Eight thousand homes are to get new addresses following the first major postcode change in the city.

The update in Brighton's Kemp Town is necessary because of the rapid growth of housing developments in the area, including the site of the old Phoenix Brewery.

There has also been an increase in commercial activity, with many small businesses starting up, particularly in media-related fields.

The change affects the whole of central Kemp Town, including Richmond Place, Edward Street, Elm Grove, Pankhurst Road and Whitehawk Hill Road and roads along the seafront which currently have the postcode BN22.

Households, shops and businesses will be given new codes beginning with BN20 or BN29.

They will be gradually effective from now.

American Express, Brighton and Hove's largest private employer, is to be given its own postcode of BN88 under the change.

Letters advising all firms and businesses within the area of the changes will be sent out next week.

It will mean all individuals, firms and shops having to change their letterheads.

The Royal Mail is giving them a year to make the changes before finally discontinuing the old BN22 code.

This is the first major change made to postcodes in Brighton and Hove since the Royal Mail began using them in 1966.

Paul Middleton, Royal Mail area manager for Brighton, said: "We have had to make the changes to create extra postcodes which we can use as Brighton continues to flourish and grow."

The Royal Mail is providing change-of-address labels and will be programming its automated sorting equipment to recognise both the old and the new postcodes for a year.

Mr Middleton added: "Postcodes are very important to Royal Mail because they allow us to process the 80 million letters we handle in the UK every single day quickly and efficiently.

"Letters that bear a postcode speed through our system up to 20 times more quickly than those hand-written addresses without postcodes, which have to be sorted manually."