- 4 hours ago
Catch up with all the latest political news across the county with Rob Bailey.
This week he was joined by Cllr James Hodgkinson representing Upper Hardes Parish Council, Local Democracy Ollie Leader, and Paul Skitt from Flannery Plant Hire to discuss NEETs and our county's flagging high streets.
This week he was joined by Cllr James Hodgkinson representing Upper Hardes Parish Council, Local Democracy Ollie Leader, and Paul Skitt from Flannery Plant Hire to discuss NEETs and our county's flagging high streets.
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TVTranscript
00:23Welcome to the Kent Politics Show on KMTV, I'm Rob Bailey.
00:27Coming up, we'll find out which Kent area has been rated the third weakest high street
00:32in the country.
00:33But first, how can Kent tackle a youth jobs crisis?
00:37One million young people in the UK are now classified as NEETs, not in education, employment
00:43or training.
00:44Six in ten of them have never had a job.
00:47But quarrying firm Gallagher has launched a new training scheme aimed at creating jobs
00:52for young people, getting people ready for work.
00:54Local democracy reporter Olly Leader found out more.
00:58Training, certification and opportunities for those out of work.
01:04That's what a new skills hub that has just opened at the Hermitage quarry is designed
01:10to deliver in an industry forecasted to need nearly 240,000 new workers over the next five
01:18years.
01:19We're expecting that we can train up to 24 to 30 people at a time and I would think
01:26in the static classroom we'd be looking to do maybe at least a session once a month and
01:34try and get people through and then from the mobile unit even more than that.
01:38Right now, nearly one million young people are not in employment, education or training,
01:46with more than 100,000 estimated to be living across the South East.
01:51Those behind this skills hub hope to capitalise on successes elsewhere to bring down those numbers.
01:58The last couple of years working around other skills hubs nationally, we've had 2,500 successful
02:04achievements.
02:0527% of all those achievers have been NEATS.
02:09The hub has already been making a difference.
02:12In fact, this building here was converted from a container into a training centre by NEATS
02:19while on placement here at the quarry.
02:22It makes me feel very accomplished, very proud.
02:24I've got family, I've got friends who have struggled, they've gone into uni and they've
02:29almost gone 2-3 years without a proper job and it's very hard since they asked for experience
02:35and it's hard because not many are looking for experience.
02:39Thankfully at Kent Skills Hub they are looking for experience, they're looking to give experience
02:44to young people.
02:45The Skills Hub was built in partnership with the Lower Thames Crossing.
02:50The long-awaited construction project to create a second road connection to Essex from Kent.
02:58The training provided here could be critical in getting the tunnel delivered on schedule.
03:05Our target is to get at least a minimum of that 45% of your local workforce.
03:09We would really like to try and increase that percentage because we do think that there are
03:14the opportunities here and there's people here in the local area in order to be able to do that.
03:18But with the number of young people out of work and employment at a 12-year high,
03:24this hub could make all the difference in helping people out of work access those opportunities.
03:31Olly Leader at the home of this quarry.
03:36And here with me is Paul Skitt, the Education Director at Flannery Plant High who were involved in that Kent
03:41Skills Hub
03:42and Councillor James Hodgkinson, Parish Councillor for Upper Hards near Canterbury.
03:46Thank you very much for joining us.
03:48Paul, we've got a bit of a taste there for what kind of activity is going on, what kind of
03:53training is going on.
03:54I think young people looking at this who are currently not in education, work and employment, they might be thinking,
04:00how does this work for me and particularly, does this cost me anything?
04:04How does it work in terms of getting access to this training?
04:08Yeah, thanks Rob.
04:09I'll just explain briefly about the Kent Skills Hub and the partnership around that.
04:13So it's a partnership between Gallagher and Flannery, supported by, as you saw in the video, Lower Thames Crossing,
04:19also the CITB, Construction Industry Training Board and our partners King's Reach.
04:24So that's a partnership, it's a supply chain partnership to deliver the Kent Skills Hub.
04:29We're essentially delivering technical skills training that is funded by government.
04:33So it's funded by national government and local and regional government.
04:37And so to a NEET, somebody not in education and employment and training, it's free, there's no cost.
04:44So we tend to deliver short, intensive technical training programmes, two weeks normally,
04:50where they learn how to operate plant machinery. And as part of that, it's called a skills boot camp.
04:57And as part of that, they're guaranteed an interview at the end of that skills boot camp if they pass
05:01the course.
05:02An interview for a job?
05:03Interview for a job.
05:04So this could directly lead to young people finding work, just from the boot camp alone?
