Transformative plans submitted for King Power Stadium
Major plans have been submitted to expand Leicester City Football Club’s King Power Stadium through enlargement of the East Stand, and a mixed use development on land to the east and south-west of the stadium, to create a new leisure destination.
Full planning permission is being sought for the extension of the East Stand to provide additional seating capacity (a capacity increase of over 8,000), achieved by creating a new upper tier. A new accommodation block under the new upper tier and to the rear of the existing East Stand would provide additional General Admission (GA), enhanced GA
and Hospitality offers over four floors.
The North and South Stands would also be expanded, not to increase capacity but provide enhanced comfort level for existing fans.
Meanwhile the football club is seeking outline planning permission for a new club retail store, 220-room hotel, commercial office space and food & beverage uses, residential tower, 6,000 capacity multi-purpose arena, multi-storey car park and energy centre.
Initial proposals for the development were revealed earlier this year, alongside a public consultation. At the time Leicester City Chairman, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, said: “The unveiling of these plans represents a significant milestone in the long history of Leicester City Football Club, and one that we hope will continue to put our supporters and our community at the heart of its long-term future.
“Through the consultation with our fans, our local community, businesses and stakeholders, we hope to achieve something that we can all be proud of for years to come. It’s these conversations that will help us communicate our vision to the people at its heart and take onboard the views of our community to help shape it.
“While this vision is in its early stages, I know the prospect of additional capacity for more Leicester City supporters in King Power Stadium, has long been anticipated by us all, particularly after seven near sold-out Premier League seasons.
“The plans to build on the Club’s recent growth – with a stadium expansion as part of an exciting wider site development – is a wonderful demonstration of the shared ambition of both the Football Club and the city of Leicester.
“It is a project with the potential to generate enormous social value, starting with a substantial number of additional jobs for people in the region. We will be working with our partners and contractors to ensure this is a central consideration from construction through to long-term operation.”
Major student accommodation scheme approved for Nottingham’s Southside Regeneration Area
A planning application to build a major new student accommodation scheme on Traffic Street, in Nottingham’s Southside Regeneration Area, has been approved.
The scheme will be developed by Urban Developments (York) Ltd’s Engage student brand, which are both part of York based Urban Group (York) Ltd, and it has been designed by Leeds-based Brewster Bye Architects.
The development will span five and six storeys in height and will offer 297 bedrooms, across a mix of cluster apartments and studios, with a range of amenities and facilities including study rooms, a communal lounge, gym, cinema, laundry facilities and cycle storage.
The site is currently occupied by two industrial units and a parking area, and historically was used as a sawmill.
Brendon Hutchinson, Managing Director of Urban Group (York) Ltd, said: “This is fantastic site to be involved with, in a key area of Nottingham city centre that is benefitting from large amounts of investment and regeneration.
“It’s also just a short walk from the city centre, Nottingham station and the tram network, which links it with Nottingham Trent University and The University of Nottingham, making it an ideal location for students to live.
“There is also particularly strong demand in Nottingham for this type of development. The city is widely recognised as one of the UK’s best university cities with a substantial and expanding student population who want high quality homes with exceptional communal facilities in vibrant locations.
“Crucially, this type of development also frees up traditional housing stock for local people and families, which makes it a particularly exciting opportunity.”
Mark Henderson, director at Brewster Bye Architects, said: “We’ve specifically designed the development to create a strong frontage onto Traffic Street, whilst also complementing surrounding developments and providing breathing space between neighbouring buildings via two generous landscaped courtyards at either side of the scheme.
“All this combines to create a high-quality, aesthetically pleasing development that sits comfortably within its surroundings and will offer students a superb standard of accommodation in an evolving and popular part of the city.”
Derby steel construction firm sold in pre-pack administration
Family-owned steel construction firm, Robinson Structures Limited (RSL), has entered into administration after a challenging period, resulting in the majority of the assets of the business being sold by way of a pre-pack.
