The cost of living and especially high housing costs are driving the fall in pupil numbers at schools in Brighton and Hove, a councillor said yesterday (Thursday 12 November).
Labour councillor Tobias Sheard spoke out as Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet proposed reductions in the formal admission numbers at two more primary schools.
The council’s cabinet approved a public consultation on the “published admission number” for the school year starting in September 2028 at Brunswick Primary School, in Hove, and Coldean Primary School, in Brighton.
Councillor Sheard, the youth voice adviser to the council’s cabinet, said that, nationally, house prices had gone up by 20 to 25 per cent close to the most popular and successful schools.
He said that young people who would be having children to fill Brighton and Hove schools were not in a position to do so because many lived with their parents or in a shared house or flat with other adults.
He said: “It is a shame that, once again, we are seeing those falling pupil numbers in our primary schools.
“While there is such a ‘cost of living crisis’ going on, young people who would otherwise be having children are stuck not being able to move out of HMOs (houses in multiple occupation), not being able to move out of the family home. This is what is going to happen.”
The Labour leader of the council Bella Sankey said that it was good to see that action on pupil numbers was taking place collaboratively with schools.
Councillor Sankey said: “It’s so much better to ensure we are working alongside our schools in making these strategic decisions about how we address falling pupil numbers in a way that ensures our family of schools in the city will be sustainable in the future.
“On the issue of falling pupil numbers, it’s very important to keep stating, as an administration, that we consider it our responsibility to pull every lever at our disposal to try to reverse the fall in pupil numbers and the falling birth rate in the city.
“We know that’s due to the affordability of the city which is why we are so intent on building as many affordable and social houses as well so that families who want to make their life in Brighton and Hove can do so.”
The number of under-fives in Brighton and Hove fell by a quarter between the 2011 and 2021 censuses.
Brunswick Primary School, in Somerhill Road, Hove, was once the largest in Brighton and Hove, with an intake of 120.
After cutting its intake to 90 from September 2023, the school has since maintained a temporary reduction to 60 each year from September 2025 – and this includes the intake next year. The council has proposed making that temporary reduction permanent.
Coldean Primary School, in Kenwards, Brighton, reduced its admissions to 30 Reception pupils in the 2025-26 school year and for new starters in September 2027.
But the school retained its intake of 60 for September this year although it offered places to just 36 children for Reception.
Class sizes are capped at 30 for the first three years of primary school and government funding is based on pupil numbers.
As a result, the school would have to provide two classes and two teachers as though there were 60 children joining while receiving funding for just over half that number.
Two online meetings have been scheduled for families to discuss the proposals. The Coldean event is scheduled for 6pm on Wednesday 25 November. The Brunswick event is scheduled for 6pm on Tuesday 1 December.
The seven-week online consultation is due to open on Monday 23 November, with details on how to take part the council’s website.