05:09Absolutely. And just to give you some statistics from a national perspective,
05:13we have a number of skills hub across the country. And over the last three and a half years,
05:17we've delivered two and a half thousand to two and a half thousand learners.
05:2281% of those have had successful employment outcomes.
05:25So it's highly, you know, really good employment outcomes leads directly to jobs.
05:29And importantly, plant operators actually earn good wages. So it's not it's not a low paid job.
05:34It's a well paid job.
05:34So, James, obviously, the context to this is some incredibly stark figures, isn't it?
05:39One million young people. And the warning is that that will only rise, that figure,
05:44who are currently not in education or work or training.
05:48And some very kind of gloomy surveys around that as well.
05:52One came out this week saying only 25% of people aged 16 to 29 feel like hard work and
05:58talent will actually be rewarded with a career.
06:0175% of young people think no matter how talented they are, no matter how hard they work,
06:06opportunity just might not be there for them.
06:08We're kind of living in an anti-American dream at the moment.
06:11Well, I would agree the economic picture in the county and across the country is bleak.
06:16What we've seen over the last decade, but especially in the last couple of years,
06:21is a drastic rise in the number of young people who are unemployed.
06:25For me, that comes down to two things.
06:27It comes down to the obvious economic pressures that we're feeling right across the county,
06:31but specifically the tax burden being put on businesses.
06:34The cost of employing an 18 to 20-year-old on minimum wage has risen by £4,000 in the
06:39last two years alone.
06:40So there are fewer jobs in the market now.
06:42We need to be equipping young people with skills, and that's why this project is so admirable,
06:47to go on to the future to have a lifetime of earning and developing,
06:51because that's where young people need to be and what they deserve.
06:55So, I mean, that kind of raises an interesting thing because, obviously,
06:58this is a very specific type of employment that this scheme is assisting.
07:03It's people who want to go into construction.
07:04I guess you'd argue that this could be a kind of taster thing.
07:07People who might never have considered that as a career could come along
07:10and maybe find that they fall in love with it.
07:12But what about people who don't want to do that?
07:14Are there similar schemes out there?
07:15Is this something that is kind of more broad?
07:19Absolutely, yeah.
07:20I mean, look, you know, obviously I'm here to support the construction industry,
07:24but there are skills boot camps across multiple sectors.
07:27So you'll have it in engineering, you'll have it in digital, you'll have it in hospitality.
07:31There are skills boot camps across the country that are aimed at really,
07:36yes, training, intensive technical training, but to get people into work.
07:39And obviously you said that there is government funding available to support that training.
07:44But James's point about the fact that just just hiring people now is more expensive than it used to be.
07:49Are there is there the weight of jobs out there to actually kind of bring that million figure down?
07:54I think in certain sectors there probably are.
07:56I think, though, going back to the funding issue, although there is funding for this,
07:59I think to actually to really tackle the neat problem, I think we need to scale up that funding,
08:05particularly where you've got super projects like the Lower Thames Crossing in a particular region
08:08where these are huge national infrastructure projects.
08:11And actually, yes, there is targeted funding to support those people into training and work,
08:15but really that we need further investment if we're really going to start to tackle the neat problem.
08:19James, I hesitate to say you speak for young people,
08:23but you are an elected representative and unusually at a very young age.
08:28Alan Milburn wrote a report for the government very recently warning of a lost generation,
08:32warning that young people now are not because of any kind of educational deficit,
08:38or he says they're not lazy young people, it's just the opportunities aren't there for them.
08:42He hasn't yet reported back what he thinks the solution to that is.
08:46From a young person's perspective here in Kent,
08:48what should government and employers be doing to try and rescue that lost generation, do you think?
08:55Well, look, for me, it's all about opportunity, and as much as we can,
08:58we want to channel that through vocational training.
09:01Around about 70% of young people who go to university, according to some polling,
09:05are dissatisfied with the outcome they receive at the end.
09:0715% of NEETs have a university degree, so the system is clearly broken.
09:12The answer, as far as I'm concerned, is to deliver more of these vocational training packages,
09:17give people a real taste of what real employment looks like,
09:21both while they're at school and in full-time education and beyond that,
09:24so we can support people into the workplace,
09:26because that's how they're fulfilled and how they'll have happy, healthy lives.
09:30And some people would look at that as being part of a very anti-university narrative
09:35that has been going around.
09:37Universities are in crisis at the moment.
09:39Be fair to say that the purpose of university is somewhat being challenged at the moment.
