Chesterfield-based mortgage brokerage Mortgage 1st has been named as a finalist in two major industry awards.
The firm has been named amongst the list of finalists in the ‘Best Mortgage Broker (8 to 50 advisers) category at the Mortgage Strategy Award3 2023. The ceremony is regarded as the pinnacle of success for those in the UK mortgage industry. Winners will be announced at the Gala dinner in London on the 25th of May.
The company is also looking to scoop ‘Broker Firm of the Year (11-50 employees)’ at the Financial Reporter Awards. Winners will be announced at the awards event on May 11th.
Lisa Stones, Operations Director at Mortgage 1st said: “To be named as finalists in both of these awards and listed alongside some fantastic businesses is absolutely amazing. Testament to our entire team, their passion, commitment and ongoing hard work. We would love nothing more than to bring home a winner’s trophy but regardless, we’ll have a fantastic time at the award events and will be celebrating our achievements.”
Leicestershire-based businessman Dr Nik Kotecha has been honoured for his outstanding contribution to East Midlands communities by being presented with a special award by East Midlands Chamber.
Dr Kotecha is the former chair of Loughborough-based Morningside Pharmaceuticals and current chair of the Randal Charitable Foundation.
Presenting the award, East Midlands Chamber president Stuart Dawkins spoke about Dr Kotecha’s journey from arriving with his family in Leicester from Uganda, aged six years old, to become a scientist specialising in drug discovery and then an entrepreneur whose business with a moral purpose has exported around the world.
“He has advised a number of national Government departments, being recognised for his work by the awarding of an OBE,” said Stuart. “Closer to home, he has brought this expertise to many working groups here in the Midlands. Among many other things, he is a pro-chancellor at De Montfort University and is a Deputy Lieutenant of Leicestershire.
“After securing the legacy of his business via a disposal last year, he is now devoting his time to the charity he founded with his wife Moni in 2017, the Randal Charitable Foundation, aiming to save lives and significantly improve the quality of life for those in need – in the UK and around the world. That is a wonderful track record.”
Dr Kotecha said: “I was humbled to receive the Outstanding Contribution to East Midlands Communities Award because helping to directly save and significantly improve the lives of people living in the UK and globally has been a lifelong passion of mine.
“Throughout my professional career, I’ve always ensured that every business venture has given back to communities and society as a whole, and more recently this work has continued through my family’s Randal Charitable Foundation.
“I’m also immensely proud to continue to volunteer on a number of local, regional and national boards and advisory groups, which are working to nurture and grow innovation, entrepreneurship and productivity across the business community.
“Much of this work is focused on ensuring we deliver sustainable long-term growth, which in turn secures jobs and the future prosperity of our many diverse communities.”
The government is to increase funding for care homes providing nursing by 5% for 2023 to 2024.
The standard weekly rate per person provided for NHS-funded nursing care will increase by 5% from £209.19 to £219.71 from 1 April 2023 with funding paid by the NHS directly to care homes who provide nursing care. For the higher rate, it will increase from £287.78 to £302.25. This allows care home residents with specific healthcare needs to benefit from direct nursing care and services.
Registered nurses provide support to people eligible for NHS-funded nursing care with a variety of needs, including people with learning disabilities, those living with enduring physical or mental health needs and various conditions associated with old age. This type of nursing requires a range of skills and training, with the extra funding supporting this important role.
The funded nursing care rate helps cover the costs of nursing care, ensuring the vital service can continue to support the needs of residents within nursing homes. The uplift for the 2023 to 2024 financial year is based on adult social care data which is quality assured and independently verified.
Providing this nursing care also helps reduce the pressure on hospitals, ensuring the government’s record funding can be used to help discharge medically fit patients into social care settings.
The government is making available up to £7.5 billion in additional funding over two years to support adult social care and discharge – with up to £2.8 billion available in 2023 to 2024 and up to £4.7 billion in 2024 to 2025.
This historic funding boost will put the adult social care system on a stronger financial footing and help local authorities address waiting lists, low fee rates and workforce pressures in the sector.
