Dr Diana Grice East Sussex Downs & Weald Primary Care Trust and Hastings & Rother Primary Care Trust An overview of East Sussex - Facts and figures

Health of our Residents The health of East Sussex Residents is generally good. Life expectancy for both men (77.5 years) and women (81.9 years) is better than national average. Number of deaths attributable to smoking, and for people under 75 from heart disease, stroke and cancer are lower than the national average. 29% of adults are estimated to smoke, this is higher than the England and regional averages. Across East Sussex over 41% of adults are estimated to eat healthily and 17.3% of adults are estimated to be obese, these are both better than the England averages. However, there is significant variation in health experience within East Sussex

Life expectancy

Deprivation

Demographic changes Population is slowly increasing 497,000 population – 1% increase between 2001 and Eastbourne has fastest growth (by 3.4%) A growing elderly population 1 in 4 residents are over pensionable age. East Sussex has highest percentage of very elderly residents of any county in England. Future population growth County’s population is forecast to increase to around 519,000 by There will be heavy concentration of older age groups

More deaths than births 1600 more deaths than births in East Sussex each year Continuing net in-migration 32,300 moving in and 28,600 moving out in 2004/5 (East Sussex and Brighton and Hove combined figure Household size decreasing Over next 20 years number of people living alone is likely to increase and will represent 42% of households by 2026

Employment High percentage of small firms Nearly three-quarters of businesses employ fewer than five people Increase in businesses Since 1995 the number of VAT registered businesses has increased by 13.2% Greater percentage of people in work Percentage of working age people increased from 71% in 1991 to 75% in 2001 Small rise in unemployment number of people who do not work and receive Job Seekers Allowance increased by 2.8%(by 156) to 5,731 across the county

More people working from home Number more than doubled in 10 year period to 2001 – 24,500 (12% of all residents who work) Low average wages 2006 – average gross weekly wage for full-time earners in East Sussex was £473. This is 17% below South East average and 12% less than average for Great Britain Significant areas of deprivation 13 Super Output Areas in East Sussex fall within the 10% most disadvantaged in England

Learning Skills levels are improving December 2005 – over 47% of residents of working age are qualified to at least NVQ Level 3 (increase of 4%) Educational attainment is improving East Sussex is the third highest local authority, outside of London, for the rate of pupil progress Key Stage 2 English 78% 2006 (compared to 63% 1997) and Maths 74% (compared to 61% 1997) GCSE and equivalent 5+ A*-C 55.4% 2006 (compared to 45.5% 1997) The provisional average A Level point score per candidate in 2006 (revised) was compared to in 2002 Number of people entering full-time higher education increased by 350 in 2006/06 compared with 1999/2000

Housing South East Plan Proposals for an extra 27,000 homes across the county by 2026 (1,350 per annum) Quality of homes is worst in the private sector 10,954 homes in East Sussex that are not fit to live in – 95% are privately owned (representing 4.7% of all homes in the county) Increase in need for affordable housing Number of households on housing registers has increased by over 40% since 2001 – 11,000 households (April 2006) 80% of households on housing registers are small households who need up to 2 bedrooms Affordability gap is still high Average house price in county is £200,900, although they are higher in Lewes, Rother and Wealden.

In Summary Positives in the county: People’s skills improving; A greater percentage of residents in work; More people working from home; The gap reducing between people on high incomes and people on low incomes; Household incomes increasing; and The quality of housing improving.

In Summary Areas to improve: A slight increase in unemployment; Longer journeys to work; The economy not performing well; A shortage of land available for business development; Continuing pressure on the housing market from net in-migration High house prices and low earnings leading to a very high gap in what people can afford; and Not enough new affordable housing available