09:45What you've just said seems to be kind of shutting them out of the picture entirely.
09:48Do you think there is a future for university training?
09:50There's absolutely a future for university.
09:52Because you're going to university.
09:53Yeah, I'm going to university next year, so I do believe in university
09:56and the value that a degree can bring.
09:58But I think we've got to a point in this country now where whatever you want to do,
10:02there is an implicit expectation that you will have a degree, and I don't think that's helpful.
10:06So many of my friends and colleagues from school went to university to study a degree
10:10that they didn't know how they were going to use in future employment.
10:12And perhaps worse, some went to university to study a degree that they knew they wouldn't use in employment, full
10:18stop.
10:19So we need to look at how we're providing pathways to work.
10:22Some of those pathways will be university-based and academia-based,
10:26but some of them do rely on those practical skills.
10:28And I think it's time we stop, if you like, looking down at that as a route
10:31and start extolling its virtues because it is a really, really important route.
10:34So you wanted to come in there, Paul?
10:36Yeah, just to sort of, you know, lead on from that.
10:39I think the problem with our education policy has become, the balance isn't quite right.
10:45So you've got university, which is great for certain people, but it's become,
10:48our education system has become focused on academic attainment.
10:53And I think vocational and technical attainment and preparing people for employment is just as important,
10:58if not more important.
10:59So I think we just need a better balance in our education and skills system.
11:03And really, you know, from a construction perspective, it's, you know,
11:05Flannery and Gallagher and the supply chain to make sure that we're investing in this
11:09and actually we have good pathways for young people to get into construction.
11:12The university plays an important role in social mobility.
11:15Also, there is, people might be quite concerned a little bit about forcing themselves into a pigeonhole.
11:20You go to a kind of skills hub, you learn a very specific set of skills.
11:23What about your future job mobility?
11:25What about your ability to go and work in other countries?
11:28Do those things get affected in any way?
11:29No, I don't think so.
11:30I think actually construction, there's so many transferable skills in construction
11:33that you can go on and progress and work in a variety of different sectors
11:36because a lot of it are still what I would regard as essential skills and behaviours.
11:40So, you know, being reliable, teamwork, good communication.
11:45We do have to stop there.
11:46When we come back, we'll be talking about high streets.
11:48I'm very sorry to cut you off, but we'll be back soon.
12:11If you have to stop there.
12:24When you're on earth, what has changed?
12:25When you're on earth, what has changed?
12:29The lines of science that are not just in 한 gradeак on technology.
12:30We've traveled one more time.
12:30We've traveled to this side.
12:31We've traveled two hours.
12:31I'm very ahead of you.
12:31I'm very excited to work in our city.
12:32I came back in the past year.
12:33I'm ready to take that edge.
12:33I'll take the edge to go.
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15:06Welcome back to the Kent Politics Show on KMTV.
15:09Next, Medway has been branded one of the country's weakest high streets.
15:13In a top Trump-style ranking based on shop closures and footfall, it was given a score of just 12
15:19.4 out of 100.
15:21Only Stevenage and Mansfield scored lower.
15:24But what does that mean for the town's businesses and job prospects in retail and hospitality?
15:29Before we discuss that, local democracy reporter Oli Leder spoke to businesses in Medway about why the towns are struggling.
15:36Vacant shop fronts, dog-eared to let signs and more closures on the cards.
15:41It's little wonder Medway has some of the weakest high streets in the entire country, with just 33 shops per
15:4810,000 people, far below the national average of 41.
15:52High streets have got this added burden of having a building.
15:57We've got certain issues like increased parking prices, anti-social behaviour, increasing business rates.
16:05Between 2024 and 2025, 40 retail units closed across the five towns.
16:13Businesses here in Struth say they're still struggling.
16:17Footfall is down, especially through the alleyway here.
16:20People are just not spending money.
16:23Or people are just going to the bigger retail parks where things are cheaper and they can save money.
16:30The difficulties here are part of a wider national trend.
16:34Nearly 3,000 local retail units were lost across England and Wales between 2024 and 2025.
16:41I think definitely we've talked about downsizing the size of the high street presence just because of the expense.
16:52You know, you've got to staff it and you have to have the right amount of staff just because of
16:58the stealing and all of that aspect.
17:00So if you had a smaller premises, it would be easier to support.
17:05And I think the online, as I say, is so much stronger than the shop premises.
17:11There are local issues at play. Parking charges have risen across the five towns for the last two years.
17:18But Medway Council says car park upkeep is needed and that there needs to be an authority wide approach to
17:25regeneration.
