Standing view · business · Brighton and Hove
mixed, held with tentative confidence, formed on 5 October 2026 from movements in 2026.
Businesses employing 50 to 99 people in Brighton and Hove numbered 120 in 2025 and 135 in 2026, rising in both years, while businesses employing 0 to 4 people fell to 11,020 in 2025. Businesses numbered 13,785 in 2025 and those employing 100 to 249 people 55. Businesses employing 20 to 49 people numbered 420 in 2024. Business sites totalled 16,155 in 2024 and 15,910 in 2025. The smallest band fell while the 50 to 99 band rose in both years.
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 Brighton and Hove. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses employing 0 to 4 people | 2025 | falling |
| Businesses employing 50 to 99 people | 2025 | rising |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses employing 20 to 49 people | 2024 | — |
| Business sites | 2024 | — |
| Businesses | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 100 to 249 people | 2025 | — |
| Business sites | 2025 | — |