Henry Brothers appointed on DfE’s 2021 Construction Framework
Henry Brothers has been appointed to the Department for Education’s (DfE) 2021 Construction Framework for the first time.
The company has been successful on the Medium Value Band – projects from £6m to £12m – for the East of England. The framework runs for four years and is worth £7bn. Both educational and non-educational schemes can be procured under the framework.
This is the latest in a number of framework appointments secured by Henry Brothers. Others include the Public Buildings Construction and Infrastructure (PB3) LHC Framework, which allows local authorities, social landlords and other public sector bodies to source contractors for the construction and refurbishment of educational, healthcare, emergency services and community buildings.
Henry Brothers has been appointed on lots for new build and refurbishment projects up to £2m across the Midlands and East Anglia, along with projects from £2m to £7m across the Midlands, East Anglia, Yorkshire and the North West of England.
In addition, Henry Brothers has places on the Pagabo and Crown Commercial Services frameworks.
Managing Director for Henry Brothers Midlands, Ian Taylor, said: “We are very pleased to have been appointed to the Department for Education’s 2021 Construction Framework.
“Henry Brothers Midlands has built up a reputation as a key contractor in the education sector, building first-class facilities for schools and universities across the East Midlands. This framework appointment opens up a potential new stream of work for the business as we head into 2022 and beyond.”
New job is best Christmas present for Work & Skills Leicestershire client
A Leicestershire resident who signed up with the county council’s Work & Skills programme has received the best Christmas present they could hope for – a new job!
The new year will see Karen Norton start work in her role as a senior youth advocate – and she says it is all thanks to the Work & Skills Leicestershire team.
Work & Skills Leicestershire is open to anyone who is seeking employment or training – from those who have never been employed, to those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, or who are at risk of redundancy.
Karen worked for many years as a cover teacher, but when she went to apply for teacher training in Leicestershire, she was told her American qualifications in English and Maths were not deemed equivalent to the GCSEs required.
Karen, who has a degree in History, an MA in Museum Studies and is studying for an MA in International Human Rights Law, is now also studying for her Maths GSCE, alongside being a volunteer youth worker. She is looking forward to starting her new job.
She said: “I am a well-educated person and I didn’t expect not to be able to do my teacher training. It was heartbreaking – it really knocked my confidence. I’d had a plan and it hadn’t worked out and I had no self-worth at all. It felt like I had a cultural disconnect.
“I found out about Work & Skills Leicestershire from the website – and it was brilliant! I’d been turned down for jobs, so we went through my CV and through the job specifications and the staff helped me so much – they never made me feel self-conscious. It was great to have someone to point out my skills and experience and where else they might be useful – for instance I thought I had no managerial experience, but they pointed out that I had run a youth camp and that was managerial experience.
”When I found out I had got the job, it was the best Christmas present I could have wished for. My confidence is now through the roof, my self-worth is back, I feel like myself again – and I have Work & Skills to thank for all that. I am so looking forward to the new year and to starting work in my new role.
“Work & Skills Leicestershire is a great programme and the fact that it is free is amazing! It has had a huge impact on my life and I have been telling other people all about it. I think it is a service which could help anyone – and I would say to people ‘you have more skills than you think you have – don’t let your self-confidence be knocked’.”
Work & Skills Leicestershire has helped over 200 clients, some of whom have already found new jobs. Over half of those attending have received support with their CVs or job applications. It currently runs at Loughborough Library on Tuesdays 10am until 12 noon and on Fridays at Hinckley Library between 10am and 12 noon. There are also sessions at Wigston Library from 10am until 12 noon every Wednesday and at Coalville Library between 2pm and 4pm on Wednesdays.
A pop-up Employment Hub is to be launched at Measham Community Managed Library beginning on Thursday January 27. It will run between 10am and 12 noon for four weeks.
There is also to be an online hub on Thursday January 20 for those interested in working in the care sector. This will include talks from employers, employees and employment specialists looking at transferrable skills and routes into care work. It will also inform of current vacancies.
