The low carbon challenge in Kent
Population growth and massive infrastructure investment have reshaped the county over the last 30 years. The highlights include Ashford’s international rail link with mainland Europe and the UK’s only high speed domestic rail service, which has integrated relatively isolated parts of the county. Folkestone is now, for example, within an hour of London St Pancras Station.
Kent is also the regional focus for international trade with major ports at Medway, Sheerness and Dover, which has plans for a new terminal that will double its capacity.
There is also a growing regional airport at Manston in East Kent.
Before the pandemic the retail centres at Bluewater, Maidstone, Chatham and Tunbridge Wells all prospered and are today recovering footfall. Kent’s future, meanwhile, will include new urban centres. Around 30,000 people will one day call the Ebbsfleet Garden City home, and there are also plans for a new community at Otterpool Park in the Kent countryside.
Now, as the UK economy moves into a new era where minimising the impact of how we live and work on the environment comes to the fore, civic and business leaders are wrestling with the Net Zero challenge, overseen by Kent County Council and its neighbour Medway, along with the 23 district councils across the region.
Morgan Sindall Construction gathered together stakeholders and professionals from across Kent for a roundtable discussion about the business end of carbon reduction, unpacking the challenge from the perspective of the built environment.
The roundtable’s participants included:
