Dartford in North Kent has been listed as one of Europe’s destinations to watch in a flagship annual report from the Financial Times focusing on the best and brightest investment destinations in Europe.
The European Cities and Regions of the Future 2025 special report from fDi Intelligence lists the well-connected town and district bordering Greater London in the top 10 of its micro-cities category for those areas with immediate populations below 100,000.
Judges placed Dartford in overall eighth place in a category that also included Zug and Lugano in Switzerland, Limerick and Galway in Ireland, Garching in Germany, Hasselt and Mechelen in Belgium, and Wageningen in the Netherlands. Livingston in Scotland was the only other UK location in this category.
The decision was based on defined datapoints under five categories: Economic Potential, Human Capital and Lifestyle, Cost Effectiveness, Connectivity and Business Friendliness.
With its motorway links, integration into the Transport for London network by bus and rail and journey times of less than 20 minutes into London St Pancras from Ebbsfleet International, Dartford scored well for connectivity, as well as business friendliness. The report listed Dartford in fourth place for both sub-categories.
Nick Fenton, CEO of Locate in Kent, said: “It’s great to see Dartford recognised as one of the top areas in Europe for future overseas investment that is so important to bringing jobs and opportunities to the area.
“The district has ambitions to be one of the best places in the UK to start and grow a business and is clearly already putting itself on the map.”
Greater London and the South East continued to dominate from a UK perspective regionally, coming first and third respectively in the Large European Regions of the Future category.
The Ile-de-France region of France, centred on Paris and connected to the UK via Kent’s Channel Tunnel Rail Link, came in second place.
