“Today’s announcement is woefully inadequate. After decades of underfunding, the rail network in the North is not fit for purpose. It is largely twin-track Victorian infrastructure trying to cope with the demands of a 21st Century economy. Leaders from across the North and from across the party political divide came together to ask for a network that would upgrade the North for this century and in line with the rest of the country. Our statutory advice asked for an over £40 billion network but the Government has decided to provide even less than half of that. “The leaders of the North, jointly with Government, have worked hard to come up with an evidence-led plan to help reverse the chasm of under investment over the last four decades to give passengers in the North a railway network fit for today and for generations to come. That doesn’t mean a bit here and a bit there of minor upgrades to the existing network. It means transformational change for the whole rail network. That means building HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail in full. That means good east-west connections, improved reliability and a better customer experience to bring about modal shift to meet our decarbonisation strategy. “Whilst we have been working on our upgrade plans we have watched as billions have been poured into HS2 building work from London to Birmingham. We have watched as billions have been poured into Crossrail being dug out and built across the capital. It is time for the North to have its fair share. It’s time for the North to have a proper railway network to allow our towns and cities, our businesses, and our people to thrive and grow for generations to come. It’s time for real evidence of levelling up. “If we truly want to level up the country we don’t need words and promises. We need commitment. We need investment. We need Government to make good its pledge to the North and to deliver funding so we can deliver value back into UK PLC. “We will be studying today’s Integrated Rail Plan announcement closely and will consult with our TfN Board before giving our considered response.”

With the release of the highly anticipated Integrated Rail Plan for the North and the Midlands, the Government has finally confirmed that HS2 is coming to the East Midlands – however not as originally planned, with scaled back plans angering businesses and seeing claims of broken promises. The HS2 eastern leg to Leeds has been scrapped, with HS2 stopping near Nottingham. This cuts down the original plan to connect London through to the centres of Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has instead revealed a plan he says will provide “faster journeys, increased capacity and more frequent services, up to 10 years sooner than previously planned” with HS2. The Integrated Rail Plan outlines a £96 billion programme which the Government says will transform rail services in the North and the Midlands. The new blueprint delivers 3 high-speed lines: Crewe to Manchester, Birmingham to the East Midlands (with HS2 trains continuing to central Nottingham and central Derby, Chesterfield and Sheffield on an upgraded main line), and a new high-speed line from Warrington to Manchester and to the western border of Yorkshire. The complete electrification of the Midland Main Line from London to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield is also in the plans, as well as the delivery of a new train station for Toton. Today Shapps said: “I am proud to announce our Integrated Rail Plan. A £96 billion programme which will transform rail services in the North and the Midlands, the largest single rail investment ever made by a UK government. An investment that rather being felt decades into the future, but much, much sooner. “This unprecedented commitment to build a world-class railway that delivers for passengers and freight, for towns and cities, for communities and businesses, will benefit 8 out of the top 10 busiest rail corridors across the North and Midlands, providing faster journeys, increased capacity and more frequent services, up to 10 years sooner than previously planned. “When I became Transport Secretary in 2019, the HS2 project was already about 10 years old. I was concerned that costs were rising and that newer projects like Midlands Rail Hub and Northern Powerhouse Rail hadn’t been fully factored into the plans. “Under the original scheme, the HS2 track would not have reached the East Midlands or the North until the early 2040s. Clearly, a rethink was needed to make sure the project would deliver for the regions that it served as soon as possible. “This is how the Integrated Rail Plan was born – a desire to deliver sooner – and so the Prime Minister and I asked Douglas Oakervee to lead the work and make recommendations on the best way forward. One of his key criticisms was that HS2 was designed in isolation from the rest of the transport network. “The original plans gave us high-speed lines to the East Midlands, but it didn’t serve any of the East Midlands’ 3 main cities, for example. If you wanted to get to Nottingham or Derby, you would have had to go to a parkway station and change on to a local tram or train. “Oakervee made a clear and very convincing case for considering HS2 as part of an integrated rail plan should work alongside local, regional and national services, not just those travelling between our biggest cities. We accepted those recommendations and asked the National Infrastructure Commission to develop options. “The Commission reported back with 2 key suggestions. First, that we adopt a flexible approach, initially setting out a core integrated rail network. But that we remain open to future additions as long as expectations on costs and timing were met. “Second, that strengthening regional rail links would be most economically beneficial for the North and the Midlands. Connecting towns with the main rail network, bringing hope and opportunity to communities who for too long have felt left behind. And we should seek to bring those benefits to passengers and local economies as soon as possible. “These, then, were the guiding principles behind the Integrated Rail Plan I’m announcing today. An ambitious and unparalleled programme that not only overhauls the inter-city links across the North and Midlands. But that also speeds up the benefits for local areas and serves the destinations people most want to reach. “This new blueprint delivers 3 high-speed lines. First, Crewe to Manchester. Second, Birmingham to the East Midlands, with HS2 trains continuing to central Nottingham and central Derby, Chesterfield and Sheffield on an upgraded main line. And third, a brand new high-speed line from Warrington to Manchester and to the western border of Yorkshire, slashing journey times across the North of England. “I’ve heard some people say we are just electrifying the Transpennine Route. This is wrong. What we’re actually doing is investing £23 billion to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail and the Transpennine Route Upgrade, unlocking east to west travel across the north of England. “So in total, this package is 110 miles of new high-speed line. All of it in the Midlands and the North. It is 180 miles of newly-electrified line. All of it in the Midlands and North. “We will upgrade the East Coast Main Line, with a package of investment on track improvements and digital signalling, bringing down journey times between London, Leeds, Darlington, Newcastle and Edinburgh, bringing benefits to the North East much much sooner than under previous plans. And adds capacity and speeds up services over more than 400 miles of line, the vast majority of it in the Midlands and North. “We will study how best to take HS2 trains into Leeds as well. And we will start work on a new West Yorkshire mass transit system – righting the wrong of this major city – probably the largest in Europe – which doesn’t have a mass transit system. We commit today to supporting West Yorkshire Combined Authority over the long term to ensure that this time, it actually gets done. “In short, Mr Speaker, we are about to embark on the biggest single acts of levelling up of any government in history. It is 5 times than what was spent on Crossrail, 10 times than what was spent on the Olympics. “It will achieve the same, similar or faster journey times to London and on the core Northern Powerhouse Rail network than the original proposals and will bring the benefits years earlier, as well as doubling, or in some cases tripling, capacity. “Let me set out a few of these investments:

