Regional transport body Midlands Connect has released a major report outlining a series of improvements to A50/A500 corridor. The upgrades are targeted at reducing congestion, supporting local businesses and promoting greener transport use – including the take up of electric vehicles.   The plans from Midlands Connect could create a £12 billion economic boost and help to unlock over 12,000 jobs. New research released alongside the report shows that drivers are losing over half an hour (37 minutes) every weekday due to congestion on this vital route.   The report, called Levelling-up Stoke, Staffordshire, Derby & Derbyshire: The road to success outlines a series of strategic recommendations for long-awaited upgrades, badly needed to alleviate bottlenecks along the 90km long A50/A500 corridor, which links Derby, Nottingham and Leicester to Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and the North-West.    Large manufacturers such as JCB, Rolls-Royce, Toyota and Alstom rely on this key East-West route to keep supply chains moving and provide links to international markets – currently, traffic congestion on the A50/A500 threatens to stand in the way of business growth. The route sees between 60,000 to 90,000 vehicles passing along it every single day.   With deadlines to secure funding via the Department for Transport’s Road Investment Strategy (RIS) schemes fast approaching, Midlands Connect is working closely with local authorities and other partners to help turn its plans into reality. By putting together a phased, corridor wide approach, it is hoped that improvements can be brought forward and provide good value for money, something that has previously been a barrier to progress.  

Suggested improvements on the corridor include:   

On the corridor’s Western Section, running from Blythe Bridge, Staffordshire to M6 J15-16 (through Stoke-on-Trent):  

• Strategic improvements to M6 J15 to resolve congestion, to improve safety and facilitate better flow of traffic on M6 and A500  
• Enhancements at Sideway to make traffic flow more smoothly, including strategic changes to the roundabout and lanes at the junction, as well as addressing the signalled junctions that cause traffic to build up on the route  
• Technology-led improvements to improve the reliability and safety of the M6 between Junction 15 and 16  

On the corridor’s Central Section that runs from the A50/A38 Toyota junction to Blythe Bridge, Staffordshire  

• Grade separation of the A50 and local roads at two locations in Uttoxeter, with associated slip roads to provide access and other potential enhancements to support growth and boost local active travel networks   
• Enhancements to existing roundabouts at Sudbury and Blythe Bridge to increase capacity and reduce delays   

On the corridor’s Eastern Section from the M1 to A50/A38 Toyota junction  

• Improvements to A38/A50 Toyota junction to improve capacity, safety and general operation (recommended as immediate priority to be delivered through an appropriate source of funding).  
• Widening of the A50 south of Derby, between Junction 2 for the A6 at Chellaston and Junction 3 for the A514 near Aston-on-Trent (recommended to be undertaken in RIS4).  

• Building a new link road between the A50 (near junction 1) and A42 (near junction 14, Breedon-on-the-Hill). This is recommended as a long-term option to be considered for RIS5 or beyond.  

Commenting on the release, Sir John Peace, chair of Midlands Connect, said: “This report released today outlines why upgrades to the A50/A500 manufacturing corridor are crucial both to keep international markets open after Brexit and to reduce emissions by enabling more direct and efficient journeys.    “This suggested strategic enhancement plan from Midlands Connect is based on comprehensive research which proves just how economically important this 90km East-West stretch of road between Crewe and Derby is. Improvements will also make it easier for business and local communities to prepare for a future where electric vehicles and alternative fuels become the norm.   “A key location for manufacturing and industrial activity due to its fantastic links with major UK cities and local supply chains, the corridor is home to industry leading businesses including JCB, Toyota, Rolls Royce and Alstom, and will soon link the new HS2 hubs at Crewe and Stoke-on-Trent with the planned freeport close to East Midlands Airport. “However, the busy A50/ A500 has slowly become more congested over time and regular bottlenecks form at junctions during peak times. Widespread development is planned for the surrounding area, meaning that change is needed now, with this sustainability-led plan to keep locals, employees and businesses moving.”