RSL is a third-generation company, with its beginnings dating back to the 1950s. Having created a strong reputation in the design and construction of steel frame buildings, they have successfully entered a variety of industrial and agricultural industries over the years.
Despite this, the Derby-based company experienced loss-making periods prior to March 2019 and from the second quarter of 2020, exacerbated by Covid-19. This significantly reduced orders and, therefore, operations. Notwithstanding the undertaking of a cost cutting exercise, the company returned into a loss-making position.
Dean Nelson, head of PKF Smith Cooper’s Business Recovery and Insolvency division, became involved initially to review the financial position and options for the company, following the removal of RSL’s insured credit limits with its key suppliers.
This advice resulted in PKF Smith Cooper’s BRI team being instructed to undertake an accelerated merger and acquisition process to try and identify a buyer for RSL.
Immediately on appointment as administrator, some of the assets of the business were sold via a pre-pack that included the retention of the majority of the workforce.
Dean Nelson said: “I am pleased that we have managed to secure the sale of the majority of RSL’s assets, saving jobs in the process. It has been a very difficult time for the company and its management, compounded by various external factors and commodity price increases.”
A spokesperson for RSL said: “It’s a sad day for the Robinson family, but we are thankful that jobs have been saved and the state-of-the-art production facility remains both intact and operational.”
Workforce shortages – employers no longer have the upper hand or call the shots: James Pinchbeck, Streets Chartered Accountants
James Pinchbeck, partner at Streets Chartered Accountants, discusses workforce shortages and what employers can do to address the situation.
It looks like workforce shortages are here to stay and are going to affect more and more businesses, not just those looking for lorry drivers or those to work in care, hospitality, food and agriculture sectors. Signs are that the professions and those in the tech sector, along with others, are seeing not just short-term labour shortages but what looks like longer term shortfalls.
With job vacancies hitting an all-time high in 2021, labour shortages are in part put down to Brexit and the withdrawal of EU workers from the UK labour force and the pandemic. Other reasons may include improved education and increased participation in higher education leading to increased demand for higher skilled work, along with a growth in self-employment, as well as shifting attitudes to work.
So, what can employers and those seeking to fill vacancies do to address the situation in the short term?
Perhaps the most common approach or forced of hand response when labour is scarce is to pay more. However, this depends on affordability and the impact on the financial performance of the business as well as the implications on the pay of existing staff.
Other approaches to consider might include:
- Increasing overtime – it might be possible to address labour shortages through offering temporary extra hours to existing staff.
- Reaching out to those who may have recently retired to see if they might like to return on a temporary basis for perhaps reduced hours.
- If not already offered, looking at rewarding existing staff for introducing new team members.
- Outsourcing for key skills or shortages perhaps on temporary contracts. It might also be worthwhile looking at taking on student placements.
- Looking further afield, the pandemic has served to highlight it is not necessary for us to be at the employer’s place of work to undertake our work. A good digital connection and perhaps a blend of occasional at place of work contact might be a workable model.
- Checking the current status and satisfaction of your existing staff to safeguard retention.
- Take time out to determine your future workforce needs in terms of the work to be done, the skills required and the nature of those you need to do such work.
- With changing attitudes to work, with employees increasingly concerned about what is provided around employment conditions, training, career prospects, mental health and wellbeing, it might be a good time to look at the benefits in kind offered to ensure they are aligned to what is deemed a benefit.
- It might be worth looking at your approach to remuneration, along with bonuses offered as well as the possible use of employee share schemes to incentivise and retain key personnel.
- Seek to upskill and re-train existing staff, whilst at the same looking to provide recognition of this with career, promotion and development opportunities. On-going training and development is here to stay in a fast moving and rapidly changing world.
- Re-evaluate your employment offer and benefits – why would someone want to work for you? Be self-critical and not delusional in such an approach. It is very easy for us all to think we are an employer of choice when that might not be the case. It might be a useful exercise to commission an external review of your employer status/positioning. It might also be good to reflect on why people leave your organisation.
