Recognising Kent’s diversity

Kent is a highly diverse county, economically, demographically, spatially and in landscape character.

It includes some of the most affluent communities in the country, and some of its most deprived; it includes areas of former heavy industry now seeing major housing growth and isolated rural communities.

Ethnic diversity also varies considerably across the county. Within Unlocking Kent’s Potential (PDF, 2.3mb), we have deliberately sought to develop a framework to support regeneration throughout Kent.

Some of the actions that we propose inevitably have more relevance to some locations and to some groups in the population than others, and we have referenced specific schemes and places where appropriate.

However, we have not set out specific strategic approaches for (for example) geographical sub-areas of Kent or for rural Kent. This is partly because this is an overarching framework, not a comprehensive strategy, and we do not want to repeat analysis that already exists at more localised or specialised level.

Our approach has therefore been to recognise that specific issues will require different actions in different places, but to consider these as part of the mainstream activity of delivering Unlocking Kent’s Potential.

This closely links with the County Council’s approach to supporting rural communities, which emphasises the need to embed actions to support rural Kent within mainstream strategies.