Everyone who signs up to Work & Skills Leicestershire is offered one to one support and the opportunity to have a tailored work plan drawn up for them. Help is given with CV and letter writing skills, job searches, interview techniques and much more.
Councillor Peter Bedford, cabinet lead member for post-Covid recovery said: “Stories like Karen’s are a wonderful illustration of how Work & Skills Leicestershire is making a real difference to those seeking a change of direction in their working lives.
“We are pleased to be offering enhanced services in the New Year, especially focusing on the care sector and I would urge anyone who would like to find out more about what Work &Skills Leicestershire can offer, to drop into one of its hubs, to call 0800 988 0308, or to visit www.leicestershire.gov.uk/work-and-skills ”
Leicestershire’s economy has taken a big hit during the pandemic and the county council has launched a series of initiatives to help boost it. These include:
- Supporting and extending the Government’s Kickstart scheme by creating placements for 16-to-24-year-olds whose job prospects have been most impacted by the pandemic.
- Extending superfast broadband to hard-to-reach rural areas.
- Investing almost £4m in supporting community groups, hundreds of small businesses and struggling rural pubs.
£1 billion in support announced for businesses most impacted by Omicron
With the rise of the Omicron variant set to see many businesses struggle over the coming weeks, the government has revealed it will be providing one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises for businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England.
At what is often their most profitable time of year, many pubs and restaurants have seen cancellations and reduced footfall as people have responded to the rise in cases ahead of Christmas, with Hospitality UK reporting that many businesses have lost 40-60% of their December trade, often their most profitable month.
Around 200,000 businesses will be eligible for business grants which will be administered by local authorities and will be available in the coming weeks.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak said: “We recognise that the spread of the Omicron variant means businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors are facing huge uncertainty, at a crucial time.
“So we’re stepping in with £1 billion of support, including a new grant scheme, the reintroduction of the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme and further funding released through the Culture Recovery Fund.
“Ultimately the best thing we can do to support businesses is to get the virus under control, so I urge everyone to Get Boosted Now.”
To support other businesses impacted by Omicron – such as those who supply the hospitality and leisure sectors – the government is also giving a more than £100 million boost to the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) fund for local authorities in England.
As increasing numbers of Covid-19 cases means more workers taking time off work, the government is also reintroducing the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme (SSPRS).
The SSPRS will help small and medium-sized employers – those with fewer than 250 employees – by reimbursing them for the cost of Statutory Sick Pay for Covid-related absences, for up to 2 weeks per employee. Firms will be eligible for the scheme from today and they will be able to make claims retrospectively from mid-January.
To provide continued support to the cultural sector, £30 million further funding will be made available through the Culture Recovery Fund to support organisations such as theatres, orchestras and museums through the winter to March 2022.
Responding to the Chancellor’s announcement of new financial support for hospitality and leisure businesses, East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire) Chief Executive Scott Knowles said: “These measures will provide some welcome respite to many of those businesses that have been hit hardest by the latest Covid-19 measures.
“The Chancellor and his team has engaged with the British Chambers of Commerce in talks over the past week, considered the experiences of business communities including in the East Midlands, and the proposals we put to them.
“We are pleased the Chancellor heard our call for additional grant funding for hospitality and leisure businesses, which will provide some much-needed support in the face of this increasingly difficult trading period.
“The festive season is vital to the survival and prosperity of hospitality and leisure businesses in particular. Having missed out on the opportunity to maximise income last year, a second cancelled Christmas may have been devastating without the necessary financial backing.
“Clarity and speed will be needed to ensure these grants are paid out swiftly to help these hard-pressed firms weather the next few weeks.
“While these measures are a positive starting point, if restrictions persist or are tightened further, then we would need to see a wider support package, equal to the scale of any new measures, put in place.”
