Latest merger sees fast growing practice establish a greater presence in Yorkshire
Streets Chartered Accountants, a top 40 UK professional service firm, has established Streets Spenser Wilson Chartered Accountants.
The announcement follows the merger of the Halifax firm, Spenser Wilson with the fast-growing multi regional practice, Streets Chartered Accountants. This latest merger is one of more than five completed by Streets in the last six months and has seen the practice grow, now with more than 27 offices and fee income over £39 million.
When asked about the merger, Chris Yewdall, Partner at Spenser Wilson Chartered Accountants, said: “Myself and fellow Partners Andrea Kennedy, Liz Short and Sally Shacklock are delighted to announce our merger with Streets and excited about the future for our team and our clients as we move forwards as part of the wider Streets team.
“The firm was founded in 1919 and over the years has grown into one of the leading accountancy firms in the town and wider region thanks to our strong reputation and excellent partner led service.
“As with any business we cannot stand still and to move Spenser Wilson forward and provide our clients with a greater level of service we looked for some time to find a perfect partner to support us and one with whom we share mutual values.
“We chose Streets because of the shared philosophy of providing a valuable, personal, and partner led service for clients covering all areas of expertise. In addition, we wished to retain some independence and investment in the existing business, providing for the continued longevity of the practice for our clients, our team and the town of Halifax.
“Now that Spenser Wilson is part of a larger practice, we can confidently promise greater continuity of service to our clients and improved career prospects for our team, as well as our ability to attract new recruits.
“We also believe that our clients, existing and new, will benefit in that the combined firm will be able to offer a wider range of services, some of which we previously sourced externally.
“These include specialist corporate and private client tax planning, banking and finance, grants, R&D tax reliefs, international advice and personal financial planning. Being able to offer this breadth of service all under ‘one roof’ means we can provide greater value for our clients.
“The merger should enhance our position in Halifax and beyond Calderdale and into West Yorkshire and help to form a strong Northern presence within Streets coupled with the existing Wakefield, Hull, Preston and Burnley offices along with any other firms joining us in the future.”
Looking at what the merger means to Streets, the firm’s Managing Partner, Paul Tutin, said: “In line with our strategy to become a truly UK practice we are looking at and working with a number of firms looking to become part of Streets.
“The merger of Spenser Wilson Chartered Accountants & Business Advisers is the latest in line with our plans to expand our geographical coverage and provides us a stronger presence across Yorkshire, following the recent merger of the Wakefield practice of Andrew Wright & Co and our long-standing office in Hull.
“We are really looking forward to working with Chris, Liz, Andrea and Sally to grow the practice and to further establish it as a pre-eminent accountancy, business and tax advisory firm servicing the needs of businesses and individuals across Yorkshire.
“Looking ahead with a number of further mergers and acquisitions in the pipeline, which include a number of practices across the UK, we are on track to achieve our target revenue of £40m by the end of the year.
“The profession is going through significant consolidation with heightened levels of merger and acquisition. In contrast to many, our approach seeks to build on the success of merging firms, ensuring we retain and build on their winning approach – an approach we believe is particularly liked by many of those looking to exit routes, the challenge of growing their practice or facing increased competition and the need to widen their service offering.”
Streets Law, the firm’s dedicated corporate and commercial law offering led by Managing Director and Solicitor, Adam Aisthorpe, undertook the legal work on behalf of Streets for the merger, including drafting the sale and purchase agreement and dealing with the due diligence process in collaboration with internal colleagues in the tax and audit teams at Streets.
Simpro Group acquires Leeds-based BigChange
Simpro Group, a leader in field service management solutions, has acquired BigChange, a Leeds-based pioneer in job management software for the field services industry.
This strategic acquisition of BigChange marks a significant milestone in Simpro Group’s journey, further expanding its capabilities while strengthening the depth and breadth of its offering and ability to scale rapidly across not only the UK, but the globe.
The acquisition of BigChange significantly enhances Simpro Group’s ability to deliver a prescriptive, end-to-end approach to field service optimisation, particularly in vehicle tracking, mobile workforce management, CRM, and advanced scheduling—areas where BigChange excels.
“Our acquisition of BigChange is an exciting opportunity to bring together the best of both companies,” said Gary Specter, CEO of Simpro Group. “With the integration of BigChange, we are not only expanding our portfolio and adding talented employees to our team, but also unifying our approach to field service management across the UK and the globe.
“Together, we will deliver even greater value to our customers, ensuring they receive the best solutions for their unique and evolving business needs.”
“This acquisition aligns perfectly with our customer-first mission,” added Specter. “The synergies between Simpro and BigChange, as well as AroFlo, and ClockShark create new avenues for growth, enabling us to offer a diverse range of solutions that cater to the evolving needs of trade and field service businesses around the world.”
The addition of BigChange to Simpro Group broadens their offering, complements solutions of Simpro, AroFlo, and ClockShark, and provides a wider range of field service management tools for businesses. This expanded portfolio allows them to offer more targeted solutions that help customers streamline their operations and stay competitive in the evolving field services market.
“As we move forward as part of Simpro Group, we are creating opportunities not only for our customers but also for our employees,” said Richard Warley, Chief Executive Officer at BigChange.
“This acquisition strengthens our ability to continue to innovate and grow, and we are excited to see the combined expertise of our teams and complementary technology solutions unlock new possibilities for the future on behalf of our customers.”
Ideal wins award for commitment to employee wellbeing
Hull-based Ideal Heating has won recognition for its commitment to wellbeing in the workplace in the Make UK North East, Yorkshire and Humberside Manufacturing Awards 2024.
The business, which employs around 1,000 people at its National Avenue Site in the city, won the Manufacturing Matters Award during the awards dinner at Ramside Hall in Durham.
The awards, organised by Make UK, the manufacturers’ organisation, recognise the outstanding achievements of companies from across the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber.
As part of its commitment, Ideal delivered a £1.9m “Physical Spaces” investment programme to enhance team facilities at its HQ. The project included enhanced kitchen and food preparation areas, improved office spaces, an outdoor eating area and multi-faith prayer room.
The company is also supporting the physical wellbeing of employees by providing access to a range of services including health checks for all site-based team members, a counselling service with a qualified family therapist, and physiotherapy.
As part of its commitment to supporting employees’ mental wellbeing, the business recently trained its first cohort of Mental Health First Aiders, to complement the First Aid team, and invested in training for team managers to cover mental ill health and drug and alcohol awareness.
Recognising the importance of financial security on the wellbeing of employees and their families, Ideal also recently began providing a Financial Wellbeing update every month covering a wide range of topics, including pension planning and savings tips.
Ideal Heating HR Manager Miriam Moore said: “We’re really proud that our commitment to supporting the wellbeing of our team members has been recognised at the Make UK Manufacturing Awards.
“Employee wellbeing is hugely important to us at Ideal Heating and we’ve put an enormous amount of effort into creating a safe and supportive workplace environment which enables our people to develop their skills and grow.”
Based in Hull since the company was founded in 1906, Ideal Heating is dedicated to creating a positive workplace culture by supporting team members in areas including health, finances and wellbeing.
Airedale opens new factory to meet demands of data centre customers
Leeds-headquartered critical cooling specialists Airedale by Modine has opened a 14.6-acre factory in Bradford in response to increasing demand from global data centre customers.
Airedale by Modine secured the site on the outskirts of Bradford in May this year and has since reconfigured the space for the manufacturing and testing of computer room air handlers and fan wall units. An existing facility in Leeds will focus on chiller production. Between the two sites, overall UK data centre production capacity is expecting to increase by 150%.
In addition to increased production capability, plans for the site include the construction of a state-of-the-art fan wall test center. Once complete, the new R&D facility will expand Airedale by Modine’s overall world-class testing capabilities and will see them welcome customers from across the globe for factory acceptance tests.
Further job creation to support longer term growth at the Bradford plant was forecasted by the company back in May, with a projection of over 200 highly skilled production and support roles being created over the next 3 to 5 years; approximately 10% of which are likely to be apprenticeship roles.
Adrian Trevelyan, MD at Airedale by Modine, said: “The opening of the new Airedale by Modine manufacturing facility in Bradford marks an important milestone for our organisation. With significantly increased capacity, we can offer extensive support to the development strategies of data center operators, whose growth reflects the unfaltering demand for digital applications in society.”
Chancellor urged not to tax family farms out of existence
Said NFU President Tom Bradshaw: “Let me be clear – changes to agricultural property relief and business property relief would be a devastating blow to British farming as we know it, the effects of which will be felt for generations to come.
“It’s hard to see anything which would destroy the new government’s relationship with farmers more completely, or do more damage to family farm businesses, be they the owners of farms or the tenants who farm them for the landlord.”
Signatories of the letter include the four farming unions – the NFU, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland and Ulster Farmers’ Union.
Currently, Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief allow working farm businesses to be passed to the next generation of farmers without incurring inheritance tax charges which they would be unable to pay without selling those businesses.
In particular, APR is an essential relief for farmers who rent land as part of their business model, with 64% of farmland occupied by farmers who rent some or all of their land.