- Review the effectiveness of your recruitment process including how you promote vacancies and perhaps use or don’t use recruitment consultants etc. Some still only post vacancies on their website and perhaps LinkedIn and hope they might get applicants!
- Seek to improve productivity, especially through digital transformation, investment in technology and re-imagining the way tasks and roles are undertaken.
- Look to ‘grow your own’ through recruiting staff to train and develop perhaps as an apprentice or through the government’s Kickstart scheme.
- Look to work with your local Further Education and Higher Education provider to support your training/skills needs as well as to gain access to potential employees.
- For some sectors, it would not be unrealistic to think labour shortages are not going to go away. In such sectors and jobs, serious consideration has to be given to how to replace or reduce reliance on labour through mechanisation, artificial intelligence etc.
Council proposes to cut 91 jobs
Nottingham City Council has proposed to cut 91 jobs as its Executive Board considers its first stage of consultation proposals towards making £28m of savings as it looks to balance its 2022/23 budget.
The council says it has made £303m of budget savings since 2010 and been left £19.4m out of pocket through not being fully compensated for income lost as a result of tackling Covid. It adds that this means difficult decisions must be made, with proposals including:
- Reducing play and youth services, saving £615,000
- Closing six Children’s Centres and moving to a hub model of three centres, saving £331,000
- Reducing the frequency of some Linkbus services and increasing Medilink fares, saving £371,000
- Maintaining one free residential car parking zone permit and introducing an administration charge for second and third parking permits, saving £412,500
- Introducing a proposed charge for bulky waste, including discount schemes, saving £80,000.
School workplace tours make a comeback for Made in Chesterfield
North East Derbyshire’s school pupils are set to get hands-on with engineering and manufacturing careers once again with the Made in Chesterfield campaign which returns in November.
Forced to moving to virtual workplace tours last year amidst the pandemic, schools can once again visit local engineering and manufacturing businesses in person and discover the range of careers and job opportunities on offer to them in the sector.
Launched originally in 2013, the annual Made in Chesterfield campaign, which is coordinated by Destination Chesterfield in partnership with Direct Education Business Partnership, has since introduced thousands of young people across North East Derbyshire to the possibility of a career in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) sector.
Relaunched for 2021, and free from the constraints imposed last year by the pandemic, Made in Chesterfield is offering workplace tours for schools across 10 local companies operating in the STEM sector.
Aiming to bridge the careers information gap between education and industry, groups of Year 7 – 11 students will be visiting businesses from Monday 8 – Friday 26 November for an educational, interactive learning experience.
Companies offering workplace tours to schools include CBE+, Superior Wellness, United Cast Bar, Morgan Sindall Group Plc, MSE Hiller, Penny Hydraulics, Aztec Oils, Vistry Partnerships, Weightron Bilanciai and Woodhead Group.
As part of the month-long Made in Chesterfield campaign, schools can also access a range of careers videos to enable young people to experience a number of workplace tours virtually. There is also supporting activities and careers information and apprentice opportunities within the MyFuture virtual careers fair.
Ivan Fomin, Managing Director of MSE Hiller and Destination Chesterfield’s board member responsible for manufacturing and engineering in the Borough, said: “We have been running Made in Chesterfield for eight years and in that time, it has achieved an incredible amount. It works. Two of MSE Hiller’s apprentices are a direct result of the campaign.
“Made in Chesterfield is committed to breaking down preconceived ideas about the sector by young people, their parents and teachers. The world has changed and so has the manufacturing and engineering sector. It offers fantastic skills and training as well as interesting and well paid jobs at every level. Everyone is welcome.”
Made in Chesterfield 2021 has been made possible thanks to funding and support from The Chesterfield College Group, Chesterfield Borough Council, North Derbyshire Career Hub, D2N2 LEP, Careers and Enterprise Company, MSE Hiller, United Cast Bar Ltd and Natwest.
