 is a constraint on growth with journey times between Brighton & Hove and Worthing (12.5 miles) taking as much as 60 minutes at peak times. The east-west rail service is reasonably regular, but it is a “metro” style service, which makes journey times across GBCWS unattractive and uncompetitive for many business investors. Worthing seems to be at the outer edges of travel time to and from both Chichester and Brighton & Hove.

Targeted improvements to the A27 should reduce journey times, but younger people are becoming less car dependent. There may be a need to alter the balance between “express” and “metro” style rail services to facilitate longer intra-regional travel, review ticketing structures to make rail travel more accessible, and find ways of supporting travel mode choice, including pump-priming bus services linked to
new developments.

The growth in the resident population and the popularity of GBCWS
to people moving out of London, in particular, has created affordability issues, particularly in Brighton & Hove and Chichester. According to Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners, there is a clear pattern of people moving into Brighton & Hove from London and from Brighton & Hove into parts of Coastal West Sussex that are both more affordable and which provide more family housing.

Housing costs across the whole of GBCWS are high, however, and there is a risk that lower paid workers are priced out of the area altogether, particularly if there is not a sufficiently diverse range of tenures available. There is a clear link between housing supply and affordability and 30,000 new dwellings are planned for the GBCWS area by 2025.

However, to achieve this there will need to be a 53% increase in housing delivery rates compared with what has been built in the past. There may be a demand for family housing in CWS from people moving out of Brighton & Hove. However, according to the West Sussex Infra- structure Study the current housing stock across the county is already skewed towards family housing, whilst the ageing population is likely to result in a greater demand for single person housing in the future.

Studies have consistently identified the relative weakness in the skills of Coastal West Sussex residents as a barrier to a dynamic, knowledge intensive economy. The proportion of local residents with Level 3+ qualifications is below the South East region amongst all age groups and improving both employability and entrepreneurial skills amongst young people, in particular, is consistently identified by local businesses as a priority.

The quality of available labour can be an important factor in where businesses choose to invest, and whilst it is right to invest in the area’s physical infrastructure, the Coastal West Sussex economy cannot reach its full potential without also strengthening its human capital assets.

The impending review of Post 16 education and training institutions should help to clarify and focus local skills priorities. Its aim is to establish the most appropriate set of institutions to deliver high quality provision, based on the current and future needs of local learners and employers.

The Devolution Prospectuses also set out aims to develop a more locally relevant curriculum; a stronger focus on apprenticeships, particularly linked to STEM related opportunities; and a more co-ordinated approach to career advice.

The West Sussex County Council Infrastructure Study covers education, social infrastructure, highways, waste covered by West Sussex County Council, healthcare, highways, rail and bus services, utilities, and district/borough services. This suggests an infrastructure cost to 2030 of £2.2bn. Around £810m is currently unfunded.

The report estimates that there will be around 23,000 new dwellings and 25,600 new residents in Coastal West Sussex by 2030. This will result in infrastructure costs of around £800m and a funding gap of around £325m, half of which is in Arun. A significant proportion of the funding gap is for highways, flood defences and education. It suggests that other sources of funding, such as developer contributions and government grants are unlikely to be sufficient to bridge this gap. The report then sets out a range of possible funding sources that could be used to finance infrastructure costs within the county.

The Coast to Capital Infrastructure Study identifies £4.7bn infrastructure costs every five years across the Coast to Capital Region. Over a quarter, 28% of the spending to 2025 is already planned and fully funded.