17:26Added to that we've got general inflation because of the war in Iran and wars in Russia, fuel increases.
17:33These are all feeding through into energy prices.
17:36That's really affecting businesses and it's affecting not just businesses but also public bodies like Medway Council ourselves.
17:44It's not all doom and gloom. The little shop opened on Rochester High Street three months ago and is still
17:51going strong.
17:52Something they attribute to keeping costs low and finding a gap in the market.
17:58I think people want to come out. There's a need for it still.
18:02It's all well and good buying stuff online but you can't get all these little local bits and you don't
18:07get the experience of having to look around a shop like this.
18:10A miniature success then. But with slumping footfall and increasing costs, there's no sign things are set to get any
18:18easier or that closures will let up.
18:21Olly Leader in Medway.
18:25And still here with me is Councillor James Hodgkinson, parish councillor for Upper Hards near Canterbury.
18:30And now local democracy reporter Olly Leader is with us too.
18:33Olly, we've just watched your film there.
18:36Medway taking a bit of a bashing in this survey, which was published by money.co.uk.
18:41They're not here with us now.
18:43But if they were, if there was a Medway Labour councillor here on the sofa, they'd be talking about investment,
18:48wouldn't they?
18:48What is what is Labour doing in Medway to try and address this?
18:51I suppose it's an issue that is almost apolitical.
18:54You go to any high street in Kent and you'll see the signs of struggle, closed shop fronts, businesses leaving
19:01the area, moving to that online space.
19:04And it's something we see a lot of in Medway where there are concerns around what has been a previously
19:10industrialised, a previously naval town that's lost a lot of its industry declining.
19:17We've seen issues with crime, Gillingham and Chatham town centres.
19:22It all ties into this issue of regeneration.
19:25Now, it's something Medway council are addressing.
19:27You go down to the bus station at the heart of Chatham and you'll see new buildings cropping up, investment
19:33in the Pentagon centre.
19:35These are the sorts of things that people in Medway do care about, do want to see.
19:40But there's only so much Medway council can do.
19:42I spoke to Harinder for this piece.
19:45He was talking about a wider council wide approach to town centre and urban regeneration.
19:53But that's not always possible within the confines of local government.
19:57Particularly, there are limitations around how councils set and take in business rates.
20:03A lot of this rests with central government who themselves are facing huge financial pressures, as we've seen earlier this
20:10week.
20:10Yeah. I mean, James, obviously, there is money being spent.
20:13There are things like the Pride in Place Fund, which has been put in place by the government.
20:17In Medway, that's going to be spent on – there's a £300,000 pot to spruce up shop fronts.
20:22There's a £400,000 pot to try and bring empty units back into use.
20:26But do you think that that money is being used in the best way to support high streets in Kent?
20:30Look, I think it's very difficult because, ultimately, all of these local government initiatives, however well intended they are,
20:37are constrained by what's going on in the wider economy.
20:39I've already spoken about national insurance.
20:42I've spoken about the minimum wage.
20:44Business rates, as well, were re-evaluated in 2024 that have seen some businesses paying more.
20:49Local measures can have a real impact, though, on the kind of micro level.
20:54So, things like cutting car parking charges does encourage higher footfall.
20:58Pride in Place schemes do work.
21:00Specifically, though, crime and antisocial behaviour from people I've spoken to is a real problem and a real concern.
21:05People sometimes don't feel safe on our high streets now.
21:08And we've absolutely got to give resources and power to law enforcement to deal with that at root cause.
21:14And it's a difficult one because we're talking about how councils don't have an awful lot of money.
21:18They don't have a lot of spending power generally.
21:19One of the things they can do to raise revenue is charge people for parking in a town centre.
21:24Canterbury particularly does that.
21:26£3.80 per hour in Canterbury car parks now.
21:31It's a kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, isn't it?
21:33They could possibly make life easier for businesses by reducing that charge.
21:37They would also give themselves less money to address some of the bigger issues.
21:41How do they untangle that problem?
21:42Well, I think, for me, it comes down to pragmatism.
21:45What we see in Canterbury, for example, is a tourist centre.
21:48You've got the cathedral. You've got the historic city.
21:50So you are also going to have tourist football in there.
21:53Where this is most important, I think, in terms of lowering parking charges,
21:57is in areas of the county where we don't have the tourist income, where we're relying purely on local people.
22:03Because in those areas, the primary objective of the authority has to be to support the businesses.
22:08And the way you do that, as far as I'm concerned, is cutting the car park charges.
22:12Oli, we've seen, as you reported there, some really big brand names leaving high streets.
