One in eight companies are now working within the creative industries – and Kent is emerging as one of the leading creative hubs in the country.
Kent is the perfect location for creative, digital and tech businesses.
Amongst the 7,000 creative companies located in Kent, more than 1,500 have located here over the past five years partly thanks to a surge in creative talent leaving London for Kent’s exciting coastal communities.
Digital start-ups, film & TV studios, artistic producers, games manufacturers, and entertainment companies have created an ecosystem of expertise and growth across the county, from household names to SMEs.
Strategic Location
Kent and Medway boast a number of strategic locations for creative and digital businesses, including the Folkestone Creative Quarter, the Maidstone TV Studios or the Chatham Historic Dockyard. On top of these creative hotspots, towns such as Margate, Canterbury and Tunbridge Wells have also been taking full advantage of the county’s booming creative sector.
New initiatives such as the Creative Estuary – part of the Thames Estuary Production Corridor – and the planned London Resort theme park (built in partnership with ITV, BBC and Paramount Pictures) will only build interest in Kent’s creative potential.
Thriving communities
Why Kent?
A talented workforce, lower operating costs, excellent connectivity to London and Europe, and a great quality of life all add up to make Kent a great place to build a thriving business.
Primed for business
Invest in Kent
With an ideal location between London and Europe, the county of Kent can offer you flexible facilities, a rich talent pool, enviable quality of life and vital space to grow – for less.
Creative strategic locations
Unrivalled Connectivity
The Creative Quarter in Folkestone has become a go-to destination for both new and well-established creative businesses. An urban village of designers, filmmakers, musicians, web developers and artists, this creative collective oversees 115 studios and offices and more than 50 shops to create support for this ever-growing collaborative community.
The Creative Quarter offers a collection of retail, office and artist studio space for small, medium and large companies, and is supported by the arts regeneration charity, Creative Folkestone. International businesses are consistently choosing the seaside town over London when looking at expansion plans, with major players in the sector calling this creative hotspot home, including Saga, Sleeping Giant Media, and Progress Creative.
The Maidstone TV Studios
The Maidstone TV Studios is one of the UK’s largest independent high definition TV broadcasting facilities, providing film, TV, video, radio and photography businesses with the very best versatile recording studio space available. The site contains two large studios for hire, with flexible lighting solutions and fully configurable production, viewing, lighting and sound galleries, and state of the art post-production suites.
Past shows filmed on site include the 2019 Election Debate, Inside No 9, Jools Holland Annual Hootenanny, Take Me Out, the Rugby World Cup 2019 coverage. On top of the exceptional recording studio space, the Maidstone TV Studios also offer outstanding office space.
The Historic Dockyard Chatham
The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a world-famous maritime heritage site, but is also home to a number of creative enterprises. Dovetail Games is a leading games developer and publisher of simulation entertainment software creating digital hobbies enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of passionate enthusiasts across the globe.
The Historic Dockyard Chatham also houses the Joiners Shop, one of Kent’s most unique and exciting centres for creative businesses. This 200-year-old structure provides businesses with 1,750sqm of high-specification creative space, including studios, workshops, office units, meeting rooms and communal facilities, in a stunning environment. An ideal location for SMEs looking to work alongside some of Medway’s top creative and digital businesses.
The Fruitworks in Canterbury
A short walk away from the historic city centre, The Fruitworks offers up to 80 desks in open plan rooms and flexible packages to suit your business needs. Complete with chill-out areas to meet the other businesses on site, but carefully adapted to meet Covid-19 restrictions where applicable, the Fruitworks allows freelancers and start-up businesses to work in a collaborative and friendly environment in one of England’s most famous historic cities.
Some people are currently making their living by going up to London and back daily. What that means, if you move here with your business, is that there are some really talented people who I’m sure would like to live and work in the county.
Alastair Upton
Creative Folkstone
A highly-skilled, creative talent pool is easily accessible in Kent, with over 9,000 people already working in the creative industries, an abundance of home-grown staff trained at some of the top Universities including the University for the Creative Arts (UCA).
A creative talent pool..
The UCA is ranked as the number one specialist university for the creative industries in the UK, delivering a growing pool of creative talent to local businesses. With campuses in Canterbury and Rochester, the University for the Creative Arts offers over 120 courses which provide students with the skills Kent businesses need to support their growth. Beside the UCA in Canterbury and Rochester, Kent is home to three more universities, including the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Greenwich. Each offers courses specialising in film, multimedia, digital technologies and performing arts, allowing you to find the best employees right on your doorstep. Need more information on finding the right talent for your creative business? We’re here to offer advice.
Plan your business move to Kent…
Find out how Invest Kent can help you relocate of grow your business in Kent.