A number of homes and businesses in Derbyshire were affected following heavy rain which fell over the weekend and into Monday, closing some roads and causing local disruption. Derbyshire County Council has reinstated our Derbyshire Floods Hardship Funds for residents and businesses, which were first established following floods in 2019. Residents directly affected by flooding, where water has entered their homes, can access financial help of up to £104 via a fast-track application process. Businesses of 50 employees or less whose premises were flooded will be eligible to apply for a one-off payment of £500. The initial pot of £20,000 could be extended if needed. Areas affected and eligible will be listed online. Derbyshire County Council Leader Councillor Barry Lewis said: “Residents and businesses are already facing a number of financial challenges and if they are affected by the recent flooding we know this will be devastating and could have a huge impact on them. “We realise the importance of acting immediately to help where we can, which is why we are offering this support which is available now.”

Budget plans intended to protect essential council services in Leicestershire are to be discussed tomorrow. Leicestershire county councillors will meet on Wednesday (23) to address the challenging financial position facing the authority. The council’s proposed medium term financial strategy (MTFS) looks to manage the rising costs of caring for vulnerable children and adults while finding ways to deal with increasing inflationary costs across services and on key multi-million pound capital projects needed to support the county’s growing population and economy. The authority is proposing to increase its share of the council tax bill by three per cent from April – a two per cent rise in the basic levy and one per cent ringfenced to contribute towards adult social care. This rise is below the current rate of inflation and the lowest increase in recent years. The precept rise will also help fund other key services including children’s social care, public health, transport, education, planning, road maintenance, libraries, waste management and trading standards. Cabinet lead member for resources councillor Lee Breckon said: “The money we will receive from the Government in the coming financial year was better than anticipated but significant risks remain. “Our proposed budget will balance the books next year but we still face a gap between our income and what we will need to spend of £39 million by 2026. “Our financial strategy is prudent and deliverable though we will still need to make significant savings and that will require difficult decisions.” Cllr Lee Breckon, Cabeniet member for resources said: “It is recognised many residents will be having a hard time with the rising cost of living. The pressure on the council to fund both children’s and adult social care remains considerable with rising demand in the number of vulnerable older and young people who need looking after – and the costs of the care they need rising. Overall social care costs are expected to rise by £88 million over the next four years with a significant part of that needed to pay the national minimum wage. There is also large deficit of £63 million predicted by 2026 in paying for the education of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). More than half a billion pounds is also to be spent on major capital schemes between now and 2026 to provide for essential infrastructure – such as new roads and schools – to meet the demands of the county’s growing population and economy. The popular Shire Grants scheme is being boosted with an additional £150,000 to make up a £600,000 pot available annually to communities to bid in to for projects that will make a real difference for Leicestershire’s residents. The council remains committed to its target of helping to plant 700,000 trees across the county – one for every resident – and the MTFS contributes £100,000 developing a tree nursery to grow saplings towards this target, helping to make our county cleaner and greener. The MTFS also provides £50,000 to enable the cost of road closures to be waived for communities and groups planning street parties to celebrate HM The Queens’s Platinum Jubilee in June. Cllr Breckon said: “This budget will provide protection for vulnerable children and adults, builds on the Covid support we’ve provided over the past years and will continue to support. “It delivers the lowest rise in the precept in recent years. “Although we can balance the books this year, we will continue our campaign to get a better funding deal from government- and this includes working with the cross-party F20 group of the lowest funded councils in England to achieve this aim.”

Nottingham’s Yü Group, the independent supplier of gas, electricity and water to the UK corporate sector, has been appointed by Ofgem as Supplier of Last Resort (SOLR) for Whoop Energy and Xcel Power Ltd (Xcel) and agreed to take on their electricity and gas customer books with immediate effect.

Whoop Energy supplied gas and electricity to 262 customer accounts, of which 212 were non-domestic SME customers and 50 domestic customers, across 401 meter points. Xcel supplied gas to 274 non-domestic customers.

Under Ofgem’s SOLR process, business customers transfer to a new supplier on a flexible, “deemed,” basis with a variable tariff reflective of current market conditions. The total contribution to Group revenues is expected to be approximately £150,000 per month.

In line with previous integrations, Yü Group will integrate these new customers on to the Group’s scalable platform; and certain industry processes will continue in the coming days to complete the transfer.

Bobby Kalar, Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “I am very pleased to welcome customers of Whoop Energy and Xcel to Yü Group. We have already commenced migration onto our scalable operating platform ensuring the smoothest transition possible.

