Bank of England announces interest rate increase to 4.25%
The Bank of England has voted 7-2 to raise interest rates from 4% to 4.25%.
This marks the 11th increase in a row as the BoE struggles to get to grips with the country’s spiraling rate of inflation.
Leicester Enterprise Partnership names new Chief Exec to take post in May
In May Phoebe Dawson will take up the post of Chief Exec of the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership.
She is now completing the notice period in her current role of Director of Business Engagement and Partnerships at Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (WLEP).
Anil Majithia, LLEP Co-Chair, said: “The Board and I are really looking forward to having Phoebe join us as CEO and she will provide excellent leadership at a critical stage.”
Phoebe said: “I look forward to working with the Board, our partners, and our stakeholders, to build on the strong reputation of the LLEP, and bring further growth and prosperity to this exciting and innovative region.”
Phoebe, who is also a Non-Executive Director at Worcestershire Cricket Board, has been a Director at WLEP since 2019.
She shares responsibility for the strategic and operational delivery, as well as delivering the high-performing Worcestershire Growth Hub team, Inward Investment, and stakeholder engagement.
As part of her current role, she is responsible for both the WLEP Growth Hub and Invest in Worcestershire.
She also works closely with local authorities, the business community and partners including the Midlands Engine and the Department for International Trade.
Prior to starting at WLEP, Phoebe spent two years as Chief Executive of Worcester Business Improvement District (BID), developing its vision and providing strategic leadership, as well as day-to-day operational management.
She led the ballot which secured more than £2 million investment for the city and worked with the city council to develop a new brand for the city, Visit Worcester.
Midlands Net Zero Hub secures £47m in grants for greater energy efficiency
The Midlands Net Zero Hub has secured more than £47m to improve the energy efficiency of up to 4,226 socially owned homes in the region from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Working in partnership with 24 consortia members, made up of 14 housing associations and 10 local authorities, the Hub – which is accountable to Nottingham City Council – used the experience of previous project successes to make a strong case to secure the funding.
The grants will be used to retrofit homes in the region, using a ‘fabric-first’ approach which will see over 15,000 measures such as insulation, draught-proofing and double glazing installed to improve the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of the properties. This approach ensures that renewable technologies, including heat pumps, are more effective.
Nearly £600,000 of the funding will be used for developing digital technologies to support smart building use, for example sensors to monitor the effectiveness of the measures installed. The information collected through these technologies will be used to make improvements to retrofit work in the future as well as identifying issues such as damp and mould within properties and flagging fuel poverty.
Through SHDF Wave 2.1, an estimated 356 jobs will also be supported in the region, which will help to grow the green economy and improve opportunities for those working in the retrofit sector.
As part of the consortium bid, Nottingham City Council secured £2.9m to retrofit 371 social homes in the city. These homes will have cavity wall, external wall and draught-proofing installed, which will result in lower bills for Nottingham City Homes residents and support the city’s ambition to be carbon neutral by 2028.
Councillor Sally Longford, Portfolio Holder for Energy, Environment and Waste Services, said: “It’s fantastic news that the Midlands Net Zero Hub has successfully bid for £47m to improve the energy efficiency of homes in the region. Reducing emissions from the county’s buildings is vital as nearly a quarter of the UK’s carbon footprint comes from heating and powering homes.
“This presents a huge challenge as much of the country’s housing stock was built before the 1990s, so poor insulation and fossil fuel heating is widespread. With energy prices soaring, it is more important than ever that we make sure our homes are fit for the future.”
Michael Gallagher, Head of Midlands Net Zero Hub, said: “I’m delighted that the Hub’s domestic retrofit team has secured more Government funding to help mitigate rising cases of fuel poverty in the region. Not only do schemes like SHDF make homes more comfortable for tenants and reduce energy bills, they also help to minimise carbon emissions from domestic properties.
“We are committed to supporting the country’s target to be net zero by 2050 through the work that we do both across the region and nationally. Through all our domestic retrofit schemes, we aim to deliver improvements to homes at scale while driving down costs to make them accessible to all. This ambitious delivery would not be achievable without the support of our regional delivery partners and highly dedicated consortium members.”
