Looking to the Future - MP Gareth Johnson at Amazon’s largest solar panel scheme in the UK

BY GARETH JOHNSON

Dartford has experienced some tough economic times during the Covid-19 pandemic but in the past few months we have seen signs that the local economy is starting to bounce back.

Fortunately, we were starting from a strong point having seen low unemployment for the last 10 years. This has really helped us to start the bounce back we were all looking for.

In recent months I have been out and about in the constituency talking to people and business owners and it is great to see there is a huge appetite to invest in the town.

In fact, in the past five years, the number of businesses in Dartford has grown almost a quarter from 4185 in 2016 to 5130 last year.

As we enter a new phase of the recovery, it is heartening to see unemployment going down and job vacancies at a record high. Bluewater’s annual Jobs Fair took place last month and offered hundreds of temporary and permanent positions.

Earlier in the summer I visited Dartford’s Jobcentre, which was the first stop for many people who suddenly lost their jobs at the start of the pandemic. People faced unprecedented pressures with many finding themselves out of work for the first time in their lives. It was great to meet the teams who responded to this challenge and ensured this lifeline remained operational throughout the pandemic.

A great success story in Dartford is J & E Hall, one of Dartford’s oldest businesses. They began trading in the town almost 250 years ago. During a recent visit there, I learned how its cooling systems are used around the world as well as in the UK’s newest aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. Last month, I had the chance to see the new Amazon depot in action. This new facility opened its doors for business in the summer and is the largest building in Europe. Amazon will employ around 3000 people during its busiest periods. The company has to follow tough restrictions on the number of vehicles that can travel to and from the site so it has laid on buses for workers living in the local area. This provision means that a high proportion of people working there live in Dartford. The depot uses state of the art technology to provide goods to people ordering a huge range of merchandise.

Anyone visiting Dartford town centre will see it is undergoing a huge transformation and it was pleasing to see one of the UK’s oldest banks investing in our town. Barclay’s Bank has moved into a new-look building on Spital Street which caters for modern banking.

Another growing business is Kentec, a firm which specialises in fire alarm control panels. Last year I ‘virtually’ opened its new premises but last month I got to visit the new site to see first-hand how the panels are made. Their fire control systems are used around the world and their success has enabled them to employ over 300 people in Dartford. Looking to the months and years ahead we can be optimistic about our town’s economic future. There is still work to be done to get us back to pre-pandemic levels of employment but I am confident of a bright future for Dartford that will provide jobs and opportunities for local people.