The Competition and Markets Authority has published an open letter to online businesses regarding the use of urgency claims and price reduction claims.
The purpose of the letter is to help businesses understand and comply with their existing obligations under consumer protection law when making urgency claims such as countdown timers, scarcity or ‘act fast’ messages and/or price reduction claims online.
It has been written for, amongst others, online retailers, online marketplaces, online intermediaries, and businesses that help clients to build online stores.
The letter includes examples where common claims made by online businesses to consumers during the shopping process may breach the law, for example by misleading consumers or by putting unfair pressure on them.
These examples are likely to be helpful to all parts of a business (and its client businesses) involved in designing, developing and publishing urgency and price reduction claims, for example, legal, marketing, content design, and website or app development.
While the letter is designed to help businesses, it is not legal advice. Responsibility for complying with the law remains with businesses themselves.
Shining a light on the region’s property and construction industry, this year’s event will take place on Thursday 28th September at the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground in Nottingham.
The East Midlands Bricks Awards, organised by East Midlands Business Link Magazine, is an independent awards and publicity programme recognising development projects and people in commercial and public building across the region – from office, industrial and residential schemes, through to community projects such as leisure schemes and schools.
With the economy now recovering after lockdown, and following a successful event held last year, we believe it is now more important than ever to celebrate the robustness of the property industry in our region.
To buy tickets for the event click here.
Submit a nomination:
To nominate your (or another) business/development for one of our awards, click hereand then select the category you wish to nominate the company for.
Our categories are:
Architect of the Year ● Deal of the Year ● Excellence in Design ● Contractor of the Year ● Residential Development of the Year ● Most Active Agent ● Developer of the Year ● Responsible Business of the Year ● Commercial Development of the Year ● Sustainable Development of the Year ● Overall Winner
Nominations end August 31st
Agility Life Sciences, an award-winning formulation development CDMO based in Nottingham, UK, and Solitek, experts in solid state development services for the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemical industries based in Barcelona, Spain, have entered into a Strategic Partnership agreement in order to accelerate the pharmaceutical development milestones of their clients.
The agreement will see Agility Life Sciences signpost and recommend Solitek’s solid state
services to clients, with Solitek reciprocally promoting Agility’s formulation development
services. The two organisations have also agreed to provide training on their products and
services, as well as offering technical support and client liaison.
Agility Life Sciences CEO, Prof. Claire Thompson, commented: “I am thrilled to sign our first
Strategic Partnership agreement with Solitek, who have a combined experience of nearly 50 years in the pharmaceutical industry, including over 40 years in the world of solid state
research and crystallisation development. Partnerships are vital in this industry, and I am
confident that both companies will strengthen each other’s client base in a mutually beneficial arrangement. I am excited to begin this new chapter of collaboration.”
Solitek co-founder and Operations Director, Víctor Díaz, added: “This partnership is a critical steppingstone in our ambition to offer a full preclinical development services portfolio. Having worked with Claire before, I am convinced that Agility Life Sciences are the right partners to learn and to grow with. Solitek and Agility Life Sciences form a very strong partnership with a level of specialisation and expertise difficult to match.”
Cereals will host nearly 400 exhibitors and sponsors, ranging from companies that have attended the event for years to those exhibiting for the first time or returning after a few years’ break.
The wide range of exhibitors means that, whether visitors are looking for the latest min-till drills, sprayers, harvesting or baling kit, the stands and demos will have plenty of high-tech machinery to choose from.
The two-day event is being held at a new site this year – Thoresby Estate in Nottinghamshire – on 13-14 June
Sheetal Sanghvi, corporate tax partner at leading audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK, has been appointed as the new office managing partner in Nottingham, effective from 1 April 2023. She will succeed Richard King, who has been office managing partner at RSM Nottingham for ten years.
Having spent over 17 years at the firm and as an RSM ‘lifer’, Sheetal joined as an audit tax assistant in 2005 and has progressed through the ranks to partner. Sheetal is head of innovation reliefs in the Central region and was the first person in the firm to get a focused role in this niche area. She has extensive experience in advising a range of businesses, from start-ups to large corporates, across a range of sectors in making significant R&D and patent box claims.