Legal recruitment specialist relocates HQ from Nottingham to Vale of Belvoir
Bygott Biggs, the legal recruitment specialists with an established presence across Nottingham, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, has relocated to the Vale of Belvoir after leaving its headquarters in Nottingham city centre.
The company, led by Jane Biggs, had been based in a Regency town house on Clarendon Street for 15 years but has now set up home at The Engine Yard at the iconic Belvoir Castle.
With many law firms reassessing their own working arrangements in the light of the pandemic, Jane Biggs explains that the decision to relocate their HQ was something the board of directors had been debating for some time.
Jane Biggs said: “We have been exploring our options, weighing up the benefits of our central base in town and access to the professional district, with ‘wasted’ time on the commute that could be put to better use. That can mean extra time to work on our clients’ projects or of course, extra time for quality of life. It all comes down to balance.
“We had already transitioned to a more hybrid approach to working before the pandemic started but it definitely gave us the final push to progress with our plans. The key was finding a location that worked as a new headquarters and was still easy to access for our clients, and the team.
“We focus on meeting our clients at locations that are convenient for them but even though we are now further from the city centre, we are actually finding more people coming to us for a conversation in this beautiful and inspiring setting. It is also very convenient for candidates who are considering a career switch from London, as Grantham train centre is so close.”
Bygott Biggs’ recent ‘Workplace of the Future Survey’ of over 1,000 lawyers reported that an element of remote/home working is now a critical option for employers to offer, with over 75% wanting at least a hybrid approach.
“We have done our research and we have been assessing our own working practices alongside these findings,” concludes Jane. “In a way, this feels a little like the end of an era but we’ve assessed how our time is best spent and that is not in the car commuting into the city centre on a daily basis.
‘‘Work/life balance is crucial to peak performance in the workplace and happiness at home as our survey clearly showed. For us, our working hours are best spent with our clients and candidates and we can best achieve this balance through a considered approach to remote working and office-based meetings. Our beautiful new home enables us to do just that.”
Construction starts on next phase of Lincoln business park
Work on the next phase of a new business park in Lincoln will begin later this month.
Phase three of the Discovery Park development in Whisby Road will include construction of four new units for companies including Howdens, Screwfix and Brewers.
The work follows completion of phases one and two, which saw the creation of a new home for Lincoln Precision Engineering and 15 industrial units for North Kesteven District Council.
The development has been brought forward by local company Lindum Group, which owns the land, in conjunction with property agents Banks Long and Co.
The next phase of work will see Lindum’s BMS division on site until next July with the trade counters expected to be open a few weeks later.
The scheme will continue development of the seven-acre Discovery Park site, which has so far created 60,000 sq ft of employment space and generated opportunities for around 100 jobs.
Lindum development manager, Matthew Carter, said: “It is great to see three well-known, national operators signing up for units at the business park before construction work has even started.
“Their commitment to this new development is also a sign of confidence in the wider Lincolnshire economy, which is welcome news.
“Construction will continue until the middle of next year and once complete, the four units will contribute to the vibrancy of this growing business park.”
Screwfix is a retailer of trade tools, accessories and hardware products while Howdens is a supplier of kitchens and joinery products for the building trade. The third unit will be taken by high-end decorator’s merchant Brewers. The final unit is still available.
Multi-million pound land sale in Chesterfield to bring hundreds of new homes to area
A multi-million pound land sale in Chesterfield has provided a huge funding boost for a small local charity and will bring hundreds of new homes to the area.
Property consultancy Fisher German has sold a site in Staveley, Chesterfield with planning permission for 400 dwellings to Barratt David Wilson Homes.
Fisher German acted on behalf of a private landowner, which owned the majority of the site, as well as the Sutton-cum-Duckmanton Educational Trust, which was gifted a portion of the land in the 1950s.
The charity offers small grants to residents of the Sutton-cum-Duckmanton area who are undertaking further education, and the funding boost will ensure it can continue its positive work.
Fisher German was appointed by the landowners, and the firm then appointed Hollins Strategic Land as promoter.
