Falklands veteran Simon Weston has broken ground on a new £15 million factory in Kent that will create jobs and training opportunities for veterans and disabled people.

Weston, who was told he was "basically unemployable" after being severely injured in the Falklands, joined fellow Sir Galahad survivor Steve Hammond at the groundbreaking for the Royal British Veterans Enterprise (RBVE) site in Aylesford. Weston said veterans want opportunity and a place to belong, and that having purpose and relevance saved his life.

Jobs, training and a new academy

The charity says the factory will create hundreds more jobs and learning opportunities, with a Training Academy offering accredited qualifications and routes into work with local businesses. Its planning application for the site put the direct recruitment figure at a further 80 people, adding to the 158 already employed at Aylesford.

The new factory will replace RBVE's outdated facility, home to Britain's Bravest Manufacturing Company, one of its social enterprises. The charity's factories in Kent, Surrey and Glasgow already make more than 250,000 road, rail and commercial signs a year, and more than 70% of its workforce are veterans, people with disabilities, or both.

The project builds on Lifeworks, RBVE's employability programme, in which 80% of participants move into paid work, training or volunteering within 12 months. The Army Benevolent Fund has awarded an initial grant of £250,000 towards the Learning Academy and manufacturing facility, which is expected to be completed in early 2028.

Tackling the disability employment gap

The project addresses a wide employment gap for disabled workers: only 52.8% of disabled people are in work, compared with 82.5% of non-disabled people. RBVE says it can only make investments of this scale through donations and clients who order from its factories; construction is now under way by Magrock.