Timms Solicitors, which has offices in Derby, Burton, Ashby and Swadlincote, have been hailed the Midlands Solicitor Firm of the Year in the British Wills and Probate Awards. The Wills and Probate team from Timms were presented with the prestigious award at the 5th annual gala event in Birmingham in recognition of all round excellence, client engagement, technology transformation, commitment to staff development and providing an outstanding service to the local community. Managing Partner Fiona Moffat said: “We are delighted that the Wills and Probate team have been recognised with this prestigious award. “We have been serving our community and clients from our High Street bases for more than 130 years and, under the leadership of Jo Robinson, our established team has gone from strength to strength. “  We are committed to investing in all of our staff and as a result we are able to provide an exceptional service to our clients.” Head of Department Jo Robinson added: “I am particularly delighted that the award has highlighted how the team has gone above and beyond to support clients and our wider local communities. “We are often asked to host informal sessions to raise awareness and highlight the importance of planning for later life or the unexpected. “The judges were also particularly complimentary about our commitment to embracing new technologies to improve internal and external communications and processes as well as our efforts to assist other solicitor firms and accountants by sharing best practice. “Our focus moving forwards is to continue to develop and grow the department, maintain our current high standard of work, and for each fee earner to develop their own specialism. We seek to broaden our contentious probate department as this is a rapidly growing area of work.”

While Oliver Lockwood was on furlough in 2020 the seed of an idea began to formulate for his future. Having always loved gardening could he go from a corporate marketing job to being someone who turns up in a van, sits on a bucket to eat lunch and looks after someone else’s garden? After working on a family garden, the answer came back as a huge yes! Oliver started Stonebridge Garden Services in September of that year providing lawn care and garden maintenance to residential customers in Leicestershire. Growth has been rapid as the team expands, including his wife Gemma. It is seeing more than 50% of its income from repeat business with new work largely coming via referrals from existing customers. A meeting with his accountant led to the topic of grant funding and Oliver was referred to the Business Gateway Growth Hub and Business Adviser, Aruna Bhagwan. Over the last year, Oliver and Gemma have had several meetings with Aruna and also attended workshops on applying for grant funding and HR through the Business Gateway. Oliver said: “We’ve been willing to spend money on training but as a start-up, it’s vital for us to take advantage of everything free. The concern I have when you look around at other things is the quality. “Aruna signposted quality, free training and advice. Above anything else, that’s the thing we’ve been very confident about. Everything that comes via the Business Gateway has come with almost a quality badge attached because it’s been very good.” Stonebridge aims to be a sustainable business. It has changed a lot of its gardening kit to electric and installed an electric charging point for vans. It was Aruna who introduced them to the VegVan Community Farm, another Business Gateway client, enabling them to divert green waste from landfill to the farm where they can use it. Business Adviser, Aruna Bhagwan said: “Oliver’s passion and enthusiasm for the business is infectious. They’ve really worked on setting something up which will benefit their people and their customers. I’ve been able to guide them with their strategy and signpost them to other resources, which is a key strength of the Growth Hub. They’ve also adjusted their approach to grant applications, taking advice on board from our conversations and courses attended. Stonebridge is definitely one to watch.” One thing that did leave a lasting impression on Oliver from his last job at Ibstock PLC was the impact a social conscience and vision could have and how you can use business to do good. Oliver explained: “It’s rare gardening companies are set up to succeed and look after their customers or look after staff through salaries or holiday pay. Fundamentally, we identified gardening as an area we had a passion for and one that would get us close to people who really needed our help.” “We’re finding more and more people who are caring for older relatives with dementia or other illnesses. We have eight staff, all the kit we need and a scheduling system second to none that family members can use to see payments and schedules.” Social responsibility also applies to those working for the business. Oliver continued: “When you find people and you can give them a safe space to work, they feel both respected and appreciated. If they do specific tasks very well it allows them to grow with those tasks.  If they love certain jobs why would I get someone else to do them? “This not only opens up opportunities for them but us too as we optimise our workforce and add specialisms where appropriate. We need to stop using words like disabilities because when we hire people, they might not be able to do everything, but if they can do the things we want them to do well, where’s the disability?” Oliver has ADHD which he says was more of a challenge whilst at school than now. He feels that it’s a benefit far more than a negative. Therefore, he is keen to bring out people’s strengths rather than focus on labels. Oliver plans to have, at any given point in time, at least 25% of their hours operated by people with learning difficulties or disabilities. He also wants to diversify his team to include more women and people from different ethnicities and backgrounds. But Oliver emphasises that every single decision has been made to have a commercial upside. “It costs a lot of money to bring someone onboard and there’s all that uncertainty. So when you’ve got someone you can dedicate to certain tasks, like mowing, and they are happy to do that, they are in a comfortable environment and you look after them, they are going to stick with you – hopefully for a long time. So you don’t have to worry about onboarding new people or staff turnover.”