Hollins Strategic Land secured the 55-acre site’s allocation for housing in the Chesterfield Borough Local Plan and outline planning permission for 400 dwellings on the site in 2020, just two years after their appointment.
Fisher German then marketed the site, receiving a strong level of interest from housebuilders, and the sale has now completed to Barratt David Wilson Homes.
Barratt David Wilson Homes is now progressing a reserved matters planning application – finalising the layout and features of the development as well as the exact number of houses – and is expecting to start work on the site in March 2022, with the first show home expected to be open in March 2023.
A spokesperson for the Sutton-cum-Duckmanton Educational Foundation said: “We are a small charity of six volunteers which supports people over the age of 18 from the Parish who are going on to further education with small grants for books and other educational supplies.
“We are very pleased to have worked with Fisher German and Hollins Strategic Land on the sale of the site. It will provide a considerable financial uplift for the Foundation, and although we don’t have any specific plans for the funds as yet, it will ensure the aims of the charity can continue into the future.”
Amy Bowden, of Fisher German, said: “We are pleased to have completed a deal with Barratt David Wilson Homes.
“We received a good level of interest in the site which reflects the positive market conditions for development land at the current time, underpinned by strong sale rates and house price growth.
“The sale of the site will bring much-needed new homes to the area and has provided the charity with a huge funding boost which will support the trustees to continue their excellent work going forward.”
Christian Orr, land & planning director of Hollins Strategic Land, said: “Having an in-house planning and commercially-minded team means we were able to drive the strategy forward, not only by gaining planning permission, but structuring the deal to meet the objectives of both Barratt David Wilson Homes and the landowners.
“With a bespoke team of professionals, we created a landscape-led masterplan in a sustainable location with views of the Derbyshire countryside which, after proactive engagement with the council, we were able to secure a planning consent in advance of the local plan being adopted, and subsequently complete on the sale of the site more quickly.
“It’s a fantastic bonus that the sale provides significant income to the charity to put back into the community over many years to come.”
Mark Cotes, Managing Director at Barratt David Wilson Homes North Midlands, said: “We’re thrilled to have this opportunity to deliver high-quality properties to Derbyshire homebuyers and invest in this growing community in Chesterfield.
“Exciting plans are in place for the development and we’re looking forward to seeing this community progress. It’s also fantastic to hear that the deal with Fisher German has greatly supported the Sutton-cum-Duckmanton Educational Trust which carries out vital work in the local area.”
Charity purchases Chesterfield premises
Derwent Rural Counselling Service, which supports people with mental health problems across Derbyshire, has invested in new premises in Chesterfield.
DRCS has bought the old Register Office in Chesterfield as part of ambitious growth plans for the charity which currently operates a team of 60 freelance and employed staff working from home and out of seven centres across the county.
Grand plans for the Beetwell Street premises include office space, consulting rooms, meeting rooms and relaxation space to help cope with an increased demand for DRCS services in the area plus other tenanted options.
Janette Smeeton, Chief Executive at DRCS, said: “We have seen rapid growth and success in the last few years and expanded our services now treating people from the Amber Valley, Erewash, Chesterfield, Buxton, Matlock, Ashbourne, Derby, Swadlincote and the Peak District. Adding to our property portfolio in Chesterfield makes sense as were using rented meeting rooms in the town.
“One main aim for DRCS has been to create a local service for everyone in Derbyshire to make sure everybody can get the service they need, close to home.
“The new Chesterfield building offers the biggest property challenge to date with three floors to renovate, but will help us provide as many treatment appointments as possible for the local community. We have not yet begun renovations but hope these will start as soon as possible.”
Mark Serby, chair of trustees for the Bakewell-headquartered charity, said: “This is an exciting project and another step in implementing the board’s strategy for growth.
“Now is the right time to invest in the future. Covid has changed how we do things and proved there is not only appetite, but there’s a need. By investing in the purchase and renovation of the property we will be in a position to scale active services and have capacity to introduce potential new ones to meet changing needs and have a real meaningful impact.”
