86 companies registered a Mid Sussex address in August, down from 117 in July. Consultancy led the field, plus a Cuckfield garage and two campsite firms.

Eighty-six new companies gave a Mid Sussex address when they registered at Companies House in August, down from 117 in July.

That is a fall of a quarter in a month. Read it carefully rather than as a verdict on the local economy: August is the holiday month, one month is a small sample, and a company registration is a piece of paperwork, not a shop opening.

What the register does show reliably is what people are setting up, and where.

Where they registered

Counted by district ward, so that Cuckfield, Lindfield and Balcombe are not swallowed by the Haywards Heath postal town they share:

Area August July
Villages and smaller parishes 37 49
Haywards Heath 22 21
Burgess Hill 14 20
East Grinstead 13 27
Total 86 117

Haywards Heath is the only one of the three towns that did not go backwards. East Grinstead’s drop, 27 to 13, is the largest in the district, and it is the reason most of the month-on-month fall exists at all.

The busiest single wards were Ardingly, Balcombe and Turners Hill with eight, and Cuckfield, Bolney and Ansty with seven. Both are rural wards, and both beat every individual town ward.

What they do

Each company picks its own Standard Industrial Classification code when it registers. Grouping August’s 86 by their first code:

Bar chart of new Mid Sussex companies in August 2026 by sector: professional and business services 16, retail wholesale and motor trade 15, construction and trades 13, IT software and data 9, sport leisure and creative 8, property 6, finance and holding companies 5, food drink and hospitality 5, everything else 5, health care and education 4

Management consultancy is the single most common activity, named by ten of the 86. Four codes then tie on five each: business and domestic software development, internet retail, letting and operating property, and IT consultancy.

Some of them are recognisably local

Most new companies are one person and a laptop. A handful are not, and these are the ones worth watching:

  • Barkers Garage (Cuckfield) Ltd, registered on 28 August at Lower Yard, Sparks Lane, Cuckfield, filed under maintenance and repair of motor vehicles.
  • Muddleswood Meadow Touring Ltd, 26 August, a Burgess Hill address, filed under recreational vehicle parks, trailer parks and camping grounds.
  • Sussex Riverside Glamping Ltd, the first company of the month on 1 August, registered at Hurstpierpoint and filed under other holiday and other collective accommodation.
  • Birch Events and Catering Ltd, 11 August, 225 London Road, Burgess Hill, filed under event catering.
  • Alland Bounce & Play Ltd, 16 August, a Burgess Hill address, filed under renting and leasing of recreational and sports goods.
  • Freeflow Collective (GB) Limited, 21 August, 119 London Road, East Grinstead, filed under manufacture of household and sanitary goods and toilet requisites.
  • Wild Eve & Family Ltd, 5 August, a Poynings address, filed under manufacture of breakfast cereals and cereals-based food.
  • Glacial Cards Ltd, the last of the month on 31 August, an Ashurst Wood address, filed under retail sale of games and toys.
  • Dancewear on the Move Ltd, 2 August, a Hassocks address, filed under retail sale of clothing.

Three campsite, glamping and touring companies in one month is unusual for a district this size, and all three are in the western half, near the South Downs.

The code is not always the business

One caution about SIC codes, with a live example. Primary Care Urology Group Limited, registered on 13 August at Bridge Road Business Park in Haywards Heath, is filed under 85200, primary education. The code for a medical practice is 86210.

Nobody checks. The person filing the form picks from a list of hundreds and mistakes survive until someone amends them. Treat any single company’s classification as a claim, not a fact, and the sector totals above as an indication of shape rather than a precise census.

How we counted

We searched the Companies House advanced company search for companies incorporated between 1 and 31 August 2026 with a registered office address in each of the district’s postcode areas: RH15, RH16, RH17, RH19, BN6, RH10 and BN45. Every result was then checked against postcodes.io and kept only if its postcode falls inside the Mid Sussex district, so Crawley, Lewes and Horsham addresses in the same postcode areas are excluded and Copthorne, Crawley Down and Worth are included. July was counted the same way, so the two months are comparable. In the table above, the East Grinstead figure covers the four wards named after the town; Ashurst Wood is counted with the villages.

What it means for you

  • A registered office is not a trading address. Three of the 86 share one postcode on Bridge Road in Haywards Heath, two of them registered care of an accountancy firm. A company may trade nowhere near the address on the register.
  • Registering is not opening. Some of these will never trade. Companies House does not ask, and there is no register of businesses that actually started.
  • If you are a supplier or a landlord, the register is free and searchable by address, which is a useful way to see who has just set up on your street.
  • The other side of the ledger is the insolvency and strike-off notices in The Gazette, which we also watch. A month of registrations tells you about intent; those tell you about outcomes.

Find the district’s live road closures on our roadworks and travel page, and what is coming to committee on our planning news page.

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