Speculation hit the headlines last week when the BBC reported that the government is considering raising revenue by revising inheritance tax rules as part of its Autumn Budget, due to be announced this week.
Mr Bradshaw added: “The NFU, alongside other farming organisations, has set out to the Chancellor how Inheritance Tax reliefs underpin viable working farming businesses, of all shapes and sizes.
“Whether that’s large or small family farms, tenant farms or contracting businesses, almost every business producing food for the nation’s tables would be impacted.
“The average return of working farm businesses is less than 1%. Most would be unable to meet inheritance tax charges if APR or BPR was stripped away.”
The NFU President also warned legislated environmental targets could be in jeopardy as farm businesses manage the land and invest in environmental and biodiversity delivery.
“For the future of our family farms, food security and the environment we are calling on the Chancellor to urgently consider the sizable effect changes to APR and BPR could have. Farmers have been let down year after year by empty words and policies that negatively impact their businesses. I am imploring the Chancellor, don’t let that happen again on 30 October.”
Yorkshire business confidence remains resilient in October
Business confidence in Yorkshire and the Humber fell one point during October to 39%, according to the latest Business Barometer from Lloyds.
While companies in Yorkshire and the Humber reported higher confidence in their own business prospects month-on-month, up 12 points at 47%, their optimism in the economy fell 15 points to 30%. This gives a headline confidence reading of 39% (vs. 40% in September).
Looking ahead to the next six months, Yorkshire businesses identified their top target areas for growth as evolving their offering, for example by introducing new products or services (36%), investing in their team, for example through training (34%) and entering new markets (32%).
The Business Barometer, which surveys 1,200 businesses monthly, provides early signals about UK economic trends both regionally and nationwide.
National picture
Overall UK business confidence dipped slightly in October to 44% – down three points from September’s 47%.
This was driven by marginal falls in firms’ confidence about their own trading prospects (53% vs. 56% in September) and the economy (35% vs. 38% in September).
The North East of England was the most confident UK nation or region in October (63%), followed by London (56%) and the North West (53%).
Sector insights
Firms’ trading prospects pulled back for the third consecutive month in manufacturing to 46%, the lowest level since March. There were also moderate declines of 3 points in both retail and services to 51% and 57% respectively.
Expectations in construction bucked the trend, rising to 50%.
Martyn Kendrick, regional director of Yorkshire and the Humber at Lloyds, said: “Although overall business confidence saw a slight dip in October, businesses are increasingly optimistic when it comes to their own prospects – a reflection of the strength and opportunity in our region’s economy.
“As businesses target further growth, and as they finalise their plans for next year, we’ll continue to be by their side to help ensure they’re equipped to make the most of whatever new opportunity lies ahead.”
ABP buys 21 acres to pave the way for Immingham port expansion
ABP has acquired 21 acres of land on the western side of the Port of Immingham in an off-market transaction, forming an important additional step the future expansion of the port estate.
The land, fronting Humber Road and Rosper Road, has a live hybrid outline planning application for up to 300,000 sq. ft of new industrial buildings or 16 acres of industrial open storage uses. The application is expected to be determined by North Lincolnshire Council planners soon.
Andrew Dawes, Director of the Humber ports said: “Acquiring this strategic site on the western side of the Port of Immingham is integral to bolstering our footprint and ensuring the Port – the UK’s largest by tonnage – has room for growth to meet the demands of our customers on the Humber.
“It underpins our commitment to pursuing our ambitious mission to continuing to provide essential gateways to Keep Britain Trading. Immingham is at the heart of the UK’s busiest trading gateway handling around 46 million tonnes of cargo every year.”
Greg Lacey, Head of Property said: “The site’s proximity to both Philips 66 and Prax is important, and we are considering how it could play into much broader energy projects for generation and storage – which is a key part of ABP’s new mission to Enable the Energy Transition, and in this particular case, play our part in helping decarbonise the Humber”.
ABP has a total portfolio of 8,600 acres across the UK, which includes over 2,400 acres of development land. The Humber property team can deliver commercial property solutions for businesses interested in prime industrial and logistics opportunities. ABP welcomed over 150 new occupiers in 2023 bringing a total of 2,000 tenants across the estate.
Law firm earns Probate accolade
The private wealth and succession team at Yorkshire law firm Ramsdens has been named as Probate Provider of the Year North & Midlands at this year’s British Wills and Probate Awards.
Chris Reynolds, head of Ramsdens’ private wealth and succession practice, said: “Having become known in Yorkshire and beyond for our technical skills in this complex area of law, it is really rewarding to be recognised with this national award. Dealing with issues around inheritance can be difficult and our expert and friendly lawyers do all they can to make the legal process as easy to understand and as stress-free as possible for our clients.
