The meeting follows the launch of the Backing Kent Business campaign in December by KCC leader Paul Carter and Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Kevin Lynes.

The meeting highlighted a new relationship between business and KCC which aims to deliver a plan of action to help Kent businesses suffering from the current economic downturn.

The Chamber's chief executive Tracey Manley attended and said afterwards: "We are committed to making this work. At last we can all combine our expertise and give the business community of Kent and Medway the full scope of what help and support is available, regardless of their size or business sector."

Speaking on behalf of KCC, Cllr.Kevin Lynes said: "We agree that this must not be led, driven and delivered just by KCC, but by the people at the coal face, by businesses that are going through these difficult times.

"We do not want to reinvent the wheel, so we are ensuring that the relevant business support organisations are also involved.  This is why this meeting was so important as we must work together.

"There is a lot of help already available out there and we want to collectively draw this together and make it easier for businesses to access. We will use the new Kent Business Support Centre www.kent.gov.uk/business on our website for this purpose. This will have relevant information and links to what help is available."