Sheetal went to school in Nottingham and graduated from Leicester’s De Montfort University. She is currently EmbRACE Network lead in the Central region – an RSM initiative to champion race equality. She is extremely passionate about creating a diverse and inclusive workplace and works with the wider group to raise awareness of and support on matters of race, ethnicity and cultural heritage, and to provide guidance to the firm’s diversity and inclusion steering group on race equality issues.
In her new role, Sheetal plans to build upon the existing team culture in the 90-strong office, including having an open style of leadership and ensuring a strong team mix across all sectors and service lines.
Sheetal Sanghvi, office managing partner in Nottingham at RSM UK, comments: ‘For me, this is the next big step in my career at RSM. Having kickstarted my career with the firm as a graduate trainee over 17 years ago, I am just one of the many examples of our ‘grow our own’ strategy. I have and continue to be very lucky to work in a supportive and collaborative environment where our people have plenty of opportunities to learn and develop, but most importantly be themselves and have some fun along the way. I’m looking forward to taking on the challenge of leading our talented group of partners and staff and driving forward the next stage of our ambitious growth plans in my home town.’
Mark Taylor, regional managing partner in the Midlands at RSM UK, said: ‘Firstly, I’d like to say a huge thanks to Richard for his significant contribution to leading the impressive growth of our business in the East Midlands over the last decade. Sheetal has enjoyed great success over the last few years in building our innovation reliefs business and I am excited to see her continue to grow as office managing partner. Sheetal has lots of qualities that make her ideally suited to the role – not least, her deep reserves of natural infectious enthusiasm and energy which will drive the future growth of our business in Nottingham and across the region.’
Richard King, partner at RSM UK, added: ‘I am very proud to have been part of the team that has delivered substantial growth in the East Midlands. The Nottingham office has flourished, and we’ve strengthened our commitment to the local marketplace. I’m delighted to be handing over the reins to Sheetal, who will undoubtedly take the practice from strength to strength for the benefit of our staff and clients. I look forward to supporting Sheetal throughout the next phase of this exciting journey.’
Leicestershire-based Abacus Flooring Solutions has made history by inventing a way to use waste plastic, that would otherwise go to landfill, in industrial resin flooring.
The ground-breaking invention, named Abaplas, is set to transform the flooring industry as well as providing an eco-friendly method for replacing harmful bulking materials in other products such as tile adhesives.
Nick Megson, managing director of Abacus Flooring and the brains behind the pioneering Abaplas system, has already proven his idea after carrying out a painstaking series of tests over several years.
Having arrived at the perfect formula, which performs even better than traditional resin flooring, his world-beating patent for Abaplas has now been approved.
Resin flooring, along with many other industrial products, has traditionally been manufactured using silica sand, which is a dangerous and potentially carcinogenic substance when inhaled.
Abaplas instead contains non-harmful recycled plastic which is ground down to a white powder. The process will vastly reduce the volume of waste plastic ending up in landfill or the world’s oceans.
Nick said: “We carried out so many tests that it seemed as if it would never happen. We conducted tests using numerous grades and types of plastic before we finally achieved the fantastic result we have today.
“On our first ever project using this product, the installation guys said it was the best self-smoothing resin system they had used.
“Further research uncovered many other uses for our 100 per cent recycled plastic, in things like our primer coats, scratch coats, self-smoothing screeds, repair compounds – and even things like tile adhesives.
“It could turn the plastics recycling industry completely on its head and really make major strides in helping to save the planet.”
The world’s first resin flooring using 100 per cent recycled plastic was installed by Abacus in the enormous VIP Visitor Centre auditorium at JCB’s global headquarters in Staffordshire, UK.
The company has since gone on to install Abaplas flooring in warehouses, medical facilities and football stadiums throughout the UK.