“The award from Ofgem is further testament to the strength of our business with our strong foundations, proven platform and robust hedging strategy. This follows the award and subsequent seamless integration of Ampower in November 2021 and we are proud to be working with Ofgem to ensure a stable supply of energy for UK businesses.”

Over 10,000 chain store branches disappeared from Great Britain’s retail locations in 2021. In total, 7,160 shops opened, compared to 17,219 closures, a net decline of 10,059, according to PwC research compiled by the Local Data Company (LDC). Although the net change has worsened since 2020, the number of closures per day has remained stable, 47 in 2021, compared to 48 in 2020. A decline was expected with the ongoing impact of the pandemic and as large retailers, that were on the brink of closure at the end of 2020, exited the market for good. Meanwhile, Government support for chain retailers was mostly phased out in July 2021 adding pressure to those retailers reliant on grants. The East Midlands saw 528 store openings and 1,146 closures, a net change of 618. In the West Midlands, there were 641 openings and 1,676 closures, a net change of 1,035 over 2021. The overall number of openings has declined 26% since 2019, the last year pre-pandemic. So, although there were over 7,000 new openings in 2021, many of these were the natural churn and re-siting of existing stores. Apart from takeaways, at +81, and government job centres, +33, no other category saw more than 20 net openings in 2021. In a continuation of a long term trend, store closures peaked in 2020 in the height of the pandemic. The rate of closures has been growing since the mid-2010s, as more retail and service categories have shifted online. This had previously been offset by the rapid rollout of leisure operators, such as coffee shops, food-to-go and restaurants. However, such openings have slowed down rapidly since the mid 2010s. In better news, the number of closures is now expected to slow down through 2022. The last two years have seen a shake out of some large fashion and department store chains who were on the brink of collapse. With these stores now closed, future store closures should begin to level off. Moreover, bigger chain retailers are more likely to be proactively negotiating with landlords, so the end of the rent moratorium in March 2022 is less likely to affect them. Flight from cities Since the pandemic, city centres and London postcodes have seen an acceleration in net closures as more people work from home or adopt hybrid working patterns. London is again the worst performing region by some margin. Similarly, the underperformance of Birmingham has caused the West Midlands to perform worse than the East Midlands, with towns in the East Midlands more sheltered from the surge of Covid closures. Many will be hoping that hosting the Commonwealth Games in the summer will see a reversal of fortune for Birmingham. Location matters above all else Consumer behaviour is continuing to drive the most change and the choice of shopping location is impacting the number of closures. Retail parks and standalone sites are more insulated from closures. In 2021, retail parks saw the smallest net change of any location (593), compared to high streets (4,287) and shopping centres (1,690). In percentage terms retail parks saw net closures of -4% compared to high streets at -5% and shopping centres at -7%. Fast becoming a trend, retail parks have consistently outperformed shopping centres and high streets for the past 6 years. At the same time, shopping centres have gone from the second best performing locations, in 2015, to the worst performing locations in 2020 and 2021. Undeniably, Covid exacerbated the popularity of retail parks but even since restrictions were lifted, footfall recovery has been much faster in out of town retail parks which benefit from easy access and good parking and bolstered by car travel recovering more quickly than public transport. Moreover, shopping centres have been hit particularly hard by closures of fashion retailers, department stores and casual dining restaurant chains – and therefore less attractive destinations in their own right. Sarah Phillips, Midlands retail & consumer markets leader at PwC, said: “The last two years have been tumultuous for retailers but the closures we’ve seen are an acceleration of what was happening before the pandemic. Changes in consumer behaviour, changing patterns of working and the shift to online is impacting on both retail and service chain operators. “Location matters most to consumers and whilst city centres and shopping centres falter as we have seen in Birmingham, retail parks and standalone operators have broad appeal. However, this summer’s Commonwealth Games will see a reversal of fortune for Birmingham. Multiple operators are taking note of this changing consumer behaviour and are relocating stores to where their customers need them to be. “Many of the CVAs and administrations that took place in early 2021 have now been captured, including department stores, fashion retailers and hospitality operators that have left gaps in city and shopping centre locations. There is a pressing need to radically reshape and even repurpose towns and city centres plagued by these empty units and shopfronts. To regain lost footfall, high streets must understand why retail parks are so attractive to consumers or look for ways to better serve local needs, encouraging independent retailers and entrepreneurs to take this opportunity to grow into the gaps that are emerging.” Categories almost all driven by acceleration online On a sector by sector basis the growth seen in a small number of categories is nowhere near enough to offset the declines in other categories. Leisure dominates growth, with takeaway chains buoyed by a rise in delivery as well as walk-in demand. Smaller chains and franchise operators, such as cake shops and amusement arcades, have also been able to take advantage of lower rents and vacant units to expand their footprints. The big net declines in many other categories reveal the impact of major shifts in how consumers buy and transact. The shift to online, accelerated by consumer behaviour during Covid lockdowns, continues to be the biggest common denominator for closures in both retail and services.

