Lewes District Council Becomes a Living Wage Employer

The accreditation means all council staff are paid at least the Real Living Wage, a voluntary rate based on the actual cost of living. It currently stands at £13.45 an hour outside London.

Lewes District Council and Eastbourne Borough Council are the only Living Wage accredited councils in East Sussex.

The achievement is a key part of the council’s wider community wealth building programme, which is focused on keeping more money circulating locally, creating good jobs, supporting local businesses and ensuring council spending delivers wider benefits for communities.

Zoe Nicholson (pictured), Leader of Lewes District Council and Cabinet Member for Finance, Assets and Community Wealth Building, said:

“Achieving Real Living Wage accreditation is something we can be immensely proud of. It demonstrates in a very practical way our commitment to being a fair and responsible employer and ensuring people receive a wage that reflects the real cost of living.

“But our ambition goes further than our own workforce. As a council we can use our influence and spending power to encourage good employment, support local businesses and create opportunities for local people. I hope our accreditation encourages more employers across the district to consider becoming Real Living Wage employers too.”

The report to Cabinet today (12 November) also highlights wider progress on the council’s community wealth building programme.

In 2025/26, 23% of council spending on goods and services was with suppliers within Lewes district, up from 19% the previous year. In the first quarter of 2026/27, that figure increased to 30%, while 61% of spending was within Sussex.

Suppliers have also committed more than £778,000 of social value through ongoing council projects. This includes employment and training opportunities for long-term unemployed people and ex-offenders, work placements for local jobseekers and students, and support for homelessness charities.

Council-owned assets have been used to help regenerate Newhaven, including the development of Marine Workshops into a mixed-use education, arts, community and business space, while the £21 million Wellbeing Square project has transformed vacant and under-used town-centre buildings into new health, wellbeing and leisure facilities.

Other initiatives include the Sussex Six campaign to encourage shops, pubs, cafés and restaurants to buy more locally produced food and drink, and a council-funded business start-up programme that supported 29 pre-start and start-up businesses in 2025/26.

Zoe Nicholson added:

“Community wealth building is fundamentally about making sure more of the wealth created here benefits the people who live and work here.

“Whether that means paying a fair wage, buying more from local suppliers, helping new businesses get started or using council property to create jobs and opportunities, we are increasingly putting that principle into practice. This is about making every council pound work harder for our communities and helping to build a fairer and more resilient local economy.”