A new report published this week shows that the Folkestone and Hythe area has been the biggest beneficiary so far from High Speed Rail. The Institute for Economic Affairs report shows that we have seen the best performance in terms of the increase in the percentage of working age population in work, compared with the rest of East Kent, since the High Speed services were launched in December 2009. Our area has also performed better that the national and regional averages.
As the whole of the district benefits from having easy access to high speed rail services from Ashford and Folkestone it is perhaps little surprise that we should have experienced the biggest boost to the local economy. In Folkestone and Hythe, the unemployment rate has fallen by over 25% since the start of the High Speed Rail services, again falling faster than the national and regional averages. Residents earnings in East Kent have also risen by over 8% since the start of HS1 services, compared with about 5.6% nationally.
It is because of the clear benefits that we are seeing locally from High Speed Rail that I have been a strong supporter of the High Speed 2 project, to link London to West Midlands and the North with fast modern trains. This investment will be good for the economy of the whole country; good quality infrastructure supports people in their life and work, and helps businesses to grow.
Of course we would not have High Speed 1 in Kent were it not for the Channel Tunnel. Eurotunnel is currently celebrating its twentieth anniversary, and last week it announced further investment in their terminal facilities at Cheriton. This investment will increase the frequency of services through the tunnel, and also the speed with which cars and lorries are processed through the site. A further benefit will be the creation of 600 on site lorry parking spaces. These spaces will greatly help with the management of Operation Stack and should mean that in most cases lorries can be parked off of the roads, allowing other traffic to move freely.
Last Friday I visited Nusteel a local manufacturing business based at the Link Park industrial estate near Lympne. Nusteel specialises in constructing steel bridges and gantries used mainly in the motorway and rail networks. The business started with a single forge and now is one of the leading manufacturers in its field in the country. This year Nusteel marks its sixtieth anniversary, and I would like to send my congratulations to everyone involved with the business, and in particular to its founder Robert Benson.
This weekend Step Short, the Folkestone World War One centenary project, launched its new campaign to engage children with the story of the conflict. Step Short’s Nikki Emden has taken the story of the ‘Touch Wud’ lucky charms given to soldiers and created a life-sized cartoon character called Private TW Sweetheart, who will be used to teach local youngsters about the war and its connections with Folkestone. This excellent project has received the backing of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and I’d like to congratulate Nikki for all her hard work in bringing this story to life.