Standing view · business · Crawley
deteriorating, held with strong confidence, formed on 5 October 2026 from movements in 2026-06.
The business base in Crawley has been shrinking, and the view is held strongly. Business births were 110 in the quarter to June 2026 and business deaths also 110 in the same quarter, both recorded as unfavourable against the usual pattern for their quarter. Earlier quarters had read better: business deaths of 75 in the quarter to December 2025 and business births of 130 in the quarter to March 2026 were both favourable. In 2026 there were 3,575 businesses, 2,700 of them employing 0 to 4 people, 15 employing 250 to 499 people, and 4,690 business sites.
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 Crawley. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Business deaths | 2025-12 | improving |
| Business births | 2026-03 | improving |
| Business births | 2026-06 | deteriorating |
| Business deaths | 2026-06 | deteriorating |
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 | 2026 | — |
| Businesses employing 0 to 4 people | 2026 | — |
| Businesses employing 250 to 499 people | 2026 | — |
| Business sites | 2026 | — |