Deprivation in Horsham district second lowest across Sussex

Charity Sussex Community Foundation’s ‘Sussex Uncovered 2: Bridging the Gap’ ranks the area 12th out of 13 for overall deprivation.

It ranks 999 small areas in Sussex for deprivation with parts of the Horsham Park, Chantry, and Slinfold, Itchingfield & Slinfold wards having the three highest levels in the Horsham district.

The small areas are also ranked against the proportion of children living in income deprived families.

Parts of Southwater have some of the lowest levels of child poverty in Sussex, with two parts of the parish ranking fifth and sixth lowest, with an area of Steyning in seventh, and parts of Holbrook West and Chanctonbury in the bottom 20.

The highest level of child poverty in the Horsham district is in an area of the Horsham Park ward, where nearly one quarter of children are living in income deprived households.

Horsham has the second highest average salaries in the county, behind only Mid Sussex, and joint second lowest for unemployment.

Kevin Richmond, chief executive at the Sussex Community Foundation, said: “The first Sussex Uncovered report was the first report to give a broad view of issues facing local communities across the entirety of Sussex.

“It found that Sussex is a great place to live if you can afford it. In this report, we wanted to look in a more qualitative way to uncover what is going on at the grassroots.”

He added: “We asked a number of the groups that we have funded to tell us about the services they provide, how they are managing the new funding environment and their hopes for the future. Their views and experiences are reflected in this report.”

According to the report, reductions in Government spending has started to have a ‘real impact’ on Sussex residents and on the charities and community groups that support them.

The report’s executive summary states: “Many local charities feel they are facing the perfect storm of increasing need, reducing funding and an uncertain future.

“We aim to provide shelter from the storm for the local community by providing a flexible and responsive source of funding for the people who give their time to help those in need.

“Sussex is a great place to live, if you can afford it. We hope that this report will show our current and future donors what the needs of Sussex people continue to be and how, together, we can use our unique model of community philanthropy to support the charities and community groups and volunteers that work so hard to make Sussex a great place to live for everyone.”

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