A Sussex Mayor will be a positive step

It is expected the government will announce today which areas will see the imposition of directly elected mayors for 2026 as opposed to having them in 2028, for those areas that don’t already have them. 

Previously, many parts of the country have gone down this route voluntarily. Known as devolution, it is devolving some powers down from central government, although mentioned less is that there will also be some powers and responsibilities ‘devolving’ upwards to new mayors, away from the local authorities where they sit now.

Nevertheless, I welcome having consistency across England and the opportunities a combined mayoral authority can create. Those areas already with directly elected mayors have more access to government funding and business investment, than those areas without. Not to be confused with civic town mayors whose role is attending events like summer fates, directly elected mayors take decisions at a strategic level on matters such as economic development, transport and new housing delivery. 

The three upper-tier local authorities of West Sussex County Council, East Sussex County Council, and Brighton and Hove City Council were given only one choice by the government, which was whether they preferred to have a mayoral authority starting in 2026 or 2028. They were right to express a preference for 2026 and to request that Sussex becomes the area that a new mayor should cover. The government requirement is mayors should cover a minimum population of 1.5 million, so with 1.8 million people and the historic links we all have, Sussex as a whole feels the best possible area to match. There will be a public consultation in the spring and I look forward to seeing proposals progress. 

Devolution was in Labour’s election manifesto, but the forcing of local authorities in two-tier areas to merge, was not. This is known as unitarisation and the government are imposing this on Crawley and Sussex at the same time as devolution. There appears to be no flexibility on the three-year timetable, so my view is we need to make the best of it, while staying focused on delivering the best possible local services.  

Business confidence hit hard by Labour

 

It is concerning that there has been a record increase in the number of UK businesses in critical financial distress. The general definition of critical financial distress is if a business has an outstanding county court judgment of more than £5,000 or faces a winding up petition. This record jump was by a shocking 50% from September to December last year, which took the number of UK businesses in this category to 46,583. 

The quarter-on-quarter increase was driven in financial distress was most acute in service industries, including Hotels & Accommodation (+83.6%), Leisure & Cultural Activities (+76.5%), General Retailers (+47.6%) and Food & Drug Retailers (+37.4%).

Below that definition, sits one of significant financial distress. This is when a company cannot generate sufficient revenues or income, making it unable to meet or pay its financial obligations. This is generally due to high fixed costs, a large degree of illiquid assets, or revenues sensitive to economic downturns. Sadly, since Labour came to power last July, we are seeing a growing number of businesses suffering significant financial distress. This number is shockingly high at 654,765, up by over 22,000 from the previous quarter.

While global conditions have been tough ever since the start of this decade when Covid hit, the current downturn and plummeting of both business and consumer confidence is very much the fault of the current Labour Government. Their cabinet has no experience of working in business, and they don’t understand that squeezing the private sector too hard has negative consequences for everyone. Business is not the easy cash cow Labour think it is.

As we enter February, we will only be two months away from the implementation of Labour’s Employers National Insurance hike that will hit business and employment hard. It will also hit the public sector, with it costing Crawley Borough Council over half a million pounds, meaning that major service cuts are being proposed, including to the neighbourhood maintenance teams.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves need to urgently change course on their economic policies, because the economic decline they are causing is about to get much worse.