Why devolution matters: A plain-English guide for Sussex tech SMEs

A blog written by Always Possible CEO, Richard Freeman for Sussex Innovation.

If you run a business in Sussex, devolution will almost certainly sound like a distant political term that belongs in a council chamber rather than something to discuss at your next board meeting.

But it might matter more than you think.

In simple terms, devolution means (hopefully) more decisions about transport, skills, planning, investment and local growth being made closer to Sussex, rather than being shaped through a muddle of national government departments, funding pots and disconnected local bodies (Sussex currently has 15 local authorities and a labyrinth of political boundaries).

That may not sound thrilling. It is not meant to. But for small and medium-sized businesses, it could have a real effect on how easy Sussex is to do business in (and with).

At the moment, many of the things that affect growth are fragmented. Business support sits in one place, transport decisions in another, skills funding somewhere else, and planning priorities somewhere else again.

For larger firms, that can be frustrating. For growing businesses, it can be a genuine barrier. Most SMEs do not have the time, staff or patience to navigate systems that feel as if they were designed by a committee of civil servants all in different rooms.

However, devolution does create the chance for a more joined-up approach. For tech businesses, there is a strong case for the potential benefits.

Sussex already has serious strengths in digital, advanced manufacturing, engineering, life sciences and frontier technologies. Brighton has a strong digital and creative base. The Gatwick and Crawley corridor has major engineering and aerospace assets.

The university and innovation ecosystem has a growing role in areas such as AI, quantum and commercial research. The issue is not whether Sussex has potential, but whether the region can organise itself well enough to turn potential into scale.

Sussex, when taken as a whole, is one of the biggest economic areas in the UK, but without better alignment between skills, sites, infrastructure and investment that will never be felt or recognised.

As well as access to talent, a fast-growing tech business needs suitable workspace, decent connectivity, responsive planning, access to specialist training and a public sector that understands how innovation clusters actually grow.

Devolution could help Sussex think more strategically about all of that, rather than treating each issue as a separate problem with a separate form and a separate delay.

There are plenty of opportunities for other practical benefits that aren’t just limited to the tech sector. Better local control over skills funding could help create training that better matches the Sussex economy. That means provision shaped around the jobs local employers need to fill, whether that is construction, care, hospitality, logistics, engineering, creative work or retail. If you are constantly struggling to recruit people with the right capabilities, new scales of co-ordination and funding could make a difference.

Transport is another obvious one.

This is about whether staff can get to work, whether customers can reach town centres, and whether Sussex-made products can move quickly. Better coordination across buses, trains, roads and active travel would make a difference to ordinary trading conditions, especially in a county where east-west connectivity hasn’t improved for decades.

For many businesses, growth depends on premises, expansion, or local infrastructure keeping up with demand. A more strategic county-wide approach could help reduce some of the inconsistency and drift that slows investment down. That is relevant not just to major developments, but to industrial space, town centre renewal, workspace, and the general confidence businesses need in order to invest.

That said, none of this is automatic. Devolution is not a magic wand. A new structure on its own will not fix poor coordination, weak delivery or muddled priorities. In fact, done badly, it could simply create a shinier version of the same confusion.

The real test will be whether Sussex uses devolution to focus on the things that genuinely affect businesses: clearer accountability, better local decisions, stronger skills pipelines, improved connectivity and a more coherent plan for growth.

We can influence whether this is merely constitutional change and political deckchair re-arranging – or whether this is about making Sussex an easier, smarter, more connected place to start, run and grow a business.

And after years of fragmentation, that would be a welcome change.