22:18Medway has been a victim of that. Every town in Kent has been a victim of that.
22:23We've just been talking about NEAT.
22:24We've been talking about one million young people out of work or education.
22:28Would it be fair to say that some of those young people would have been working at Claire's Accessories
22:32or at the local pub, which is now shut, because they're having such a difficult time?
22:36Is this problem on the high streets connected to this problem of young people not being in work?
22:41Well, you should have strewed where I did most of the filming for this piece.
22:45The Iceland there is going to be closing down in the coming months.
22:48This is a major issue.
22:50I mean, it was only earlier this week that the Green leader, Zach Polanski, was talking about how supermarkets charging
22:577p for veg is a sign that they're exploiting their workforce,
23:02that they should be hiring more people, putting more money into the economy.
23:06Obviously, that's a highly controversial take.
23:08I mean, many people on the other side of the political divide say that's ridiculous in a time of economic
23:13crisis that costs a living.
23:15You need cheap goods and services.
23:17But there's no doubt there's a serious question balancing up whether young people think working these minimum wage jobs is
23:25actually worth it in the current economic climate versus businesses wondering if it's worth actually paying for these workers, given
23:33the huge burdens put on them.
23:35And it's a tension that no party seems to have a very clear answer how they're going to address it.
23:41I mean, James, obviously, you are apolitical as a parish councillor, but not in your wider life.
23:47I mean, you're on the right of this debate.
23:49Where do you think that that balance needs to be struck?
23:52Look, at the end of the day, I have worked a minimum wage job.
23:55I know exactly what it's like to do that.
23:57For young people, it can be dispiriting if you're working a minimum wage job on a zero hours contract.
24:03Some weeks you might have tons of work.
24:05The next week you might have no work.
24:07But ultimately, my advice to young people is that some economic activity, a job in whatever form, is better than
24:13no job.
24:14Because even if it's not what you want to land up doing, it's something that you can take forward.
24:18It's skills.
24:20It's experience.
24:21And most importantly, it's a feeling of belonging to the community.
24:24And that's something that we need to see a lot more of in society today.
24:26I want to just, as we approach the end of the program, to talk about what could be a very
24:32important few weeks.
24:33It's a World Cup.
24:34Just started.
24:35England's first game next Wednesday.
24:37We've got three games over the next few weeks.
24:39And normally, this is a time that high streets will be relishing.
24:42Games bring people in to watch the games or just generally kind of get people out of their houses and
24:47doing things.
24:47All of the kickoffs are late.
24:498 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 2 in the morning, some of them.
24:52Do you think that this World Cup is going to be a boon for the high streets?
24:55Do you expect there to be a kind of a lift?
24:57I really hope there is.
24:59I feel like as the tournament progresses, if, and let's hope they are, England are still battling away in there,
25:05I think we will see that sort of increase in footfall that you might hope for.
25:09However, of course, this World Cup presents challenges in terms of timing, but also the hospitality sector is under such
25:16phenomenal pressure
25:17that the question really to be asked is, is a World Cup and the economic uplift that that would bring
25:22really enough?
25:23Oli, I mean, what's your sense?
25:25You're around the halls of power in Kent.
25:27Is there a sense that there's quite a lot hinging on not England's success in the World Cup, but Britain's
25:32success in the World Cup, that this could bring an economic boost?
25:35I mean, England's success is one thing. It's entirely separate from economic success, but both of them are looking quite
25:41difficult at this point.
25:42I think it's one of those things where even places that have been previous hosts to big tournaments,
25:47like the folks in Harbour Arm are saying, it's a bit too late for what they want to do.
25:52It's not the sort of family football that we'd hope for at the moment, just due to those time differences.
25:59Now, there will be some pubs who will be breathing a sigh of relief.
26:02This is a big period of time, and when the weather picks up, that's hopefully going to do next week,
26:07that's going to hopefully drive some more people down to the pub.
26:12But it's one of those things where even if you look at some of the games already, I know it's
26:15over in America,
26:16but you see the empty stalls. This is not being a particularly accessible World Cup.
26:21The timing thing probably isn't going to help some businesses who are trying to attract a wider crowd in.
26:27On a fundamental level, having a World Cup on isn't going to put more money in your pocket if you're
26:33a punter.
26:33It might help with your business, but it's not going to help you if you're trying to buy those pines.
26:37Thank you very much. Well, that's all we've got time for on the show this week.
26:41Kent Tonight will be following on with all the news from around the county, and we'll be back next week.
26:46See you then.
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