The district also includes the surrounding rural area and contains many villages, the largest of which are Southwater and Billingshurst.

The neighbouring districts are Crawley, Mid Sussex, Brighton and Hove, Adur, Arun, Chichester, Waverley and Mole Valley.

[8] Much of the district is covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government for their areas.

The district council appoints one of its councillors to serve on the 27-person National Park Authority.

[28] Previously the council was based across several buildings, including Park House, an eighteenth century house on North Street which had served as the headquarters of the old Horsham Urban District Council since 1928.