Businesses are set to get free help to go green after Government funding worth £1million was awarded to support companies in Leicester in the race to net zero. The East Midlands Accelerator programme, led by East Midlands Chamber, will be delivered by De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), Loughborough University and the University of Leicester, alongside local authorities and business support organisations in the city. It will mean companies who have between 10 and 250 employees based in Leicester can get free help to discover their carbon footprint and put together practical steps to reduce emissions. Interested companies have until the end of January to sign up. The free support package on offer includes: •    Carbon Literacy Training – free one-day training to learn the basics of calculating your company’s carbon footprint and actions you can take •    Audits – Trained teams of students will visit you to complete a sustainability audit for your organisation •    Planning – helping you draw up a step-by-step plan to set and achieve your company’s decarbonisation plans •    Placements – Get a student or recent graduate to work within your company for free, focusing on a sustainability project •    Grants – Get support towards equipment or feasibility studies for larger-scale programmes. The zero carbon project is just one of five programmes that will be funded through the £1million pot, which comes from the Government’s UK Community Renewal Fund (CRF). Others focus on start-ups, mentoring, finance and digital transformation. Dr Andrew Reeves, Associate Professor in Energy and Sustainable Development at DMU, will be working with companies on the accelerator programme. He said: “We know from recent work we have done alongside the University of Leicester that while many companies want to do more to cut their carbon emission, they are not sure about what steps they can take to become more sustainable. “We hope that by combining all of our expertise, we can support them to take practical steps and have a plan in place which is achievable and could help to ‘green’ the whole of the city’s business eco-system. “It also gives students from the county’s three universities the chance to work with companies to help them reach these goals and play their part in climate change action.” Dr Sandra Lee, Social Impact Lead at the University of Leicester, said: “This programme brings students, businesses and academics together to share expertise and resources to tackle the climate crisis. It is an exciting development to our award-winning Innovation for Good Programme as well as building on our hugely successful environmental sustainability collaboration with De Montfort University and other partners.” The Leicester Accelerator partners are the Food and Drink Forum, Nottingham Business Venture, Start-up Leicester Co-Working and Leicester City Council. If you are an SME and would like to take part, get in touch with Leicester Innovation Hub which is co-ordinating all the expressions of interest: leicinnovation@le.ac.uk

It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.  It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years. Here we speak to pensions expert, Martin Tilley, a Director of WestBridge SSAS. As a long-standing advocate of the Small Self-Administered Scheme, my predictions for the industry in 2022 refer to the latest transfer regulations and their impact on this small area of the pensions market. Pension scams continue to make both industry and national press headlines, so it was no surprise that HM Government felt the need to consult upon and then publish new measures to prevent the transfer of an individual’s pension assets into vehicles that the ceding scheme considered to be, or at least potentially scams. I therefore predict painful times ahead for individuals wishing to transfer their pensions to new arrangements. Particularly as ceding schemes are now able to determine or interpret their own criteria for flagging a transfer as ‘amber’ and therefore triggering a referral to the Government’s MoneyHelper Service. Potential triggers of amber or even red flags can be “High risk investments,” defined simply as “high end of the normal range of risk in the current financial market” for example, consequently I predict that this service could soon be overrun with referral requests. I very much doubt that any ceding scheme will want to expend the time necessary to make an in dept analysis of such transfer to be able to come to an informed and common-sense decision. With the emphasis likely to be to err of the side of caution, raising a flag will become the default to the likely detriment of many legitimate transfers to SSASs, and the entrepreneurs of small businesses will be curtailed from being entrepreneurial because this red tape will prevent it. Perhaps the important point to raise here is that if you want to use a SSAS at some point in the future, it’s best to set up sooner rather than later as the potential delays to registration and transfers could mean that from day one the SSAS is not actually operable for maybe 6 months.

Fiona Duncan-Steer, founder of RSViP Business Networking Agency, discusses goal setting. As we enter into the shiny brand-new year of 2022, we firstly ask ourselves collectively: “Where on earth have the past two years gone?” Secondly, we start to think if we haven’t already about the year that lies ahead, pondering what is in store for us and for indeed mankind (if we want to get that deep about the pandemic). As a rule, new years promote new beginnings, the chance to start again in whichever form that takes for you. It may be the motivation you need to start that business you’ve been deliberating over for the past few years, change careers, start a family or a million other things that relate to YOU personally. ‘The new year, new me’ phrase has become a global phenomenon across social media in recent years, with people from all walks of life announcing their goals into the cloud in a bid to keep themselves accountable; you’ve said it out loud, so you must do it now – right? There is something to be said for sharing your goals with others, not least because it does indeed keep you accountable, but also hearing yourself say what you want to achieve out loud is quite a powerful thing – a commitment to yourself and those around you. What I would say given the past two years of upheaval and change however is to be kind to yourself when it comes to goal setting. I am not saying abolish any goals you have for fear of not meeting them, but be aware of the fact that right now it is just as acceptable to be still in operation if you are a business, to be moving forward in the right direction through taking small steps each day as both a business person and as a human being and if some days you don’t take any steps at all, that is still okay. By all means set those incredible goals by identifying what it is you actually want, after all that is basically what the end goal is – it is a result and with that comes a sense of achievement and a whole host of other positive stuff, but make that goal within reach, a challenge yes, attainable yes, but without impacting your mental health by adding unnecessary pressure to an already potentially stressful umbrella of negativity raining down from all directions in the form of this ever ongoing pandemic, change of government rulings and restrictions. The trick here is to ‘be self-aware’. Self-awareness is the key to happiness in a lot of ways and the queue jumper to becoming a better person overall, which in turn will present greater possibilities and opportunities through growth. The growth that will ultimately help you smash your goals without even realising you have!   Fiona Duncan-Steer, RSViP www.rsvipnetwork.co.uk

Nottingham City Council is set to adopt an Economic Recovery and Renewal Plan for the city which aims to improve Nottingham’s prosperity and local people’s prospects. As one of the partners of the Nottingham Growth Board, the City Council has been working with key local businesses, educational institutions, public sector organisations and One Nottingham to develop a bold vision for the city’s future economy as an inclusive, green, creative and digitally enabled city. The Plan addresses the major economic challenges Covid has created or accelerated, including rising unemployment, the decline of high street retail and the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on young people, BAME communities, women, older people & people with disabilities. It focuses on the delivery of six key ambitions: • City of Creativity & Culture – building on the Creative Quarter and Nottingham’s Unesco City of Literature status to become an internationally renowned centre of culture and creativity with a reinvigoration of Nottingham’s story and brand identity brought to life by events, festivals and cultural ideas. • Reshaping the City – physically regenerating the city to create a more sustainable and liveable place adapted for a post-Covid and more digitally enabled world using the opportunity to redevelop the Broadmarsh centre as a catalyst for wider change • Carbon Neutral City – transforming green investment at scale to build on Nottingham’s track record of delivery to become the UK’s first carbon neutral city by 2028. • Digital Enterprise – building on the city’s fintech strengths to enhance Nottingham as a significant national centre for digital technologies and enterprise, underpinned by a programme of upskilling across communities. • Entrepreneurship & Innovation – supporting businesses (existing, new and early stage) to survive and thrive, targeting growth in key sectors and developing the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. • Skills & Employment – preventing long-term mass unemployment by supporting a culture of enterprise and offering extensive and inclusive reskilling/upskilling programmes for citizens to take advantage of new opportunities. The Plan is being considered for adoption by the council’s Executive Board today (January 18th) and sets out a clear strategic framework that will underpin the council’s efforts to secure economic growth funding. A public consultation exercise was undertaken earlier this year, with the key finding that local people wanted to see greater emphasis on economic inclusion, so that the city genuinely offers opportunities for everyone. The Plan has consequently been refined so that the drive for inclusion is a theme that runs through the whole Plan. Nottingham City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Skills, Growth and Economic Development, Cllr Rebecca Langton, said: “All the Nottingham Growth Board partners have agreed on where Nottingham’s key strengths lie, and the issues we need to address, so that we focus our efforts on how best our city can grow and prosper post-Covid. “This Plan gives us a really clear direction for the city’s future, as well as a framework for securing the support and investment needed for the city to fulfil its economic potential through sustainable growth.”

With energy costs rising and increasing pressure on companies to reduce their carbon footprint, businesses are being challenged to increase manufacturing efficiency, whilst reducing energy consumption and operating costs. With the onset of winter introducing cooler outside air temperatures, free coolers offer an enhancement to air-cooled chillers. Using fresh air to provide partial or 100% free cooling, they offer a far more energy efficient and cost-effective way to provide chilled fluid to manufacturing processes. When ambient air temperatures are low enough, a free cooler starts to dissipate the system heat, allowing the chiller to reduce its power consumption. Free coolers reduce the annual total system energy consumption, enabling the savings made to be reinvested elsewhere into the business. Richard Metcalfe, director for temperature control and humidity experts, Newsome, explains: “Free Cooling is a fast and effective way to reduce your energy costs and carbon footprint on refrigerated, process water cooling applications. Depending on the external air temperatures and the temperature you want to achieve, chillers can typically be partially or fully offloaded for up to 90% of the year.” The ROI for implementing a Free Cooler in a traditional chiller system is truly impressive, depending on location, some companies could have a payback period of as little as 12 months. The system not only reduces the energy consumption and contributes to a greener profile for companies – but can also extend the chiller lifespan. Traditionally, free cooling systems are generally only available to purchase. However, for a limited period – Newsome plans to offer companies the opportunity to rent a free cooling system to allow them to evaluate the potential cost savings available, before investing in a solution that is fully tailored to meet their individual business requirements. For more information visit the website https://newsome.ltd.uk/ For enquiries email: enquiries@newsome.ltd.uk or call 01422 371711.

An alliance made up of civic, political, business and cultural leaders in Derby is being formed to put pressure on football league chiefs to remove the obstacles blocking the takeover of Derby County – starting with a meeting with administrators tomorrow. The Rams have already been handed a 21-point deduction and a transfer embargo by the English Football League (EFL) for previous breaches of Financial Fair Play rules and for going into administration. The club is up for sale and administrators, who have three parties interested in buying the club, were due to announce their preferred bidder last week. However, it appears the announcement has been blocked by the EFL due to claims made against the club by Middlesbrough and Wycombe Wanderers, as well as putting the club under a second transfer embargo and demanding proof that the Rams have the funds to complete the season, while also threatening expulsion from the Football League. This has resulted in a national uproar and concerns that the EFL is acting unfairly. A petition asking the Sports Minister to intervene has already exceeded 42,000 signatories. Now, ‘Team Derby’ is calling on the EFL to allow the Rams takeover to proceed – and for the claims by Middlesbrough and Wycombe to be dealt with after the takeover is completed. Leader of Derby City Council, Councillor Chris Poulter, said: “As a lifelong Rams fan I, like many others, am concerned about continuing uncertainty facing Derby County Football Club. “As well as being of personal importance to me – like thousands of citizens from across the city and indeed the world – it is also significant to me as a leader in Derby. As a council, we understand the impact and value of having a football club in our city. It’s vital that city leaders come together and do everything we can to secure its future. “Football supporters, including those from rival clubs, and the wider city are united in speaking up for the club and Derby City Council stands firmly with them. Myself and Paul Simpson, our Chief Executive, continue to meet regularly with administrators to ensure the future of our club.” John Forkin, Managing Director of Marketing Derby, said: “This cannot stand and we are appealing to the EFL directly to seek an urgent meeting to make it clear how important Derby County is to the city as a football club, driver of the economy and a positive member of the local community. “Marketing Derby and our Bondholders stand with Derby County through this difficult period. We are calling on the EFL to act responsibly and stop moving the goalposts and to allow the preferred bidder to proceed and to lift the transfer embargo to help stop players leaving and allow the club to stabilise and rebuild. “We will be working with Derby City Council, MPs and businesses across the city to make as much noise as we can to make sure our concerns are heard by the people in power.” Adam Buss, who is director of Derby’s City of Culture 2025 bid, is part of the alliance. He said: “Here at the Derby City of Culture 2025 team we believe that culture is more than just art. Sport is crucial to this mix and Derby County is at the centre of Derby’s identity and a crucial part of life for many throughout the city and county. “The collective joy and despair that goes with supporting any sports team is part of what makes sport great but right now the concern is that this passion and collective identity could be lost due to financial implications. “The fans ARE the club – managers, players and administrators will come and go but it is crucial that institutions like Derby County are stabilised and enabled to compete so that more memories can be created and the power of sport is used, as it should be, to bring people together.” Backing the Team Derby campaign, Scott Knowles, Chief Executive of East Midlands Chamber, said: “Derby County is an integral component of the city’s heritage, make-up and economy, with the prosperity of both intrinsically linked. “A successful football team competing at the top of the sport creates a healthy atmosphere across the whole area and this will always have positive economic consequences. “Businesses located in and around the city benefit from the tens of thousands of people who turn up every match to support their club – pubs, cafés, restaurants and shops will be packed before each game, while local transport networks rely on the increased number of passengers to remain viable. “But it’s also much more than that. Derby County is a part of the city and county’s fabric, and every passing day in which the club is kept in its current state of limbo damages the communities and businesses that rely on this sporting institution. “East Midlands Chamber wholeheartedly supports all efforts to find a swift resolution that ensures the club’s survival in the long term.” In the meantime, people who want to show their support for the campaign are being asked to do the following: *Write to their local MP asking for the EFL to allow the sale to proceed. *Write to the EFL. The address is EFL House, 10-12 West Cliff, Preston, PR1 8HU. To contact the EFL visit https://www.efl.com/contact-form/. *Sign the change.org petition, which can be found here: https://www.change.org/p/sports-minister-for-england-sports-minister-to-look-into-the-ongoing-situation-between-the-efl-derby-county.

