Hot on the heels of its acquisition of Kent-based agency, Miles and Barr, Lomond has made its 65th acquisition, a deal which further strengthens the firm’s existing presence within the student lettings space. Lomond’s latest deal, brokered by Atomic Consultancy, sees it acquire Sugarhouse Properties, a Leeds-based lettings and property management company with 13 years of experience. Sugarhouse Properties was founded in 2011 by Charles Aston and Richard Napier, both of whom boast years of experience operating within the rental market and, more specifically, within student lets and HMOs. With their flagship office located on the Otley Road, Sugarhouse Properties is one of the largest independent student lettings agents in Leeds, with the firm having also branched out to provide lets to professional tenants in the last few years. The firm currently manages 372 properties, including large numbers of HMOs within the Leeds area and places a strong emphasis on providing high quality and well managed accommodation – an approach that has seen the firm win multiple industry awards. Lomond’s latest acquisition sees it significantly strengthen its foothold in the student lettings space, an area where the firm has already placed a great deal of focus. Lomond’s CEO, Ed Phillips, said: “Sugarhouse Properties is an outstanding company and one that has formed a formidable reputation within the student lettings space over the last 13 years. “The company’s culture is centred around delivering high quality accommodation, with management and customer service to match, so it was clear from the start that both Lomond and Sugarhouse shared a great deal of synergy and that combining forces would be beneficial for all involved. “What’s more, they’ve gone against the grain with respect to traditional marketing methods, utilising online channels that resonate with their target audience and with the help of Lomond’s marketing assets, we look forward to helping supercharge these efforts.” Director of Sugarhouse Properties, Richard Napier, said: “We’ve put a great deal of blood, sweat and tears into Sugarhouse Properties and we’re immensely proud of the outstanding business we’ve built and the reputation we’ve developed across the student lettings sector. “However, we believe that now is the right time to allow the business to evolve and with the help of Lomond, we’re extremely excited about what the future holds. “It’s clear that Lomond places a real emphasis on empowering the businesses they acquire and with the additional assets that this deal will provide Sugarhouse Properties, we can’t wait to see how the brand evolves going forward.” Founder and CEO of Atomic Consultancy, Lucy Noonan, said: “Sugarhouse Properties is one of the best established operators within the students lettings space in Leeds and we’re delighted to have played a pivotal role in the evolution of the company via its acquisition by Lomond. “Both companies are ideally aligned with respect to their company culture, the quality of the service they provide and their ambitions for future growth and we’re excited to see what the future holds now that the deal has completed.”

Hydrogen could play a vital role in delivering a secure, decarbonised electricity system in the UK, according to a new report by Centrica and FTI Consulting. The report says a future energy system without an established hydrogen market would leave the UK at risk of huge swings in electricity generation from renewables, with no way of addressing the shortfalls and the surplus. It says: “By 2050, there could be excess electricity generation, driven by renewables around 15% of the time. Electricity generation from renewables could also rise or fall by as much as 100GW over the course of a single day making it incredibly difficult to balance the grid.” Not only would hydrogen storage and transportation help address these issues, but the report also found that large scale hydrogen storage could reduce customer energy costs by as much as £1bn per year by 2050. The UK currently has the lowest levels of energy storage of the world’s major economies. It goes on to say that although the UK has committed to net zero by 2050 and made more progress towards this ambition than other major economies, significant delivery challenges remain. By providing a means of storing energy over a longer period of time, and transporting energy over a greater distance, hydrogen could address the major issues with renewable generation – intermittency and curtailment. For this to be successful, the report found that the development of a hydrogen transportation network and sufficient large-scale storage facilities would be necessary. Repurposing underground gas pipes to be used as a hydrogen transport network would create an underground ‘superhighway’ to move renewable electricity as hydrogen gas. This could also reduce the volume of above ground electricity transmission infrastructure needed and significantly reduce the cost of net zero for consumers. Increased dependence on renewable generation will introduce greater supply volatility and increase cost on both a daily and seasonal basis. The report illustrates that making hydrogen when there is excess energy that can be stored and used when the wind isn’t blowing, and the sun isn’t shining, will be an essential part of the solution required to balance intermittent renewables. The report took a ‘whole-systems approach’ to explore a net zero future, reviewing all available and established methods for decarbonising the UK. Its publication comes as the National Energy System Operator (NESO) has been tasked with ensuring a secure and affordable future British energy system and planning for Britain’s electricity and gas networks. It concluded that both salt caverns and depleted gas fields will be required for hydrogen storage, with salt caverns being used for short term responses, and depleted gas fields, such as Rough, used for longer term storage. The modelling illustrates how both types of storage would work together to ensure hydrogen was in the right place, at the right time. Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive of Centrica said: “At Centrica we believe wholeheartedly that the UK can reach net zero, but we’re realistic about the challenges the transition will pose. We need to be agnostic about the technology; there won’t be a single silver bullet that delivers this crucial change. “What this report clearly demonstrates is the vital importance of hydrogen in decarbonising the UK’s energy system. By providing a way to store excess electricity, hydrogen will be crucial to managing more intermittency. “We now have a blueprint for the role that hydrogen could play as a very big battery in a net zero energy system, providing electricity when the wind doesn’t blow, and the sun doesn’t shine. All we need now is the green light from regulators and the government to unlock £2bn of investment to transform our existing Rough storage facility to become the world’s biggest hydrogen storage facility and start building out the energy system of the future.”