As Penny Mordaunt fails to reach the necessary 100 backers to become PM, and with Sir Graham Brady perhaps unintentionally casting doubt on Boris Johnson’s claims by saying that Rishi Sunak was the “only” candidate to earn 100 backers, the decision of the next Prime Minister of the UK has been decided. This marks the second PM unelected by the people, and the third this year, and is likely to lead to a very divided reception from the public. Businesses in the region, however, will be hoping for swift and decisive action to bring back some modicum of stability.

Nottingham law firm Nelsons has promoted eight employees within several of its departments. Chartered financial planner Zoe Till has been promoted to investment director, while Gemma Hopper, Sarah Gregory, Emily Rose, Katy Swinbourne and Ella Sheppard have been promoted to senior associate. Additionally, Paula Haverkamp has been promoted to associate and litigation executive and Sophie-Laura Noble to senior marketing executive – collectively these eight women have worked at Nelsons for more than 46 years. Investment management specialist Zoe, who has 19 years’ experience in the financial services industry, joined Nelsons in 2018. She said: “In the four years since I joined the firm, Nelsons has continued to grow and adapt in response to the changing needs of our clients.  We are a truly motivated team that provides comprehensive, high-quality advice and expertise that empowers the clients, trustees and attorneys that we work with. “My main priority moving forwards is to continue to bolster our profile in the region and beyond.” The promotion comes after a successful year for Zoe, which saw her make it to the final eleven in the ‘Financial Adviser of the Year – Midlands and East Anglia’ category at the Women in Financial Advice Awards. Meanwhile, Gemma joined Nelsons’ Court of Protection team in 2019, after qualifying as a solicitor with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) in 2016, to specialise in powers of attorney and deputyship appointments. Gemma has recently been awarded the Solicitors for the Elderly Full Accredited Membership for her work in advising on older client law. Sarah, who joined the corporate team last year, specialises in acquisitions, mergers and disposals, while Emily, who joined Nelsons in 2014 before qualifying in 2018, advises on medical negligence cases and inquests. In the family department, Katy, who joined the firm in 2020, advises on children law matters, including adoption and care proceedings, whereas employment specialist Ella advises businesses and individuals on a wide range employment law and HR matters. She joined Nelsons in 2015 and qualified as a solicitor four years later. Paula has been advising on landlord and tenant issues as well as property disputes at Nelsons since 2001 and Sophie-Laura, who joined in 2019, is an integral part of the firm’s marketing team. Stewart Vandermark, chief executive at Nelsons, said: “Zoe, Gemma, Sarah, Emily, Katy, Ella, Paula and Sophie-Laura have all shown great dedication in their respective areas of expertise. The fact we have so many people being promoted in Nottingham is a testament to all their hard work and I’d like to congratulate everyone on their promotions.”

The UK’s world-leading manufacturing industries will be boosted thanks to £211 million in new government funding for battery research and innovation, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg confirmed today. The record funding uplift will be delivered through the Faraday Battery Challenge, which began in 2017 and supports world-class scientific technology development and manufacturing scale-up capability for batteries in the UK. It will help to seize on opportunities for private investment and economic growth in industries where powerful, fast charging batteries will be essential – such as domestic energy storage and electric vehicles. The funding, from last year’s settlement, will be delivered between 2022 and 2025 by UK Research and Innovation with support from the Faraday Institution, Innovate UK and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre. It’s claimed it will help the sector deliver 100,000 jobs in battery gigafactories and the battery supply chain by 2040. Supporting the scale-up of these technologies and unlocking further private investment supports the sustainable growth of the economy, which will boost tax revenues and put public services on a more secure footing for the longer term, helping improve life for people across the UK. Speaking on a visit to the £130 million UKBIC, the UK’s centre of excellence in battery manufacturing, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “Safe and powerful batteries are central to our plans to grow the industries of the future. From our world leading renewables industry, to our growing electric vehicle sector, secure supplies of batteries are key to delivering jobs and prosperity.

“The Faraday Battery Challenge has brought the UK’s greatest minds and best facilities together to develop the innovations that will help us achieve this goal. The work it has done since 2017 has laid the groundwork for our future economic success and I am pleased to confirm this work will continue, supported by record funding.”

Extra training is being provided for HGV drivers and food production is becoming more automated thanks to funding worth more than £1.6 million from the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership.