Standing view · business · East Sussex CC
rising, held with established confidence, formed on 5 October 2026 from movements in 2026.
Businesses employing 50 to 99 people in East Sussex CC has been rising, across two consecutive years. The band stood at 215 in 2025 and 205 in 2026, recorded as rising in both against the usual pattern, while businesses employing 20 to 49 people fell, at 605 in 2026. There were 23,230 businesses in 2026, 18,465 of them employing 0 to 4 people, 1,285 employing 10 to 19 people, 2,495 employing 5 to 9 people in 2025, and 26,145 business sites in 2024. One band up and the band below it down is a change in the shape of the employer base rather than its size.
A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about East Sussex CC. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses employing 50 to 99 people | 2025 | rising |
| Businesses employing 20 to 49 people | 2026 | falling |
| Businesses employing 50 to 99 people | 2026 | rising |
These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.
| Measure | Period | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Business sites | 2024 | — |
| Businesses employing 5 to 9 people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses | 2026 | — |
| Businesses employing 0 to 4 people | 2026 | — |
| Businesses employing 10 to 19 people | 2026 | — |