• rail journeys between Birmingham and Nottingham cut from an hour and a quarter to 26 minutes. City centre to city centre
• journeys between York and Manchester down to 55 minutes, from 83 minutes today
• commuters will be able to get from Bradford to Leeds in just 12 minutes – almost half the time it takes today
• there will be earlier benefits for places like Sheffield and Chesterfield
• trips from Newcastle to Birmingham will be slashed by almost 30 minutes and passengers in Durham and Darlington will benefit from smoother, more reliable trains

“As the IRP delivers not just for our largest cities, but also for smaller places and towns. Places such as Kettering, Market Harborough, Leicester, Loughborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, Doncaster, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Stalybridge could all see improvements, electrification or faster services, benefitting in ways that they would not have done under the previous HS2 programme. “We’re not stopping there. Today’s plan is about those places which connect and interact with HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail. The scale of ambition with many of these projects lies outside the scope of this plan. “Just yesterday I opened the first Beeching reversal. Reversing the Beeching acts. And we are going to be doing the same in Northumberland – the Ashington, Blyth, Newcastle line. We’re investing £2 billion in cycling and walking, £3 billion in turn-up-and-go bus services. And 10s of billions to upgrade our country’s roads. “After so many decades of decline, constrained capacity and poor reliability, finally, this plan will give passengers in the North and Midlands the services they need and deserve. “It’s not just about infrastructure, we’re going to make train travel much easier as well. Today, I can confirm £360 million to reform fares and ticketing with the rollout of contactless, pay-as-you-go ticketing at 700 urban stations, including around 400 in the North. “This is a landmark plan, by far the biggest of any network improvement and focused on the North and Midlands, with more seats, more frequent services, and shorter journeys that meets the needs of both today’s passengers and future generations. “And we’re getting started immediately today with another £625 million for the electrification between Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, bringing the total on the Transpennine Route Upgrade to £2 billion and counting. And £249 million to further electrify the Midland Main Line between Kettering and Market Harborough with work starting on the Integrated Rail Plan by Christmas, Mr Speaker. “Communities of every size will benefit, right across the North and the benefit, in many cases years earlier than planned by taking a fresh look at HS2 and how it fits with the rest of the rail system. We’ll be able to build a much-improved railway that will provide similar or better services to almost every destination than the outdated vision drawn up for HS2 over a decade ago. “This plan will bring the North and Midlands closer together and fire up their economies to rival London and the South East. It will rebalance our economic geography. It will spread opportunity. It will level up our country. And it will bring benefits at least a decade or more earlier.” Responding to the announcement, Richard Blackmore, CBI Midlands Director, said: “High quality infrastructure is fundamental to rising living standards and levelling up the country. The Integrated Rail Plan is a significant investment that will go some way towards modernising our ageing rail networks and can be delivered at pace. “But businesses across the Midlands and Northern England will be justifiably disappointed to see the goalposts have moved at the eleventh hour, and concerned that some of the areas most sorely in need of development will lose out as a result of the scaled back plans.” Commenting on the Integrated Rail Plan, Michelle Craven-Faulkner, partner and rail lead at Shoosmiths, said: “The eastern leg of HS2 was set to create new gateways to parts of the UK that are currently underserved by fast rail links, while also improving connectivity cross country between some of our major cities. “The proposed infrastructure had one of the best economic cases of any part of the new high-speed rail network, supporting 74,000 new jobs and £4bn in gross value added in the East Midlands alone. “Improving the rail system isn’t just about the economic and social benefits, though. Rail travel has key environmental advantages. While the new plans will go some way to upgrading local transport links, scaling back high-speed rail will limit much needed connectivity and hinder the UK’s journey to net zero. “Promoting a culture of rail travel is a noble aim. However, until its benefits are fully realised, and greater consideration is given to increasing capacity, reliability and speed, this will remain a dream, not a reality.” Commenting on Government’s Integrated Rail Plan, Sir John Peace, chair of Midlands Connect said: “Today’s announcement gives businesses and local leaders the reassurance they’ve been waiting for – that HS2 is coming to the East Midlands. “Although these plans are different in some respects to what we’d expected, there are a lot of positives in here and lots of things to be excited about – a new high speed connection between Birmingham and East Midlands Parkway, direct links onto HS2 for Derby, Nottingham, and Chesterfield and a commitment to the Midlands Rail Hub. “Now that we have certainty, we must focus our efforts on delivery. Our challenge to Government is simple, it should move as quickly as possible to get spades in the ground and bring benefits to local people sooner.”

