Horsham had 6,890 crimes in 2025, the lowest rate in West Sussex, but anti-social behaviour rose 20% to 1,594 cases. Councillors see it 15 September.
Horsham district recorded 6,890 crimes in 2025, down from 7,241 the year before, and has the lowest crime rate of any district in West Sussex. In the same year, anti-social behaviour rose by almost 20%, from 1,332 cases to 1,594.
Those two figures sit side by side in the council’s Annual Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour Update, which goes to the Communities and Place Policy and Scrutiny Committee at 5.30pm on Tuesday 15 September (report, PDF). Inspector Neil Durkan of Sussex Police will attend to answer questions.
The data covers January to December 2025 and comes from the Safer West Sussex Partnership’s Strategic Intelligence Assessment, which uses Sussex Police and Office for National Statistics figures.
The crime figures
Horsham’s rate is 45.5 crimes per 1,000 residents, down from 48.4 in 2024. The West Sussex average is 67.1.
The district accounts for 11% of all recorded crime in West Sussex, and 17% of its population. Offending fell in most categories, with vehicle crime showing the sharpest drop anywhere in the county.
| Crime type | Horsham 2025 | Horsham 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Total crime | 6,890 | 7,241 |
| Violence against the person | 2,460 | 2,541 |
| Arson and criminal damage | 718 | 799 |
| Public order offences | 659 | 665 |
| Theft | 1,614 | 1,554 |
| Vehicle offences | 309 | 580 |
| Sexual offences | 313 | 291 |
| Burglary | 293 | 321 |
| Drug offences | 170 | 210 |
| Possession of weapons | 99 | 96 |
| Robbery | 59 | 41 |
| Domestic abuse (crimes and incidents) | 1,797 | 1,738 |
Vehicle offences nearly halved, from 580 to 309. Theft and robbery both went up, as did sexual offences and domestic abuse. Serious violence, which covers homicide, serious assault with injury, knife crime, robbery and gun crime in a public place, fell from 96 recorded incidents to 90, and remains 1.3% of all crime in the district.
Where the rise is
The anti-social behaviour increase is not concentrated in one category. All three went up.
- Nuisance: 1,311 cases, up from 1,134.
- Personal: 176 cases, up from 140.
- Environmental: 107 cases, up from 58, nearly double.
Horsham’s share of the West Sussex anti-social behaviour total stayed at 12%, so the county rose too. The report says most of what reaches the council’s Community Safety team is neighbour disputes, “most of which are properties owned by Registered Social Landlords, with increasing complaints around lack of action by RSLs”. It also records an increase in anti-social behaviour in public places.
The list of ongoing concerns in the report names specific things:
- youth-related anti-social behaviour and indicators of criminal exploitation
- anti-social driving, speeding and car meets
- shoplifting and anti-social behaviour affecting businesses
- sporadic youth anti-social behaviour in Horsham town, “particularly around the Forum car park and roof running in the town centre”, and reports of young people getting into disused buildings
- the night-time economy in parts of Horsham town centre
- “hesitancy or disinclination to report crime and anti-social behaviour”
That last one matters for reading the rest of the numbers. Reported anti-social behaviour rising is not the same as anti-social behaviour rising, and the report does not claim to separate the two.
The escalation route most people do not know about
If you have complained about anti-social behaviour three or more times in six months and nothing has been done, you can force a multi-agency review of your case. It is called an Anti-Social Behaviour Case Review, and you apply through the council’s website.
The council received 8 applications in 2025, all accepted. In the first six months of 2026 it received 10, of which 7 met the threshold. The report notes that Horsham has “a relatively high number of ASB case reviews” compared with other West Sussex authorities.
Separately, Mediation Plus is running a training session this autumn for Neighbourhood Wardens and social landlords, aimed at settling neighbour disputes before they escalate.
Wardens, cameras and the business scheme
The council runs seven Neighbourhood Warden schemes, funded by the parish and town councils they serve: Ashington, Billingshurst, Horsham Town, Pulborough, Southwater, Storrington, and Steyning, Bramber and Upper Beeding.
On cameras, the council has upgraded a number of town centre CCTV units to 360-degree panoramic coverage, and the Community Safety Partnership has bought two deployable cameras for hotspots.
For shops, the Business Crime Reduction Partnership set up in 2023 runs a reporting platform called DISC, jointly funded by Horsham BID and the council, which police can see. It now has 823 members across 464 businesses, and 284 individuals have been identified through it.
Road safety is the next piece of work. A partnership survey has just closed with 526 responses, and an action group involving Sussex Police, the fire service, county highways and the district council will be set up to act on it, including on anti-social driving and speeding.
The report also records community tension incidents in 2025: union flags put up without permission on lamp posts in Pulborough, which some residents found intimidating, and far right graffiti and a flag in the north of the district.
What it means for you
Three practical things come out of this report.
If a neighbour problem has been reported repeatedly and gone nowhere, the Anti-Social Behaviour Case Review is the formal escalation, and the threshold is three qualifying complaints in six months to the council, the police or a housing provider. It is a self-service application on the council website.
If you are a victim of persistent nuisance, the council runs a Neighbourhood Nuisance Support Group and you can refer yourself to it.
If you run a shop, the DISC platform is the route into the business crime scheme, and the council and Horsham BID pay for it jointly.
The Forum car park, named in the report, is one of the town centre car parks covered on our parking in Horsham page.
For street-level context in your own area, the July 2026 police.uk data logged 290 recorded crimes within a mile of central Horsham, the largest category being anti-social behaviour at 111 reports (police.uk).
The committee meets at 5.30pm on Tuesday 15 September at Albery House, Springfield Road, Horsham. A further report on 2026 figures is due within the next twelve months.
Sources
- Horsham District Council, Annual Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour Update, 15 September 2026 (PDF)
- Horsham District Council, Communities and Place Policy and Scrutiny Committee agenda, 15 September 2026
- police.uk street-level crime data, Open Government Licence
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