Superior Wellness claims place as one of fastest growers in Europe
Chesterfield-based Superior Wellness has earnt a place on the FT 1000 for the second successive year.
On 1 March 2023, the latest FT-Statista report was released, highlighting the fastest-growing European companies in the three years to 2021. Superior Wellness ranked 323rd up from 348th last year. This also means the company has ranked in the top 60 across the UK.
Superior Wellness leads the market as the world’s fastest growing hot tub manufacturer, creating premium, high quality products focused on improving your health and well-being.
The ranking shows how many businesses thrived despite the pandemic — or, in many cases, because of it. Superior Wellness was in a fortunate position to experience a monumental level of growth during the pandemic.
The ranking lists those European companies that achieved the highest compound annual growth rate in revenue between 2018 and 2021. The minimum average growth rate required to be included on the list was 36.2 per cent — marginally less than the 36.5 per cent last time round.
Superior Wellness moved into its Chesterfield HQ in March 2021 and last year opened a 10,000 sq. ft showroom with training facilities. It now works with a global partner network of 250 hot tub retailers and is focusing on its growth across the United States of America with two dedicated sales managers based there.
MD Rob Carlin said: “We were so proud when we heard the news that Superior Wellness had made it once again onto the fastest-growing companies in Europe list. We ranked 323rd in Europe for the fastest growing companies and also in the top 60 in the UK!
“I would like to extend my thanks to all the Superior Wellness team and our partners for making this possible.”
LEP Chair fears government plans could silence the voice of business
The Chancellor’s announcement that he is minded to cease funding Local Enterprise Partnerships beyond 2023/24, raises serious questions about consequent costs and the role of business, according to LEP Network Chair Mark Bretton.
He says that by implication, the Growth Hubs that have helped support millions of small businesses will also lose funding.
He said: “The Chancellor’s statement was a further step in LEPs’ evolving role in the devolution agenda, if not managed well, it could significantly diminish or even silence the voice of local business and damage the unique convening power that gets projects delivered, acknowledged as the hallmark of LEP success for over a decade.
“We have now received the letter from Ministers and met with Officials. The letter included clear statements from Ministers that the “minded to” decision is not about performance, but is driven by political policy. Our meetings have revealed the full scale of the challenge and complexity facing Officials – most LEPs are incorporated companies, a structure insisted upon by Government. Unravelling this with the trailing liabilities and accountability for significant sums of money will not be simple, yet we need to do all of this whilst continuing to deliver for our local communities.
“What the 2000 business leaders, 350 FE and HE Principals and Vice Chancellors and, indeed, the 200 democratically-elected local politicians on our LEP boards want to be clear on is that:
- Whitehall recognises the transition will cost money, not save it, under the new burdens rule on Local Authorities, whereby any new functions must be funded by government, both LAs and government need to agree what these functions would cost to effectively deliver them. There is no money in the LEP system or core funding settlement to pay for this exercise which will only serve to divert scarce resources from where they should be focused, stimulating economic growth and supporting local enterprise;
- LEP directors cannot be expected to shoulder ongoing liabilities and going concern commitments. Government must provide full indemnities and take complete responsibility for the implications of their decisions;
- Business must not be silenced or made ineffective – it must retain a meaningful voice to ensure investment is relevant and that it enables the creation of jobs – after all it is business which creates jobs, not government;
- Lessons learned, especially in business case assessment, project execution governance and the delivery of committed outcomes are not lost. Government needs to avoid a “cookie cutter” approach and ensure solutions are locally tailored.
- Most importantly, that the 1000 people employed in our Executive teams are respected and their talent is not wasted.
Surprising rise in inflation provides stark warning to Government over economy, says East Midlands Chamber
Commenting on the latest inflation data from the Office for National Statistics, East Midlands Chamber chief executive Scott Knowles said: “After the economic difficulties of recent months had appeared to be easing slightly, these latest figures should provide a stark warning to Government, as an unexpected rise in the Consumer Price Index rate to 10.4% indicates we are still in the midst of a stubborn inflationary peak.
