Barnsley-based blind manufacturer Perfa has been awarded a grant of almost £12,350 from the UKSPF Business Productivity Grant to install a temperature-controlled chamber in its premises. The company, in Barugh Green, has been facing challenges due to the extreme temperatures in the warehouse, which range from freezing in the winter to scorching hot in the summer – conditions which have been affecting the well-being of the staff and the quality of the fabrics. Thanks to the Business Productivity & Digitisation grant; currently being delivered across South Yorkshire via part funding from South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) and  £5.2m of investment through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), Perfa has seen many benefits to the newly installed chamber. The grant provides 50% contribution for projects up to £24,999 for South Yorkshire SMEs to improve their productivity and digital innovation through the provision of capital or revenue grant, and to identify and address their business productivity challenges. Perfa MD Piotr Lugowski said: “This project will not only improve the working conditions for our staff, but also the quality of our products and the efficiency of our operations. We are confident that this will lead to more growth and more jobs for our company and our community. “It has been a huge support to have Enterprising Barnsley on hand to help us with the application. It’s something we haven’t done before and Matt Smith has really added value with his contributions, highlighting other areas of support we may need in the future as well. Matt Smith, Key Account Manager at Enterprising Barnsley, said: “This is a great example of how SMEs can innovate and improve their processes and products while creating jobs and contributing to the local economy.” The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda.   The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and places, supporting local businesses, and people and skills.

The leader of Leeds City Council has described extra government funding as “regrettably not enough to make any real difference” as final budget plans to deliver £63.9m of savings in the next year are released. The council’s budget report for the coming financial year 2024/25 includes a wide range of measures such as new car parking charges, price increases, service and staffing reductions together with a council tax increase of 4.98 per cent in order to deliver a balanced budget, as the council is legally required to do each year. Councils across the country are experiencing severe financial stress as a result of significantly increased costs to provide services and rising demand, especially for vulnerable young people and adults. This is being seen especially in supporting looked after children, those with special care and education needs as well as for adult social care, while a nationally-agreed pay increase for council staff has also added to budget pressures. The council is expecting to receive approximately £6.8m of extra government funding announced last week, which will be used to help cover the additional costs of children’s social care placements. While welcoming the extra money, the leader of Leeds City Council Councillor James Lewis says it won’t make a significant difference to the council’s overall financial position. Leader of Leeds City Council Councillor James Lewis said: “While we welcome any additional support, the reality is it will regrettably not make much of a real difference given the scale of the situation we are in. “The position remains perilous for not just us but councils across the country, with spiralling costs and a continuous challenge to make ends meet which has become almost impossible. The result is a budget which includes decisions we did not want to make but now have to reluctantly put forward for approval. “They will have an impact on the services people see and receive, but we are committed to doing everything we can to keep providing for all our residents even if some things are going to have to change as the reality is we have no other choice.” The position in Leeds reflects the impact of funding reductions, cost increases and demand pressures for council services since 2010. Between 2010 and the end of 2024/25, the council will have had to deliver savings totalling £794m. The budget for 2024/25 identifies a further £51.9m of savings to add to £12m which had previously already been agreed for the coming financial year. Among the proposed changes are:

• Introduction of car parking charges at Middleton Park, Roundhay Park, Temple Newsam Park, Golden Acre Park and Otley Chevin Forest Park
• Introduction of car parking charges at Barley Hill Road in Garforth, Netherfield Road in Guiseley, Fink Hill in Horsforth, Marsh Street in Rothwell as well as Wilderness and Station Gardens car parks in Wetherby
• Changes to opening hours at community hubs and libraries
• Changes to fees and charges for adult social care in Leeds
• Review of council care home provision
• Review of fees and charges at community centres
• Review of children’s centres and Little Owls nurseries
• Bulky waste removal charges to remain free for each household’s first collection and then be reintroduced for more than one collection in the same year
• Pudsey Civic Hall which operates at a loss to be closed and made available for sale
• Council to end lease at Thwaite Watermill Museum (Thwaite Mills) through discussions with owners Canal & River Trust
• Council staffing levels to reduce by net 323.1 full-time equivalent posts by the end of the 2024/25 financial year compared to the approved 2023/24 budget, with ongoing trade union consultation to avoid, reduce and mitigate the needs for compulsory redundancies. The council currently has approximately 3,430 fewer staff than it did in 2010.

