Businesses in Kent are being urged to prepare for Brexit

The government has launched a business readiness website to help people understand how leaving the EU may affect your business.

It outlines the steps that businesses may need to take to prepare for Brexit, including what changes there may be to your industry and information on specific rules and regulations that could have an impact.

One Kent business preparing for Brexit is MEP Ltd based in Aylesford. The manufacturing business specialises in moulding and machining and has served the aerospace and defence sector for four decades.

Managing director Phil Hart said: “Preparation for whatever Brexit we have is really important for every business to consider. The risk of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit has probably increased, but it’s always been there.

“We put a risk assessment in place and identified 10 key areas that we felt would affect the business, ironically we looked at change of government or change of Prime Minister that was number 10 in our list of 10. So it was areas that were really critical to us, everything from tariffs to VAT to the transfer of work between borders, we really focused on the 10 we felt were most critical to us as a business.

“We engaged with our industry body so we have masses of input from them. There are other organisations like Make UK that we are members of, we use the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, so we’ve just looked for all of the different areas we can get information from and pulled that into our risk assessment.”

“It is not a lot of work to do it but it can put your mind at rest, so risk assessments are fairly straightforward as the likelihood of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit has increased, then the risk has increased, then just do something.

“Don’t think that just because you don’t do anything it’s just going to go away, because it isn’t. One way or another we will leave the EU and it’s better to be prepared for it.”

Kent Resilience Team’s Brexit Coordinator Fiona Gaffney said: “The Kent Resilience Forum (KRF) continues to work closely with the Department for Transport and other agencies to prepare for a range of potential outcomes, including the event of no-deal exit and traffic disruption on Kent’s roads.

“Businesses who travel and trade within the European Union are being urged to act now to ensure appropriate preparations are in place for possible changes to border control and customs arrangements at the UK ports when the UK leaves the EU, to help minimise potential disruption.”

For Brexit business advice visit the government website: https://www.gov.uk/brexit#business

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