• Fashion is the fastest declining category with almost 4 net closures a day. Several fashion and department store closures chains were acquired by online operators with no ambition to operate stores
• Banks have accelerated their closure programmes during the pandemic, following several years of slowing down closures; banks have been either the number one or two top closing categories in five of the past six years
• The move to online has even impacted the charity sector, which saw a net decline of 557 in 2021
• However, restaurants and pubs have fallen out of the top 10 fastest declining categories, revealing their overcapacity in the mid-2010s is now beginning to even out, resulting in fewer closures

Lucy Stainton, commercial director at The Local Data Company, said: “These latest figures for 2021 show the gap between openings and closures has widened, though hopefully this marks the end of the worst of the structural decline in chain retail exacerbated by the pandemic. “2021 was an extremely challenging period for occupiers, with the first three months lost to a strict lockdown, limitations on international travel impacting tourism, increased migration to online retailing, mobility restricted across all sectors and continuing home working impacting city centres. There is no doubt that the numbers are stark and 2021 saw an acceleration in net closures across this sector, which in isolation looks dramatic. “However, it’s also worth noting that vacancy rates have started to stabilise across the market, meaning that the number of empty shops is no longer increasing. This is due to a significant uptick in independent retail and leisure businesses opening sites in units left vacant by chains. The rental tone is softening and more space has become available in prime locations previously occupied by bigger brands, paving the way for new and up and coming operators. This trend is significant for a number of reasons, not least because, in theory, the growing independent operators of today are potentially the chains of tomorrow. As these businesses gain momentum, they also gain better infrastructure and stability. “Ultimately, these latest statistics on the performance of the chain sector should not be viewed in isolation and don’t point to ‘the death of the high street’, but rather represent a last shakeout of some of the heritage brands, paving the way for new operators and so the constant evolution of physical retail continues.”

Loram UK, the rail and rolling stock maintenance specialists, has agreed a major partnership with Network Rail to service its New Measurement Train (NMT). The seven-figure agreement will see Derby-based Loram UK conduct a major mid-life overhaul of the NMT, known affectionately as the Flying Banana because of its yellow livery and high-speed operation. The NMT monitors and records track condition information at speeds up to 125mph, helping identify faults before they become a safety issue or affect line performance. It also helps to prevent unnecessary maintenance work. Network Rail said the train was the “most technically advanced train of its type in the world.” The agreement is the latest between Loram UK and Network Rail and Andrew Watson, Loram UK’s international business development director, said the programme would be vital to extending the life and performance of the Flying Banana. He said: “There is only one in the UK so the work it does is vital in measuring rail infrastructure to allow maintenance to take place and keep high-speed rail going. “When you consider how important high-speed rail is to the UK, whether it is moving people or goods, the importance of the NMT cannot be understated and we are very proud to be working on it.” The train, converted from an Intercity train, is equipped with high-tech measurement systems, track scanners, and high-resolution cameras, measuring the condition of the tracks and overhead line equipment at high speed. It records data points, which are then passed to the relevant infrastructure managers to assess. Mr Watson said: “Without it and the monitoring work it does, high speed trains would not run at high speed. What we will be doing is essentially amid-life extension programme for the next 12-14 months. “We are delighted to be continuing to grow our trusted partner relationship with Network Rail to provide maintenance and service work for them.”