All council assets and services are being continuously assessed and reviewed to see how they can help mitigate the financial position. The council has also enacted a freeze on recruitment, as well as on non-essential spending except where necessary for health and safety or statutory reasons. Council tax in Leeds is the second-lowest of the eight core cities in England, with the increase of 4.98 per cent (including 1.99 per cent dedicated to adult social care) representing an increase of £81.91 per year for a Band D property – £1.58 per week. The increasing reliance on council tax to fund council services can be seen as it will account for 67 per cent of the council’s annual budget in 2024/25 compared to 39.9 per cent in 2013, while the Revenue Support Grant from the government has dropped from contributing 35.6 per cent of the council’s annual budget to just 5.7 per cent in the same period. The budget proposals were initially released in December and have been shaped by a range of discussions and consultation with stakeholders which followed, as well as more than 1,700 responses received from an online public survey. The difficulty of the financial position is further shown by an overspend of £39m for the current financial year, while there is also a projected expectation to save a further £64.6m in 2025/26 and £47.1m in 2026/27. The annual budget plans will be discussed by senior councillors at the meeting of the executive board at Civic Hall next week (February 7), before then being debated and voted on at the meeting of full council on Wednesday 21 February.

Leeds-based multi-disciplinary professional services firm, Progeny, has acquired Chartered financial advice firm, Chartered Wealth Management.

This will take Progeny’s total assets under management to £9bn.

With offices in Manchester and London, Chartered Wealth Management offer tailored financial planning and asset management services to high-net-worth clients.

They are a team of 21 members of staff, with nine Chartered financial planners and wealth managers, with a collective 170 years’ experience in providing financial help and advice. 

Mark Stanbury, founding director of Chartered Wealth Management, said: “This is an exciting day for our team and our clients, as we join Progeny – a business rapidly growing in scale and profile.

“We look forward to being part of this unique business as well as the mission to transform and improve financial advice for the better, for our clients and the industry at large.” 

Progeny CEO, Neil Moles, said: “It’s a pleasure to welcome such a prestigious and high-performing business into Progeny, one which is forward-thinking and committed to excellence in equal measure.

“This is the culmination of a five-year search for the right firm, one that will allow us to expand into a new geography but which also crucially meets the strict criteria we set for our acquisition targets around average client size and age, as well as the age and ambition of the firm’s team.

“With Chartered Wealth Management onboard, we look forward to building our presence and extending our proposition in the north west of England. There are exciting times ahead.”

A team from global law firm Squire Patton Boggs acted as legal adviser to Progeny during the deal and law firm TLT acted for shareholders of Chartered Wealth Management.

Amid the January gloom, Yorkshire and the Humber is seeing cautious signs of economic optimism with levels of insolvency-related activity showing a slight fall between November and December 2023.

The region experienced an 11.7% month-on-month drop in insolvency-related activity, representing 248 businesses, according to the latest research from the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body, R3, based on an analysis of data provided by CreditSafe.

Looking across the UK, two-thirds of the 12 regions and nations experienced a fall in this type of activity (which includes liquidator and administrator appointments and creditors’ meetings) in December compared with the previous month. The most marked decreases were in the North East (with a fall of 16.9%), East Anglia (down by 15.3%), Wales (-13%) and the North West (-12.1%). In contrast, the highest rises were in Northern Ireland (with a 52% uplift), Scotland (17.1% increase), the South East (up by 11.4%) and the East Midlands (up by 7.6%).

Another indicator of economic health, the number of start-ups, showed a more concerning picture with all regions and nations seeing a decrease month-on-month. The strongest performances were in Northern Ireland with a drop of just 2%, while all of the others saw double-digit falls, the highest being in the North East with a fall of 26%. Yorkshire and the Humber was fairly resilient with 3,902 new businesses launching last month, an 18% drop since November 2023.

Eleanor Temple, chair of R3 in Yorkshire and a barrister at Kings Chambers in Leeds, commented: “While it is encouraging to see a slight fall in insolvency-related activity in the majority of regions and nations, this has to be seen in seasonal context as December is traditionally the busiest time of year for many sectors. However, it is always good news that Yorkshire and the Humber is performing relatively strongly.

“Despite some retailers reporting a busy Christmas shopping season, for many sectors, the longer-term picture remains one of little prospect of growth in the near future. The ongoing strain on households is evident as costs continue to rise, and a technical recession remains a possibility later this year.

“Amid these fairly gloomy economic prospects, businesses would be well-advised to watch cash flow closely and seek advice from qualified insolvency professionals at the first signs of problems when the most options will be available to prevent them from escalating.”