“With Producer Price Index inflation at a near-historic high of 12.7%, this illustrates how businesses are still absorbing many of the cost pressures they have experienced across labour, energy, raw materials and fuel for 18 months now.
“We have always said this is unsustainable, however, and the latest research via our Quarterly Economic Survey shows that more than half of East Midlands businesses expect they will be forced to raise their own prices over the next three months.
“The longer this goes on, the greater the impact on businesses and consumers as much higher prices become the norm.
“The Spring Budget offered little in the way of support for these cost pressures facing firms, but there are still steps the Government can take to ‘get the basics right’ for businesses, as we have outlined in our Business Manifesto for Growth.
“This could involve improving our trading relationships with international markets to ease supply chain difficulties and incentivising companies to invest in upskilling their people to boost productivity.”
Expansion plans underway at leading digital marketeers Alphageek
An award-winning digital marketing agency is expanding by recruiting up to eight new team members to support its recent growth and ever-increasing client portfolio.
The new roles are being advertised by Alphageek Digital, based in Cubo in Victoria Street, which offers a whole range of digital marketing including online advertising, pay-per-click campaigns, web design and development, SEO, content creation and brand amplification services.
The recruitment drive comes on the back of new national and international client wins for the company, which was launched in 2019 by three friends, and currently employs 20 people.
The firm is looking for a new senior SEO specialist to assist in planning effective strategies to drive organic traffic to client websites as well as a full stack web developer, and photographer to join their content team.
In addition, Alphageek has recently added to its team with a technical lead, a paid marketing executive and an organic social media manager. Aside from these specific roles, the agency is growing fast and constantly on the look-out for new talent.
The company, which is also recruiting two apprentices, has a host of big-name clients across four continents and a range of industries, including watch brand Casio, Derby high-end sportswear firm Huub and popular city doughnut bakers Project D.
Co-Founder Alex Mills said: “This is such an exciting time for us, we’ve landed some amazing clients, that we will shout about when we can, but that means we need to recruit new talent to support the existing team.
“The fact that we are so busy is testament to the continued hard work from everyone in the team. All our business comes from referral and we’re receiving enquiries almost daily. We’re keen to grow fast, but we want to make sure this growth is sustained and manageable hence the new additions.
“We always knew that 2023 was going to be an important year for us in terms of scaling, but even so we are far exceeding our expectations at the moment. We have ambitions to move into different cities this year too, so the future’s looking bright.”
New recruits will benefit from Alphageek’s recently launched co-operative-style profit share which will boost their earnings every month with a share of 10% of the company’s profits.
They will also have access to employee Paycare benefit scheme, which covers everyday health and well-being, round-the-clock GP support and discounts on a wide range of everyday purchases.
Alex added: “We are a really close-knit, young team and we know that happy people do great work, which is why we’re insistent on maintaining this family-like environment as we grow.
“We’re looking for driven people, with a burning desire to grow and a high attention to detail. Alphageek is on a rocket ship trajectory and with the right people on board we’ll only accelerate this growth.”
NBS launches global project to help ESG-driven businesses become more profitable
A team of world-leading experts in business transformation are teaming up to empower environmental, social and governance (ESG) driven businesses to thrive more by making sustainability even more profitable through a global project funded by the British Council.
Leading the charge is the Centre for Business and Industry Transformation (CBIT), at Nottingham Business School, part of Nottingham Trent University. They are joining forces with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), one of the top-50 ranked universities in the world, and industrial partner Think ESG, a top ESG auditing company appointed by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
As part of a £160,000 grant, this disruptive team is poised to change the “norm” by co-delivering a series of workshops with business leaders and co-creating and testing a range of More Sustainable More Profitable (MoSMoP) business models. The team will develop a toolbox and manuals to guide businesses through iteratively improve their existing business models to be MoSMoP, as well as providing a foundation for performance benchmarking.