E2E, in association with The Independent and in partnership with IWG plc as the strategic founding partner, has today announced its Female 100 list which identifies the 100 fastest-growing female-led or founded businesses in the UK through their growth rate of employees over the past three years from data gathered by Experian and Go Live Data.
Identifying businesses from a host of sectors, the league tables highlight the incredible work achieved by females throughout the UK. The E2E Female 100 launched on 17th March 2023 and was celebrated at the House of Commons, with a dinner for the 100 companies featured, accompanied by some of the UK’s top business leaders.
The E2E Female 100 forms part of The E2E 100, a significant initiative designed through the publication of six league tables, coupled with large-scale reception for each launch and a series of associated content. Each celebratory launch dinner will be held at the Houses of Parliament, kindly supported by Lord Bilimoria CBE, DL, Founding Board Director, E2E. This has been created to showcase the very best UK companies that are excelling, experiencing consistent growth, and presenting disruptive business strategies that are creating an impact not just in their own sector, but also on a nationwide, and in some cases, a global scale.
Featuring talent from around the UK, the list showcases the diverse range of businesses women are founding and the huge successes they are having despite battling an uncertain and post-pandemic economy.
Speaking about the list, Shalini Khemka CBE, founder of E2E says: “To see so many extraordinary multigenerational women in the top 100 from a host of innovative sectors is a testament to the amazing work so many women are achieving, daily. From vegan kitchens to finance and leadership, the diverse range of businesses which have not only been founded survived or thrived during the pandemic is incredible. Each and every person on this list should be extremely proud of what they have achieved and will continue to achieve in the years to come.”
Assistant Editor of the Independent, Caroline Gammell said: “We’re delighted to be featuring such an exceptional group of women who are powerhouses in their own individual sectors and who have seen exceptional growth over the past three years. The E2E Female 100, in association with The Independent, gives us the chance to showcase the amazing female talent around the UK and to inspire the next generation of female entrepreneurs, who are a much-needed part of our future economy. We can’t wait to see what they do next and are looking forward to championing female leaders for many more years to come.”
Lord Bilimoria CBE, DL said: “I have been a founding Board Member of E2E and under the leadership of Shalini Khemka CBE, seen it flourish into the go to ecosystem to support Founders, Business Leaders, and Investors. We have worked on several initiatives together to highlight the issues faced by business founders within the UK and to provide services that address the core challenges. Since the launch of E2E in 2011, Shalini and her team have built an exceptional platform for entrepreneurs to meet, learn, raise investment, and access corporate support. I am thrilled that E2E has launched the E2E 100, beginning with The Female 100 as it showcases the fastest growing female led companies by employee growth, from all over the UK. I was reading an article from Reuters recently which highlighted that women now make up 40% of boards at the top UK companies for the first time in history and that the number of female CEOs is also rising. This is highly encouraging however we are still far from parity.”
Richard Morris, UK Chief Executive of IWG plc, observed: “IWG has been a partner of E2E for over 7 years and has experienced the outstanding support and platform they provide to the UK SME sector. The quality of their community, from their Members to speakers is unparalleled in my view. During our longstanding partnership, we have expanded the flexible working and service office packages offered to their members on preferred rates and we are proud of the value that we are bringing together to UK entrepreneurship.”
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The East Midlands Bricks Awards, organised by East Midlands Business Link Magazine, is an independent awards and publicity programme recognising development projects and people in commercial and public building across the region – from office, industrial and residential schemes, through to community projects such as leisure schemes and schools.
With the economy now recovering after lockdown, and following a successful event held last year, we believe it is now more important than ever to celebrate the robustness of the property industry in our region.
To buy tickets for the event click here.
Submit a nomination:
To nominate your (or another) business/development for one of our awards, click here and then select the category you wish to nominate the company for.
Our categories are:
Architect of the Year ● Deal of the Year ● Excellence in Design ● Contractor of the Year ● Residential Development of the Year ● Most Active Agent ● Developer of the Year ● Responsible Business of the Year ● Commercial Development of the Year ● Sustainable Development of the Year ● Overall Winner
Nominations end August 31st 
