Dear Residents

As 2025 draws to a close, I thought now would be a good time to reflect on what Reform UK has been doing for the people of Kent in our first six months in office. We were elected with a pledge to scrutinise the finances of KCC and make savings, address potholes and be a strong advocate for the County. Our work has been to achieve those pledges and put Kent people and businesses first. I am pleased to report, there have been a number of successes from investing in our roads, driving efficiencies and championing Kent’s interests. I will focus on the highlights for now but will continue to update on our other successes as we go through 2026.

Highlights:

• We inherited a challenging financial position, KCC had debts of £732 million, was paying debt interest charges of £84k each day and had a target of £121 million in savings and increased income to achieve in 2025/26. In our first six months the debt has been reduced by £67 million and £100 million of savings made with an additional £40m of future savings found.

• We commenced the implementation of £67 million investment into road repairs, which includes the biggest pothole repair programmes in the UK. So far, 22,000 potholes have been filled, 250,000 square metres of road patching (approx. 35 Wembley Stadiums in area) and resurfaced 210,000 square metres of road

• We scrapped the ‘climate emergency declaration of 2019’, thereby freeing KCC from expensive and unnecessary work; enabling more small Kent businesses to tender for work; encouraging a mixed economy of energy use and bringing back common sense to the climate debate in Kent.

• We are leading the campaign to get the Eurostar service to stop at Ashford and Ebbsfleet again.

• We’re lobbying central government to allow Kent some proceeds from the Dartford Crossing and the Freight Lorry Levy.

• We commenced work to produce an Energy Strategy that will encourage the construction of small nuclear reactors and prevent huge solar farms from being sited on our best agricultural land and despoiling our beautiful countryside.

• We developed a unique response to the government’s Local Government Reorganisation programme, that would look after Kent’s best interests, enable local community engagement, and be less expensive for Kent taxpayers.

• We produced ‘Reforming Kent’; a new plan for the County, which was launched in November 2025, and which gives the direction of travel for the County Council to achieve a better quality of life for Kent residents and businesses.

I hope you’ll agree; huge strides have been made and there will be more to come in the New Year!

In the meantime, I’d like to wish you and your family a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year!