Agency promoting Kent and Medway goes bust

Locate in Kent said it has helped companies including Kimberly-Clark, Mazda, and Amazon to invest in the county

An organisation which has been promoting Kent as a business destination and offering free relocation advice for more than 25 years is shutting down.

Locate in Kent, based in Chatham, said it had voluntarily appointed liquidators as the company was "no longer financially viable".

It said it had helped attract investment from 1,130 companies - including Amazon, Pfizer, and BAE Systems - in the county and supported the creation of more than 70,000 jobs.

Locate in Kent chairman David Brooks Wilson said the decision "reflects a challenging set of environmental and financial circumstances".

He said: "I want to sincerely thank all the staff for their dedication, hard work, and belief in our mission.

"Their contributions have made a lasting impact, and we are incredibly proud of what we've achieved together."

The BBC understands Locate in Kent employs eight people, who have been notified they are at risk of losing their jobs.

'Rising costs'

The organisation's free services to firms considering locating to Kent included help finding property, recruiting, and applying for financial support.

Liquidation "forms part of a structured plan to responsibly conclude" its business activities, the company said.

Lucy Druesne, the deputy chief executive of Kent Invicta Chamber Of Commerce, said the collapse was "a really sad situation for the region".

Locate in Kent's effectiveness "fluctuated", she said, but it had "some great success stories", including supporting growing business to remain in the region.

Mr Brooks Wilson said the closure occurred "against a backdrop of rising costs and reduced national funding" while government spending focused "on areas that have been awarded as areas for devolution".

Ms Druesne told the BBC the chamber was "finding that across a number of areas" funding cuts were "much harder on regions that are not in that devolution journey yet".

Kent and Medway councils missed out on a fast-tracked devolution programme in February but are expected to be reorganised at a later date, and are debating what form replacement authorities could take.

The government has been approached for a comment.

The collapse has come two weeks after Visit Kent stopped operations when the company that ran the tourism promotion organisation went under.

Linden Kemkaran, leader of Kent County Council, told BBC Radio Kent it had been a "very, very grim couple of weeks" for the county's tourism industry.