Located in East Sussex, Newhaven and the surrounding Lewes District is a coastal region home to over 100,000 residents.
The area hosts critical energy and industrial infrastructure — including the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm (powering between 350,000 and 1 million homes), an active port, an enterprise zone, and a diverse economic base with energy-from-waste facilities and aggregates operations. It also sits within a nationally significant environmental context, bounded by a UNESCO biosphere, an estuary, and the South Downs National Park.
Clear Futures is supporting Newhaven to develop a plan for whole-place decarbonisation, addressing this dynamic mix of opportunity, complexity, and ecological sensitivity.
Local leadership with global ambition
Recognising the scale of change needed to meet climate and nature goals, Clear Futures and Newhaven joined forces with the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) — a global private-sector coalition convened to accelerate systems-level change across industries and geographies. The initiative has been designated as one of the SMI Lighthouse Projects, to demonstrate how private capital and public leadership can work in harmony to deliver sustainable, replicable outcomes.
Masterplanning for transformation
As the delivery partner, Clear Futures is leading the town-wide masterplanning process — adopting a holistic approach to decarbonising the entire town. The plans integrate infrastructure, energy, transport, and land use in a way that aligns with net zero, social equity, and economic growth goals.
Clear Futures’ unique model enables access to investment and funding streams, unlocking the potential for public-private partnerships that would be difficult to achieve through conventional routes.
The complexity of also creates a powerful demonstration opportunity. Newhaven is a place where lessons learned can be scaled elsewhere.
A complex but replicable opportunity
Newhaven embodies many of the challenges faced by communities across the UK.
- Geographical complexity: coastal, estuary, and aquifer considerations
- Planning sensitivity: located on the edge of a national park
- Economic diversity: mix of industry, heavy transport, and agriculture
- Social variation: areas of deprivation alongside relative affluence
- Infrastructure intensity: port, energy-from-waste plant, rail and road freight
- Energy saturation: high levels of renewable generation, with potential for smart grid development
The energy vision
The energy transformation under development includes:
- A community-wide smart grid integrating local renewable generation
- Development of a Low Carbon Heat Network
- A utility-style approach to delivering heat across sectors
- A blended clean-fuels strategy supporting marine, freight, and agriculture
- Infrastructure to accelerate the shift to EVs and active travel
Progress so far
The journey to date has been marked by deep collaboration and expert insight.
Designated as an SMI Lighthouse Project for its pioneering nature, Clear Futures has established a single procurement framework to unlock private-sector innovation, and engaged leading UK and European infrastructure partners, including AECOM, Octopus Energy, and Vital Energi.
We have completed a town-wide energy assessment and developed viable delivery options, prioritised Newhaven Port as a central asset in energy and mobility transition planning.
A blueprint for Net Zero towns
Newhaven’s transformation is about more than infrastructure — it’s about uplifting the community – attracting investment, creating jobs and improving lives.
Through strategic leadership from Newhaven Town Council, delivery expertise from Clear Futures, and the global investment vision of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, the project is setting a new precedent: that whole-town decarbonisation is not only possible — it’s practical, replicable, and urgently needed. As planning evolves into implementation, Newhaven stands as a working model for how place-based partnerships can drive the UK’s net zero future — one town at a time.
Our Partnership with Lewes & Eastbourne Councils
Eastbourne & Lewes Council’s partnership with Clear Futures focuses on developing long-term sustainable outcomes for the area. To date, the partnership has centred around in-depth strategic support, including research into decarbonising the social housing stock and supporting the development of their Local Plan
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