Grant writing service merges with Loughborough counterpart
Inventya Grants Limited has completed a merger with Loughborough-based Cresco Innovation Limited.
The merger will allow Inventya to “further enhance [its] combined offering of innovation and growth support to [its] clients via increased grant writing services.”
With over a decade of grant writing experience, Cresco’s team of bid writers has raised more than £30million in grant funding for clients in the last three years.
Aldo De Leonibus, CEO of Inventya Limited, says: “We are delighted to have completed this merger, as it will allow us to offer our enlarged customer base an enhanced service to further support our mission to help innovative companies bring their products and services to market in the UK and internationally via funding, finance, R&D tax credits and consultancy.”
Jo Derbyshire of Cresco Innovation Limited says: “This is a move driven by the collective vision to work proactively on behalf of our clients, drawing on our experience to maximise both bid and tender success with our commitment to support innovative growth and myself along with the team are excited to be joining a larger group to provide a greater range of client services.”
For more than 10 years, Warrington-headquartered Inventya Group has helped more than 2,000 businesses grow and raise more than £160million in finance. The merger will increase staff members to 75+ and provide Inventya with two main bases of operation in the UK.
Work to start on next stage of Midland Main Line electrification
A month after announcing £96 billion of rail investment for the North and Midlands, work is starting on the Integrated Rail Plan with the launch of the next stage of Midland Main Line electrification.
Main works to electrify the Midland Mainline between Kettering and Market Harborough will start on 24 December 2021, laying the foundation for the planned upgrade of the line all the way to Sheffield and Nottingham and setting the starting gun for quieter trains, greater decarbonisation, better connectivity and more local services across the region.
Today (21 December 2021), on a visit to the Leicester hub of Network Rail contractors SPL, the Transport Secretary saw wiring gantries being built for the Midland Mainline and met with staff to mark the launch of the biggest ever government investment package for the North and Midlands, which will boost opportunity and support job creation across the regions.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: ”Last month, I promised we would get on with delivering the Integrated Rail Plan by Christmas and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
“Today marks the beginning of a transformation of rail journeys for the Midlands and the North, where we will slash journey times and build better connections between towns, cities and everywhere in between.
“Under our plans, people won’t have to wait 2 decades for better services. This unprecedented investment will deliver better railways sooner.”
Maria Machancoses, Chief Executive Officer of Midlands Connect, said: “It is great to see the government putting the Integrated Rail Plan into action so quickly after the report was released. Extending the Midland Main Line electrification is an early Christmas present to the region and is the first step towards giving the East Midlands the transport infrastructure it deserves.
“Our job now is to build the infrastructure around it with HS2 trains coming to Derby and Nottingham through East Midlands Parkway and our flagship project the Midlands Rail Hub progressing well, too.
“Today’s news is testament to local councils, businesses and MPs who have successfully made the case for upgrades on the Midland Main Line for years and the Department for Transport for working with us. Today is a good day for the Midlands as spades start to go into the ground.”
Paul McKeown, Investment Director for Network Rail’s Eastern Region, added: “It’s our pleasure to welcome the Secretary of State to Leicester. This next phase of electrification will bring real benefits to passengers and the communities we serve in the East Midlands. Teams will be working throughout Christmas to install the equipment which will carry the electric wires as far north as Market Harborough.”
East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire) Chief Executive, Scott Knowles, said: “Electrifying the Midland Main Line is one of the biggest infrastructure priorities for our region, so it’s fantastic to see some real progress finally being made with work beginning – a welcome early Christmas present for the East Midlands economy.
“After the huge disappointment of the HS2 Eastern Leg being scaled back significantly, once more leaving the East Midlands at risk of being structurally disadvantaged compared to the west of the country, this is a great opportunity for the Department for Transport (DfT) to demonstrate it is serious about delivering much-needed infrastructure in our region.
“It will also offer some confidence to potential investors that our region is a great place to spend their money, which ultimately benefits businesses and residents across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire because investment begets investment.
