Council and business leaders are examining a scheme to introduce a local currency for Brighton. Plans for the Brighton Pound will be unveiled at an event at the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel in Kings Road tomorrow. Preliminary discussions have already begun with East Sussex Credit Union, experts on local currencies and the founders of a similar scheme in Bristol.

Tony Greenham of the New Economics Foundation will hold a workshop on how the Brighton Pound could work.

Tony Mernagh, the executive director at Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership, will give a presentation on the local context.

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas said: “A local pound could help build a stronger bond between shops and customers.

“This would help our economy through a local multiplier effect – retaining more of the wealth generated in the city for longer.

“If enough traders and companies signed up, a new currency could energise local commerce.

“There could be environmental benefits too. More demand for local produce would, in the long term, reduce demand for goods bought in from further afield.”

Mr Greenham said: “The recent launch of the Bristol pound, which includes a low-cost mobile phone payment system for Bristol traders, has raised the profile of local currencies as a means of boosting local demand and levelling the playing field for local small businesses