The government may have postponed the election of the first mayor of Sussex for two years but councillors in Brighton and Hove are taking the next steps locally to prepare the ground.

This includes setting up a new Sussex and Brighton Combined County Authority (SBCCA) which will work alongside the elected mayor.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet members are expected to give their support next week to the formal process.

The cabinet is also expected to give the council’s chief executive Jess Gibbons the authority to liaise with the government over the new combined authority.

Although the mayoral election has been put off until May 2028, the combined authority is expected to be up and running in the spring.

An interim chief officer for the shadow combined authority was appointed in October. Mark Rogers, has extensive experience, having worked on setting up similar local authorities in the West Midlands, East Midlands, Hull and East Yorkshire.

Work is already under way to appoint the staff to deliver the mayoral programme and work alongside existing councils.

The elected mayor will have executive or policy-making power, unlike the ceremonial mayor of Brighton and Hove who has a ceremonial role.

Once it is up and running, the combined authority would be expected to drive growth and shape public services, with the mayor taking responsibility for

• Transport and local infrastructure
• Skills and employment support
• Housing and strategic planning
• Economic development and regeneration
• Environment and climate change
• Health, wellbeing and public service reform
• Public safety

Once voted in, decisions will be made by the mayor alongside the leaders of the county’s unitary authorities which are due to be in place by April 2028.

The government has just finished consulting the public on how Sussex will be divided into unitary authorities, with four options on the table. These propose three, four or five unitary councils.

They will replace a largely two-tier system, including the two county councils and 12 district councils. Brighton and Hove City Council is the currently only unitary council in the whole of Sussex.

The council’s cabinet is also being asked to agree to a proposed two-year “memorandum of understanding” (MOU) for the financial contributions for the combined authority.

Ministers had previously said that the combined authority would receive £38 million a year for a 30-year investment fund following the election of an executive mayor this year.

But now ministers have said that the combined authority would receive just a third – about £12.7 million – in each of the next two years. It will not receive the full allocation until after the mayoral election.

The council’s cabinet is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 2pm next Thursday (22 January). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.