East Kent EDG May 2025 Minute

Ray Johnson (RJ) – Chair
Daniel Sangiuseppe (DS) – Castlewood Hotels, Chair of Tourism Board Association
Tudor Price (TP) – KICC CEO
Guy Vine (GV) – MHA Accountants
Jayne Miles (JM) – Dover District Council
Lindsey Biggs (LB) – EKC Group
Sam Perkins (SP) – EKC Group

Chairman’s Comments and Report

• RJ thanked DS for hosting the meeting and welcomed GV from MHA Accountants and SP from EKC Group.
• RJ recently visited the House of Lords for a Chamber event and lunch where they discussed a variety of topics including the implications of AI and finance challenges.
• Cyber attacks are a problem at the moment:
  – M&S losses are said to be around £300m
  – The Chamber has a cyber strategy
  – Cyber protection is very expensive for businesses.
  – EKCG are running a cyber breach workshop for their staff.

EKC Group Graduate Programme presentation – SP

In order to overcome the difficulties that EKCG faces in recruiting tutors into some sector training a new Graduate Programme has been introduced. Students will teach for three days a week, study for one and have a day placement with a local employer to get hands on training – this costs the employer nothing. SP’s presentation is attached.

Sector Updates

Local Government – Dover District Council (DDC) – JM

• DDC’s Head of Place and Growth and Chief Executive are attending UKREiFF (Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum) in Leeds this week with Willmott Dixon and Milligan to promote development/regen opportunities in Dover Town Centre.
• The ‘Dover Beacon’ (Levelling Up project) is going up quickly, still on time and on budget.
• Dover’s Maison Dieu is now open to the public and available for private bookings.
• A Cultural Strategy for Dover has been put together. It needs a final review before going to cabinet for approval.
• The Place and Growth team are:
  – Working with the planning enforcement team to target owners of scruffy properties, having some success but the number of empty shops is still a problem for Dover more than Deal and Sandwich.
  – Organising more events and activities this year to encourage people to Dover Town Centre: entertainment in Market Square for two hours each Saturday, Dinosaur Day 6 August and bunting is going up throughout the town and Pencester Gardens.
  – Looking to employ a temporary ‘Sprucer’ for Dover town centre and using ‘informative art’ to brighten up empty shops.

Accountancy – MHA Accountants (MHA) – GV

• GV’s specialism is with GPs. The NHS will be releasing a 10 year plan soon.

Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce (KICC) – TP

• Kent Construction Expo is being held on 2 October – The Chamber will be focussing on the Lower Thames Crossing and skills. 85% of stands are already sold.
• The Chamber will be hosting the Kent Business Awards in November and will be partnering up with the Kings Award for Enterprise.
• The Chamber recently hosted the Kent Business Summit which went well and will be adapted slightly next year to improve the event.
• TP recently attended a Kent Chief Execs meeting – AI featured heavily in discussions (ChatGPT, Copilot etc). Website managers need to relook at their websites and make them ‘Generative Assistive search’ friendly which is different to SEO – the Chamber will be putting on some training.
• Algorithm based business has now become the 4th global strand of power.
• 5,000 businesses complete the quarterly business survey which records changes in attitude (confidence factor). There has been a drop off in participation in Kent recently, so the Chamber are doing extra promotion to encourage more to complete it.
• New UK/EU trade deal has been announced:
  – eGates should help with the entry/exit system
  – A new Youth ‘Experience’ Scheme will be similar to the Youth Mobility Scheme which is a reciprocal, capped scheme that allows young people normally aged between 18 and 30 to live and work in the UK for two years.
• The Chamber are pushing heavily on some of the issues in the Employment Rights Bill white paper.
• Reform is now in control of KCC – formal election of the new Leader will take place 22 May 2025 followed by the appointment of the cabinet.
• Chamber membership is growing and new products are being market tested. TP will present at the next meeting.
• Manufacturing Made Smarter is a government programme to support the manufacturing sector – there will be grants available.
• KCC has appointed a programme manager for the ‘Skills Bootcamps’ and ‘Connect to work’ programmes.

Hospitality – Burlington Hotel – DS

• For coastal hospitality businesses winter was really tough. It is getting busier now but pickup is very last minute, and with less spend per head and significantly increasing costs (on average 10%) the sector is worried about next winter and expects casualties.
• The EU Youth ‘Experience’ Scheme sounds promising and could potentially provide staff to the sector, but detail isn’t known yet.
• Like the Chamber the UK hospitality trade organisation is also trying to push back some of the issues in the Employment Rights Bill. They will be organising nine round-table discussions across the country to discuss where hospitality has played a part in regeneration. DS may be hosting one of the events at the Burlington Hotel.

Education – East Kent Colleges Group (EKCG) – LB

• A new ‘Hospitality Passport’ pilot scheme has been introduced which will create a universal entry standard for hospitality jobs, giving employers confidence that new starters are competent across a wide variety of skills. EKCG and UK Hospitality are hosting an event at the Yarrow on 22 May to promote this.
• EKCG has recruited a Technical Consultant for their new Innovation Kitchen (a tour will be available for future meeting). This facility is for micro producers that want to scale up and test their products. There has been lots of interest already (people that previously had to travel to London). LB to circulate information.

Property – RJ

• Lots of interest locally in properties at the moment, both commercial and residential.

Any other business & topics

• RJ has been in conversations with a variety of businesses recently (including a yacht refurbishment company and a specialist plaster company). All sectors seem to be finding business challenging at the moment and many don’t have reserves that they can call on in tough times which may result in redundancies.

See the full details here