Happy New Year! Now that the Christmas and New Year celebrations are
over and we are back to work, we tend to look forward to the
challenges in front of us, rather than back on the recent festivities.
2012 was a tough year for the economy, but also a year of national
triumph and celebration with the Diamond Jubilee of The Queen and the
London Olympics. Whilst 2013 may struggle to match those sporting and
cultural high points, even with the anticipated arrival of a Royal
baby, there is still much to look forward to.
This year as last year, our top priority has to be creating more jobs
in the economy. Unemployment fell across the country last year and we
now have more people in work than at any time in history. More jobs
are also being created locally and unemployment has been falling and
we will all want to see this continue. I am pleased as well that in
2013 we will see the outline planning application come forward for the
Folkestone harbour regeneration scheme, which is so important to the
economic future of the whole area. More local firms in 2013 will
benefit from the loans being awarded by the East Kent Regional Growth
Fund, which has so far supported businesses in Shepway with over
£1million of investment. The ‘Grow for it’ campaign for East Kent is
also planning business investment events focusing on the life
sciences, and creative and digital sectors for the early part of this
year; these are important and growing sectors of the economy, and I
hope that local businesses and investors take full advantage of these.
At the end of last year the Government also secured the backing from
the European Commission for our strategy to roll out superfast
broadband to parts of the country that current receive a poor service.
This will release more money in 2013 to the Kent broadband scheme to
upgrade connections in our area and across the county.
One of the quiet successes of the last couple of years has come from
the increased investment in apprenticeships and skills training, with
over one million people starting an apprenticeship since 2010. This
extra support for apprenticeships will be continuing into 2013 and is
supported locally by Shepway Council’s scheme to support both local
businesses looking to take on apprentices, and also young people
looking to take them up. I was also delighted to hear just before
Christmas, an update on the progress of some of the young people who
had participated in the scheme I set up in the summer with the M&C
Saatchi advertising agency. Following the pop-up training advertising
agency which we ran in Folkestone in July, a number of young people
have benefited from further work experience and paid internships, and
one of the twelve local people on the scheme has been hired to work
full time at M&C Saatchi’s office in London.
We can also look forward this year to the completion of the new state
of the art facilities at the Cheriton Road sports ground in
Folkestone. This is a great way of bringing the Olympic legacy to
life, by giving local people of all ages the chance to improve their
skills, and to participate using excellent facilities. I hope as well
that the completion of the new cricket ground and facilities will soon
allow the return of Kent County Cricket for some matches in
Folkestone.