Agenda item - Chair's Communications

3.1          The Chair provided the following Communications:

“Good morning everyone and thank you for joining today’s meeting. Thank you to Arun for hosting us.

Before moving on, I would also like to recognise a long-standing member of this Board. Dean Orgill, Chair of the Brighton & Hove Growth Board, is stepping down and today will be his final meeting with us. Dean has been part of this partnership since the early days of the Greater Brighton Economic Board and has played an important role in strengthening the collaboration between the public and private sectors across the city region. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Dean for his commitment, insight and support over the years and we look forward to working with the Growth Board’s new Chair once appointed.

Before we move into the main agenda items, I’d like to begin with a few updates that reflect the significant progress being made across our region.

Firstly, an important milestone has been reached in the devolution journey for Sussex and Brighton. The Statutory Instrument was laid in Parliament in February starting the final stage in formally establishing the Sussex & Brighton Combined County Authority. We expect the new authority to be created later this spring.

It is worth noting that Sussex and Brighton is one of the leading areas within the Devolution Priority Programme to reach this stage, placing the region in a strong position as an early mover on devolution. The devolution programme continues at pace, led by the constituent councils. Ministers have confirmed their commitment to transferring significant powers and funding to the new authority, including a £1.14 billion long-term investment fund, alongside early funding of £30.4 million over the next two years and £9 million in capacity funding to support the establishment of the authority.

Taken together, this provides a strong platform to move quickly into delivery and turn these new powers into tangible outcomes on the ground.

Turning to the Sussex Energy mission, it is encouraging to see real momentum building behind the regional collaboration.

Today marks the formal start of the Solar Site Identification and Prioritisation work, with advisors now appointed and beginning work to identify and prioritise potential solar sites across Sussex. This is an important step in developing a pipeline of investable renewable energy projects for the region.

This momentum is also reflected nationally. Just yesterday, Government confirmed the Future Homes Standard, which will see the majority of new homes built with solar panels and clean heating as standard, alongside new measures to expand access to technologies such as plug-in solar. This provides clear national policy alignment with the direction of Sussex Energy — accelerating clean, homegrown energy, reducing bills and strengthening energy security.

We have also seen a major milestone in the delivery of low-carbon infrastructure with phase one of the Worthing Heat Network now live, supplying buildings including Worthing Town Hall and the Connaught Theatre through a new town-centre heat network. This first phase alone is expected to reduce emissions by around 3,000 tonnes of CO? each year. Sussex Energy was proud to support the launch events and sustainability showcase in Worthing, which brought together partners from across the region and demonstrated the breadth of practical energy transition activity already underway.

Alongside this, the Greater Brighton Economic Board has written to Great British Energy to express support for a proposal from Sussex’s community energy organisations seeking £33 million of investment over four years to deliver 88MW of new community-owned renewable energy capacity across Sussex. This reflects the strength of Sussex’s community energy sector and the role it can play in ensuring the benefits of the energy transition are felt locally.

Taken together, these developments show that Sussex Energy is moving beyond strategy into visible delivery, building the partnerships, project pipeline and regional profile that will help position energy as a key investment priority for the new Combined County Authority.

With that context, I will now turn to the agenda and provide a short introduction to each of the papers before us today”.