Pall-Ex has celebrated 25 years in business with an anniversary and awards event recognising the achievements of its staff, shareholder members across the UK and its international partners. Around 700 guests from over 170 independent UK hauliers, international partners and Pall-Ex Group staff members attended the event, held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole in mid-November which was hosted by the star of Cold Feet, The Hobbit and Line of Duty, James Nesbitt! As well as the celebrity host, guests were entertained before the awards began with a performance from a string octet during a glittering drinks reception, as well as VR simulators, mirror men and LED light dancers. On its road to success, Pall-Ex has gone from moving 117 pallets on its first night to transporting over 45,000 pallets per night nationally and internationally. Pall-Ex was founded by Hilary Devey in 1996 and helped to establish the palletised model of haulage distribution in the UK; the company is now owned by its senior management team and the network of shareholder members, who completed the purchase of the business from Devey in late 2019. During the awards ceremony, Severn Transport Services (STS) was presented with the coveted Pall-Ex Member of the Year award, sponsored by The Barcode Warehouse, which was voted for by fellow members of the network. The Welshpool-based haulier was launched by directors Steve Goodwin and Mark Howard in September 2019, just six months before the pandemic and lockdown. Despite these challenges, STS has consistently been one of the highest performing Pall-Ex members, increasing pallet volumes steadily month on month and delivering exceptional service. Pall-Ex regional winners were also celebrated, sponsored by Ryder, with Moody Logistics & Storage winning for Scotland and the North East and Austin Wilkinson & Sons winning for the North. Matthews Haulage Limited claimed the award for the Central Region, M Pinches & Sons for Wales and the South West and in the South East region, John Bywater Transport Limited claimed the prize. Tipton based Advanced Delivery Services, Hull based Neill & Brown Global Logistics Group Limited and Denbighshire haulier Mars-Jones Ltd were all highlighted as the Highest KPI Performers in their respective categories, with the awards sponsored by Allports Group. Additional winners included John Dinham Transport which picked up the Business Development Award, sponsored by Atom Logistics, Devereux Developments Ltd who took home the New Member of the Year Award, sponsored by Honeywell and Pall-Ex Italia retained the European Network of the Year accolade which was sponsored by Blue Chip. Winners were selected for compliance, quality distribution, service excellence and communication throughout the last 12 months. Pall-Ex Group Stars, sponsored by FloGas, were also awarded to internal staff members and were also nominated by fellow colleagues and network members. In addition, four recipients were chosen for the Group’s DMC Outstanding Contribution Award, in recognition of their longstanding commitment and brilliant service. Two businesses were recognised, with Bullet Express and Devereux Developments taking the honours. Furthermore, two individuals from across the Group were highlighted. Enric Estruch, who has been instrumental to the establishment of Pall-Ex Iberia was recognised at the gala dinner, as well as Stephen Long, who this year retired after making a significant contribution to both his family business, Longs of Leeds and Pall-Ex as a whole, having joined the business at 17. Kevin Buchanan, Group CEO at Pall-Ex Group, comments: “Our network members deserve recognition for the significant role they have played in building Pall-Ex into the successful logistics operation it is today. “The industry as a whole has faced a tough couple of years, with the pandemic and Brexit creating unique challenges, and our members deserve to be celebrated as haulage heroes. “Collectively, they have gone above and beyond to ensure continuation of service despite the difficulties and their hard work and support has underlined Pall-Ex’s leading position within the sector, as well as our commitment to the industry. “It is a real joy to celebrate our 25^th anniversary in person and to be able to mark this milestone and our collective achievements with a proper celebration.”