The architect behind Nottingham’s Acres Group has designs for huge growth for 2022 after already achieving phenomenal expansion since the start of the global pandemic. Edward Acres, who founded Acres Architects from a laptop in his parents’ spare bedroom in 2008, has seen his business expand from a turnover of a few hundred thousand pounds to an empire projected to turn over £10m in less than two years. His team of three people at the start of the pandemic has expanded by around 600 per cent to 20 full-time staff in the same period – and the Acres Group is looking to almost double that number this year. The success is partly down to Edward’s hard work, vision and refusal to stand still, while many competitors were making cuts in the face of Covid-19. But his decision to offer diversified services and formally set up a growing list of non-architectural companies within his group is the main reason why the business has grown so much in such a short space of time. Now, the group boasts various additional divisions, including Acres Investments, Acres Developments, Online Media Video Productions (OMVP) and Acres Construction. Established only 18 months ago, Acres Construction began with a pipeline of works to support Acres Architects, which was struggling with its existing crop of contractors, which largely specialised in residential projects. Acres Construction has now secured larger scale business and commercial contracts such as property developer residential projects like apartment schemes and luxury private gated developments, as well as dilapidation works, SEN schools and interior fit-out works. It is currently working towards a sales pipeline of £25m in 2022. Edward said: “These new facets of the business have created this amazing company growth. Our clients love the one-stop-shop, where we add levels of accountability and security that other practices can’t offer. All processes are effectively delivered under one roof. “This linear process and, most importantly, our ability to provide clients with straightforward communication throughout all aspects of a build, has generated huge interest and popularity. “As a result, our client base has sky-rocketed – and we are planning for even greater expansion of our services and projects in 2022.” Edward said that there was a very simple reason that he was able to achieve something in two years that might typically take decades to achieve. “I stopped thinking like an architect, and started thinking more like a businessman,” he said. “More and more investors are coming forward for support, and this full, turnkey solution provides them with a combined set of assets and a holistic overview that they value highly, and which architects alone do not offer.” The Acres Group’s record-breaking 2021 included a decision to exhibit for the first time at Grand Designs Live – a significant investment which paid off in the shape of a large spike in client enquiries. This, and the enormous traction created by the setting up of several new arms of the company, has led to growth in all aspects of the business. Acres Architects alone is seeing a big increase in enquiries for residential developments, particularly countryside barn conversions – citing 13 separate barn conversion projects on the go currently. “We are still gaining momentum,” said Edward. “While 2021 was an incredible year for us, our sights are firmly set on adding more commercial projects, targeting more property developers across the UK, adding more turnover and building a bigger team in 2022. We’re thinking big and we’re going places.” Acres Architects is a multiple award-winning, RIBA accredited firm. The Acres Group operates from its expanding head office at Nottingham Science Park, near to the University of Nottingham. To find out more about the services provided by the Acres Group, please visit www.acresarchitects.co.uk, email info@acresarchitects.co.uk or phone 0115 838 9738.

The majority of Northamptonshire firms expect their turnover will increase during 2022 but are bracing themselves for rising prices, according to the county’s largest business survey. Service sector companies were the most upbeat about 2022 and although the majority of county manufacturers were also confident about their future turnover figures, this was offset by many suggesting they expected to see their profits fall in the next 12 months. The revelations came in the latest Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) carried out by Northamptonshire Chamber of Commerce at the end of 2021 to find out how businesses were faring. Northamptonshire Chamber head of policy, Sean Rose, said: “It’s good to see that Northamptonshire businesses are positive about the future. However, despite the optimism, concerns about price pressures are once again dominating our survey results. “Almost 90 per cent of service firms and nearly 60 per cent of manufacturers who responded to our survey indicated that they expect prices to increase during the first three months of 2022.” The survey also revealed that nearly half of the county’s service firms had seen a rise in their domestic sales during the last quarter whilst more than 80 per cent of manufacturers had seen their current and advanced domestic orders remain constant or increase. Nearly 80 per cent of Northamptonshire’s service firms reported that their overseas orders had increased or remained at the same level as the previous three months. Around half of service firms said their workforce had grown at the end of 2021 and nearly 70 per cent of manufacturers reported that their numbers had remained stable. However, businesses in both sectors which tried to recruit at the end of 2021 said they had experienced difficulties in hiring new staff.