“However, it must be remembered that we were promised upgrades to this key rail route many years ago and we are merely playing catch-up. This is also just the first small step of a major project, so it’s important we now have a full timetable and clear milestones for the delivery of the entire Midland Main Line electrification.
“Timescales in the Integrated Rail Plan suggested it won’t be completed until 2030 at the earliest but we will be pushing the DfT to speed this up because after years of uncertainty over the future of our rail infrastructure, we can’t afford to waste any time.”
Consultation launched on proposed Workplace Parking Levy in Leicester
People are being asked to give their views in a public consultation over a proposed Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) which could help fund a radical overhaul and long-term modernisation of Leicester’s public transport, cycling and walking networks.
Over the summer Leicester City Council carried out initial consultations into a possible scheme, and now more detailed plans for the WPL have been published.
An extensive 12-week public consultation has now been launched, giving people and employers the chance to find out more details about the proposed WPL and how it would work, and to comment on the scheme. It runs until March 13, 2022.
The WPL would be citywide and would play a vital role in bringing forward a comprehensive programme of transport improvements across Leicester.
The improvements are key to meeting tough environmental and air quality targets set by both the Government and the city council itself, as well as dealing with congestion and connecting new housing developments with sustainable transport.
Under the WPL, most employers with more than 10 spaces would pay £550 per space per year for a licence to provide car parking for their employees. The high number of small businesses in Leicester means that around nine out of 10 are too small to have to pay.
The income from a WPL could be around £95million over the first 10 years, and would enable the city council to match-fund with other grants to invest up to £450million. It would mean the council could plan for long-term transport investment rather than just relying on uncertain Government funds.
The WPL is designed to encourage people who travel into the city regularly for work to use alternatives to cars for their daily commute, while financing the improvements needed to ensure the city’s public transport, cycling and walking networks provide realistic alternatives to car travel.
Plans for a WPL were featured as part of the Council’s Draft Leicester Transport Plan 2021-2036, published in the summer, which sets out priorities in meeting the city’s transport needs over the next 15 years. Transport priorities a WPL would help fund include:
- Over 400 high-quality electric tram-like buses by 2030, running on 25 Mainline services across city neighbourhoods, and five express Greenline commuter services linking six park and ride sites.
- Giving buses priority on key routes to ensure they run regularly and frequently, using tickets which can be used across different bus services, and featuring real-time bus information.
- Affordable bus fares with discounts for elderly, disabled, young and unemployed people and the ability for all travellers to get the ‘best fare’ on any journeys across the city.
- A comprehensive network of cycleways linking existing city centre routes to local neighbourhoods.
- Investment in the railway station to ensure good regional and national connections and to build on the £22m of funding recently secured to revamp the station.
2022 Business Predictions: Heath Roberts, Operations Director at Axess Systems
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 Heath Roberts, Operations Director at Denby-based Axess Systems, who shares his thoughts on remote working in 2022.
One of the best things about our industry is it gives us a real insight into how the world of work is evolving, through the demands of our clients.
Before Covid, our order book showed us that staff coming into the office on their daily commute and sitting at a desk was still set to be the norm for the vast majority of companies. This meant their IT needs were, by and large, focussed on the technology being consumed on their premises.
However, so much has changed over the past year and with the PM advising us to work from home again – if we can – remote working or, once restrictions ease, hybrid working, will continue in 2022.
There has been a huge rise in businesses implementing the remote working solutions we supply at Axess Systems, working with Citrix, Microsoft and Dell Technologies, to deliver a digital workspace which allows staff to securely work from anywhere, on any device and any network. And these enquiries will, I predict, increase further in 2022.
While initially we saw large organisations implement remote working systems, SMEs are now getting on board, finding that there are cost-effective options available for them too and, rather than spending thousands of pounds upfront on servers and storage, the company can pay for what it uses monthly.