Licensing Law Consultancy remains successful in obtaining late licences in several cities nationwide for franchise brand, Chaiiwala. This is an important part of Chaiiwala’s strategy for business growth as well as better serving the communities in which they operate. Chaiiwala is accelerating its plans for exponential growth in the UK. Currently they operate around 50 stores with plans in motion to open a further 200 stores in the next few years. They are also making similar progress in other countries such as Canada, USA and Dubai. Chaiiwala’s franchise director, Nil Naik said: “We have been very pleased in working with Walaiti Rathore and Licensing Law Consultancy. “The quality of their service and results in obtaining late licences nationwide has been outstanding, including in some very challenging circumstances. “We look forward to continuing to work with them for all our licensing requirements.”

Unemployment in the East Midlands has dropped to its lowest level since the beginning of the pandemic, new figures show. The region’s unemployment rate fell to 4.1% for the period between July and September 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics. This marked a 0.2% reduction compared to the previous reported period between June and August, while it was also 0.2% below the UK average. It is the lowest unemployment rate for the East Midlands since the three months to May 2020, when it was 4% – having peaked at 5.9% earlier this year. East Midlands Chamber Chief Executive, Scott Knowles, said: “It’s promising to see the jobs market growing again after the struggles of the past year and suggests the economy is moving in the right direction. “The latest figures reflect how industries that are heavily represented in our region’s economy – including hospitality, retail, and leisure and tourism – are recovering well after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions. “At the same time, we’ve also seen initiatives like the Kickstart Scheme – in which the Chamber has played a key role as a gateway organisation to facilitate almost 1,500 job placements – contribute to helping young people, who had been disproportionately affected by Covid, find work. “We expect the region’s jobs market to continue improving, with the latest data from the Chamber’s Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) for Q3 2021 showing a net 25% of East Midlands businesses saying they have increased headcount over the previous three months and a net 38% expecting a rise in employment over the coming three months.”

Skills gaps and inflation cause concerns for economic recovery

National figures show that job vacancies hit another record high in October at 1.17 million – almost 400,000 higher than pre-Covid – as employers continued to struggle with skills shortages. This is despite the end of the furlough scheme, which was still supporting an estimated 1.1 million people just before it ended on 30 September. Scott added: “The record number of vacancies highlights the acute hiring crisis faced by many businesses right now. While two-thirds (67%) of companies attempted recruitment in the previous quarter, according to our QES, 71% of this cohort said they faced problems with hiring the right people. “While some predicted the end of furlough would release more of the workforce back into the labour market to plug these issues, the continued rise in job openings suggests the problems go much deeper. “We have skills gaps across the board that urgently need to be addressed – something that was highlighted most pertinently by the HGV driver shortage during the recent fuel supply crisis. “Many of these are longstanding but as Brexit and Covid have driven a more deep-seated decline in labour supply, they have come to the fore more prominently. “The concern here is that an inability to address the skills gap and bolster productivity will dampen the economic recovery. “This could become particularly problematic if inflation, which surged by 4.2% in the year to October, continues to rise as it hits the bottom line of businesses – and therefore put a squeeze on the gains we’ve made in employment.”