The CBIT team, which is responsible for the UK’S top ranked entrepreneurship course, will bring their educational and research best practice into a range of co-creative workshops internationally: one in-person workshop in the UK and one workshop will be run in-person in China by SJTU. A further three collaborative workshops will be delivered online. Topics will include competence mapping for business sustainability, creating new value proposition, and business model innovation.
The project takes place over two years and up to 30 businesses – located in the UK, China and globally – will be chosen via an application process which seeks out organisations operating in the sustainability industry and leading, or looking to lead, transformation in this area, along with natural innovators who want to be more involved in sustainability.
Xiao Ma, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management at NBS and director of CBIT, is an internationally recognised thought-leader and educator in entrepreneurship, business transformation, and digital economy.
He said: “Typically, ESG criteria and standards are viewed as a ‘compliance’ issue and are only addressed from the supply-side of the business. However, ESG can also be a profit-making force if it is treated as a demand-side requirement. By incentivising firms to proactively innovate and develop more sustainable offerings with better profit margins, ESG can become a driing force for profitability.
“Targeting leading businesses with a strong ESG drive, the MosMop workshops will enable us to support these businesses in co-creating and testing new business and economic models that align with sustainability goals. This approach will ultimately result in new products / services and business models to empower greater profitability for these businesses, as they better meet the demand for more sustainable offerings.”
CBIT has a proven history in business transformation. The Centre runs an established and reputable venture builder which supports innovative and sustainable start-ups, and also boasts a team of researchers with expertise in the area of sustainability. Their combined expertise will allow them to co-develop new business models with businesses.
UK SMEs expect to increase workforces in the face of skills shortages, survey finds
More than half of the UK’s SMEs expect to increase their workforces by the end of 2023, despite nearly two thirds claiming their sector suffers from skills shortages, new Paragon Bank research has found.
Carried out by Opinium on behalf of FTSE250 specialist bank Paragon, the research of over 600 firms found 55% expect to grow employee numbers during the remainder of the year.
Increases to staffing levels coincide with rising confidence in the SME sector, with prior Paragon research finding that 62% of SMEs expect higher turnover in Q1 2023 compared with the same period last year.
While staffing levels are set to improve, the research also identifies challenges faced by SMEs in finding and retaining suitable employees, with a majority citing a skills shortage (64%) as a barrier to recruitment and a need to offer higher salaries to attract candidates (65%).
Meanwhile, six in 10 employers said they have introduced flexible working practices to attract potential recruits, whilst 70% of SMEs said they had increased wages to retain existing employees.
John Phillipou, Paragon’s Managing Director of SME Lending, said: ““After the challenges of high-inflation and rising energy costs it may come as a surprise that over half of all SMEs are planning to increase their number of full-time staff in 2023 – but with low-levels of unemployment and concerns over skill shortages, SMEs are set to prioritise recruitment to help them deliver on their growth ambitions.
“If SMEs are to fulfil their growth and recruitment goals it is essential they can access the support necessary to make them possible. As a specialist SME lender, the Paragon team is talking with businesses daily to understand their requirements and deliver funding packages that will allow them to achieve their goals.”
Great British Rail HQ decision is fantastic news for Derby, says Chamber Chief Exec
The Government decision that Derby will be the HQ for Great British Rail cements the city’s reputation at the heart of the UK rail industry according to East Midlands Chamber Chief Exec Scott Knowles.
He said: “This is fantastic news for Derby, cementing the city’s position as a national centre of the rail industry while delivering a huge boost to the local economy.
“Derby and the rail industry go hand in hand, with a 200-year legacy as the centre of UK rail remaining highly relevant today as the home of the country’s largest train factory, alongside the many small businesses in the supply chain that have established one of Europe’s largest rail clusters.
“Bringing the Great British Railways headquarters to Derby builds on this expertise, further developing the skillsets from its industrial heritage and shines a spotlight on the city’s economic strengths.
“When combined with other exciting regional projects such as the East Midlands Freeport, this will help to attract new investment from companies that may wish to be located near a national centre of excellence and create jobs for these skills to thrive – benefits that will be felt across the wider region and all relevant to the Government’s levelling up agenda.”