This will be a big deal in 2022 and beyond. This is the future of work, whether or not the virus stays around, and we all need to start prepping now. Whatever the eventuality.
easyJet and Rolls-Royce to collaborate on future aviation sustainability research
easyJet and Rolls-Royce have confirmed they will be working together on research into industry-wide sustainability solutions for commercial aircraft.
The study, which will commence in January 2022 and run for up to two years, will seek to explore alternative energy and power solutions, including low carbon and zero-emission technologies, and their application for aircraft.
The study will include analysis of wider elements of the aviation energy and operational ecosystem, including fuel production, transportation, storage and handling.
The airline and engine manufacturer are working together to further develop knowledge of these topics in relation to both electrical and hydrogen-based power systems.
For further insight and understanding, both companies intend to involve a wide range of expertise, including energy providers, airports and aviation safety regulators.
David Morgan, director of flight operations, easyJet, said: “easyJet remains absolutely committed to sustainable flying and a zero-emissions future. We know that technology is a key driver to achieve our decarbonisation targets.
“Disruptive technologies such as electric and hydrogen propulsion show great potential for short-haul airlines like easyJet and we look forward to collaborating with Rolls-Royce to support bringing this technology to maturity as early as possible.”
Jason Ash, head of product development – large engines, Rolls-Royce, said: “We know that Sustainable Aviation Fuels already provide a drop-in solution, and so will have the most powerful impact on decarbonising aviation and achieving Net Zero by 2050.
“But we also want to better understand other forms of propulsion, energy and power and their potential benefits along with the challenges in operation. We look forward to working closely with easyJet to increase our understanding in these areas.”
New institute of technology will lead the UK’s digital and green revolution
Pandemic rattles East Midlands business confidence – again
The confidence and resilience of East Midlands businesses that held up well during the roller-coaster journey through 2021 is facing another dip over the impact of Covid this winter.
Grant Thornton UK LLP’s Business Outlook Tracker surveyed c.600 mid-market businesses every other month during a year that began in full lockdown and was followed by a gradual exit from restrictions up to ‘Freedom Day’ in July.
Optimism in the East Midlands about the country’s economic prospects averaged 72% over the year, matching the national average. One of the biggest dents in confidence was recorded in the penultimate survey, conducted in late September and early October, with 16% of businesses in the region describing themselves as ‘pessimistic’ about the future of the UK economy.
September’s panic buying and resulting fuel shortages also led to the year’s most marked setback in regional confidence, with 18% of businesses in the East Midlands saying they were ‘pessimistic’ about their ability to grow revenues.
The latest round of views were gathered during the initial outbreak of the Omicron variant, just prior to the announcement of the Government’s Plan B measures. Pessimism in the nation’s business landscape was evident, with more than a quarter (26%) of firms in the East Midlands being unwilling to express optimism in the UK economy.
Across the UK, confidence around revenue growth within businesses peaked in the summer, (with 83% expressing optimism) before plunging 17 percentage points to 66% by December. The East Midlands ended the year above the national average for the same metric at 82%, resurging from only 66% of businesses expressing optimism in the autumn.
Dave Hillan, partner and practice leader at Grant Thornton UK LLP in the Midlands, said: “It’s not an over exaggeration to say that 2021 has been a year like no other, and the twists and turns we’ve seen in our survey are testament to the rapidly changing landscape that businesses in the East Midlands have had to cope with.
“Unfortunately there’s still more on the horizon to be dealt with, ranging from COVID-19 restrictions, higher inflation levels and interest rates, supply chain shortages, labour concerns and rising costs.
“Many, especially in the tourism, retail and hospitality sectors, will be wondering what more can be thrown at them! However, we know that the East Midlands’ business leaders have proven themselves to be exceptionally resilient, agile and innovative since the first lockdown began and they will have a lot of valuable experience to draw on as they face the challenges of 2021.
“With the right government support and by leaning into the region’s many strengths we know that it won’t be long before businesses in the East Midlands are feeling optimistic again.”
