This week the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has announced over £3.5million in new funding to support the creation of the Romney Marsh Employment Hub. This will be a new business centre on the Marsh which will support the creation of 700 new jobs. It will be delivered by the government’s new ‘Getting […]
It’s great to see how so many local hospitality businesses have adapted to the new social distancing rules, following the lifting of the coronavirus lockdown measures. Many residents and visitors are also keen to take advantage of the chance to get out and about and enjoy what our towns have to offer. Last Friday I […]
The latest Government figures provide a clear picture of just how vital the support package announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has been for our local economy. Up to 30 June 2020, 13,300 jobs had been furloughed through the Government's Job Retention Scheme in the Folkestone and Hythe constituency, which was 29% of all […]
Last weekend we saw the largest number of migrants, in a single day, complete an illegal crossing of the English Channel. One hundred and eighty people arrived on the Kent coast, but a further two hundred were detained by the French police whilst attempting to make the crossing. It is not acceptable for this situation […]
Over the last week we have seen businesses in the hospitality sector re-open their doors, albeit within social distancing guidelines. It's really important that people respect these rules, in order that the coronavirus infection rate doesn’t start to rise again, as it's doing in some parts of the United States of America. This would make […]
This week Boris Johnson has set out the strategy for getting the economy going again as we emerge from the coronavirus lockdown. Whilst the government has delivered a wide ranging package of support for businesses large and small, and helped people in work through the job protection scheme, there is still more we can do. […]
This week Boris Johnson has announced a wide-ranging package of measures to ease the coronavirus restrictions and allow many sectors of our economy and society to re-open. Key to this has been the decision to reduce the social distancing guidelines to over one metre, rather than two. This has been possible because of the falling […]
The official data published this week on the jobs market indicates the unprecedented scale of the impact of the coronavirus on the economy. In the Folkestone and Hythe constituency area, 11,800 jobs had been furloughed through the Government's Job Retention Scheme, the equivalent to around 17% of the population aged from 16 to 64. Nationally, the […]
Last week the House of Commons returned to Westminster, and whilst there was considerable attention to the airport queuing style system that has been created to facilitate voting whilst observing social distancing, we also saw the end of the video conferencing used to allow members to participate in debates from home. Before the Whitsun recess […]
Over the last two months we have seen an unprecedented and world-leading business support package delivered by the government, designed to keep firms going during the lockdown and to preserve jobs. Over £30 billion of finance has been provided through the different business loan and support schemes. Many local firms, large and small have used […]