Kent County Council (KCC) has launched ‘Backing Kent Business’, which is a partnership between KCC and the County’s major business support organisations, including the Kent Invicta Chamber.
KCC is one of the biggest employers in the county and spends 40% of its budget on goods and services (more than £320 million every year) with small and medium sized Kent businesses.
KCC have pledged to support business by:
- speed up the payment of invoices from 30 days to 20 (in some cases this is down to 7 days already)
- drive forward and deliver KCC’s ambitious capital programme of £850m over the next two years to provide more employment opportunities for Kent firms
- establish Kent Property Enterprise Fund 2, placing KCC’s vacant unsold property assets into a fund to be worked up into joint venture developments with the private sector
- expand KCC’s
- streamline KCC’s contracts to make it easier for small and medium sized firms to apply for council contracts and open up and raise awareness of tendering opportunities in and outside Kent
- provide a ‘Kent Business Support Centre’ on KCC’s website and through a team of advisers to improve access to council procurement and support
- support and signpost businesses to grant aid available through regional, national and European channels
- lobby government for a reduction and removal of unnecessary regulation and bureaucracy
- encourage and facilitate consortia of Kent businesses to compete for larger public sector contracts outside of Kent
- review Kent’s ‘marketing’ and promote Kent’s USPs.
For full details of KCC’s initiative click here KCC Backing Kent Business
This article originally appeared on kent.gov.uk
