Our Vision and Objectives
Our vision is to make Thames Gateway Kent the place to be.
- An area of thriving towns and cities with a vibrant cultural offer and an outstanding natural environment
- A highly-accessible and competitive business location, attractive to leading investors and businesses
- An area of strong, integrated communities encouraging harmony between new and existing businesses, residents and a growing student population.
Objectives
To achieve our vision, the partnership has set out 10 long-term economic objectives for North Kent.
1. Improve the productivity of the North Kent economy. Ultimately we want to raise Gross Value Added (GVA) per head in North Kent to the average for the south east of England, attaining at least 90% of the south east average by 2026.
2. Attract and retain investment in our priority employment locations, ensuring the development of new employment sites and provision of high-quality, marketable business premises.
3. Represent North Kent's interest to Government and the Local Enterprise Partnership to secure the necessary investment in transport and infrastructure, to assist connectivity and sustainable economic growth.
4. Support the delivery of at least 50,000 new homes, between 2006 and 2026.
5. Ensure that all new development is of the highest possible quality.
6. Improve the skills of North Kent’s workforce and tackle unemployment, particularly raising the proportion of residents with higher level skills, and securing effective support to residents wanting to enter the jobs market.
7. Support the creation of at least 58,000 jobs between 2006 and 2026, particularly in high value sectors.
8. Attract and grow knowledge based employment in North Kent.
9. Increase the rate of new business start-ups to exceed the national average, matched by better than average business survival rates.
10. Maximise the economic benefits of our universities by strengthening the links with industry and retaining more graduates in North Kent.