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), the world’s largest independent bottler of Coca-Cola, has revealed a planned investment of £42.3m for a new Automated Storage Retrieval System (ASRS) warehouse at its site in Wakefield, Europe’s largest soft drinks plant by volume. The new ASRS will take two and a half years to build. To maximise space, it will stand at 38 metres tall and will increase Wakefield’s warehouse capacity, allowing it to hold and move an additional 29,500 pallets on top of its current capacity of 29,000 pallets. It will also deliver a reduction of 18,500 vehicle journeys per year from the road, equating to 441,000 km per year. This funding follows a £31m site investment for the installation of a new state-of-the-art, canning line, capable of producing 2,000 cans per minute, which has been operational since July of this year. The line provides additional production capabilities for CCEP’s light-weight 330ml cans across brands including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, Dr Pepper and Sprite. The site has received £103 million in investment since 2019 to enhance efficiencies and operate more sustainably, such as the replacement of its material handling equipment (MHE). This includes a fleet of 75 gas-powered forklift trucks, which is used to move cases of product around the site, replaced with units powered by lithium ion batteries, producing no carbon emissions in their day-to-day operation. Vanessa Smith, Director of Wakefield Supply Chain Operations at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, said: “The new ASRS warehouse ensures we continue expanding our production capabilities as we look to the future, and operate as efficiently and sustainably as possible.” Stephen Moorhouse, Vice-President and General Manager, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (GB), said: “Wakefield offers a range of modern manufacturing jobs and sits at the heart of many of our latest manufacturing technologies. We’ve invested more than £100million since 2019 to help us evolve operations on site and further support the local economy.” Simon Lightwood MP for Wakefield and Rothwell said: “CCEP continues to play an important role in and around Wakefield. It’s fantastic to see the business invest in delivering more efficient and sustainable operations, which shows the organisation’s commitment to being a major employer in West Yorkshire.”

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is urging the Government to address significant concerns about its Employment Rights Bill which have been laid bare this week (Monday) in a report from the official policy watchdog, the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC). The RPC has judged that eight of the 23 individual impact assessments (IAs) for the legislation, including some of its biggest measures, were not fit for purpose. Responding to the findings, Tina McKenzie, Policy Chair of FSB, said: “The RPC’s findings support the concerns that FSB has been raising about the disproportionate impacts on small employers. Red rating after red rating demonstrates that the proposed legislation has simply not been thought through. “This is a sharp wake-up call for Ministers who must think again about the dangers of a cavalier approach to jobs and work. The country cannot afford to pile further cost and risk on to small employers based on such an overwhelmingly weak evidence base. “With the red-flagged impact assessments including high-impact measures like formal dismissal from day one, the Government must urgently do the basic work required to understand the impact of its own policies and accurately quantify the likely impacts on employers and the labour market. “Parliament must step up and make sure it is challenging Ministers’ approach to such consequential legislation. Jobs, wages and living standards will suffer if Government fails to bring forward sensible policy or do the work to understand how and to what extent it is making employment harder and harder to provide.”