“Well done to all of the team for their commitment, empathy and talent, which have made us a stand-out practice across the UK.”
Ramsdens’ managing partner Paul Joyce added: “While we’re proud of the work we do and the positive feedback we receive from clients, it’s always extremely gratifying to be publicly recognised as being one of the best firms in the UK. With our private wealth services practice continuing to establish its reputation nationally, I’d like to congratulate the team for achieving this prestigious award.”
Plans submitted for new Selby homes
Plans for 139 new homes in Hemingbrough have been submitted to North Yorkshire Council.
This proposed development is situated on an allocated site for housing in the draft emerging Selby Local Plan. Persimmon’s plans include a range of 1 to 4-bedroom homes, all equipped with EV chargers and bike sheds provided for homes without garages. The application includes the policy-compliant level of affordable housing, with 20% of all homes being transferred to a Housing Association or sold at a discount to open market value. Additionally, 4 single-storey bungalows and 8 M4(3) wheelchair-accessible dwellings will be provided ensuring the homes are suitable for a variety of needs. Residents will benefit from 1.2 acres of public open space, including the construction of an on-site children’s play area. Although details are still to be finalised, the Section 106 agreement currently includes an education contribution of approximately £190,000 towards Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision and Early Years education. Joel Frank, Land Director at Persimmon Yorkshire, said: “We are delighted to submit plans for new homes in Hemingbrough. This project will provide much-needed homes for local people and enhance the community with new amenities and public open spaces. We look forward to working with North Yorkshire Council and local stakeholders to bring this project to life.”Three-year high for West Yorkshire and Humber industrial market
According to the latest Logic Industrial Property report from the Leeds office of property consultancy Knight Frank, a robust 678,200 sq ft of take-up was recorded in the West Yorkshire and Humber region during Q3 2024, bringing the total take-up figure to a three-year high of 1.9 million sq ft (units over 50,000 sq ft) this year.
Iain McPhail, partner in Knight Frank’s Yorkshire Industrial & Logistics team, said: “The industrial and logistics market in West Yorkshire & the Humber continues to perform well, with the take-up totals of 2022 and 2023 surpassed with one quarter still to go. In addition, a further 400,000 sq ft of space was under offer as per the end of September.”
He explained: “New speculative schemes delivered to the West Yorkshire & the Humber market over the past year have been a significant factor in fuelling take-up volumes. Five speculatively built units have been signed up so far this year, accounting for 25% of take up so far.
“A notable transaction in Q3 was the letting of the 64,809 sq ft Unit 1 Interchange 26 in Cleckheaton to food supplier, Deli Fresh. This set a new headline rent for units over 50,000 sq ft in the region, at £9.20 psf.
“Prime headline rents in Leeds continue to grow and are currently tracking at 5.1%, while prime rents across the region have grown by 38% over the past three years, driven by the dearth of new supply.
“Also of note was the letting of K61, Konect 62 (60,912 sq ft) to third-party logistics operator, Campeys of Selby, on a 10-year lease at £8.50 psf.
“While distribution firms remain active and comprise 27% of take-up over the past year, manufacturers now comprise 53% (1.1 million sq ft) of the floorspace signed. This marks a significant shift compared to last year, when distribution firms comprised 75% of annual take-up and manufacturers, only 11%.”
Despite the delivery of much-needed new stock to the market, supply levels are once again trending downwards. Availability of existing stock fell by 8.4% in Q3 to 4.1 million sq ft (units 50,000 sq ft+). Both new and second-hand supply levels fell in the quarter, bringing the vacancy rate down by 50 bps to 6.1%. Excluding space under offer, there are only seven new units available, all of which are under 200,000 sq ft.
The development pipeline of units over 50,000 sq ft remained unchanged during Q3 with Baytree Leeds, Baytree Developments’ flagship two-unit scheme (76,000 and 145,000 sq ft) located in South Leeds, remaining the only speculative development scheme underway, with practical completion expected in November 2024.
Iain McPhail continued: “This is a significant reduction from one year ago when 12 speculative buildings totalling 1.4 million sq ft were under construction. Based on the region’s five-year average annual take up and discounting space under offer, just 15 months’ worth of existing supply is available, reducing to seven months for new or grade-A space.
“Given the limited development pipeline, headline rents are expected to continue trending upward into 2025 as supply levels tighten further. Average rental growth forecasts for Leeds have been revised upwards in the latest forecasts, with 5.3% now predicted for 2024, and 3.3% for 2025.
“There is a general sentiment that occupier confidence is starting to return, on the back of the recent change in government and, more importantly, the Bank of England’s decision to reduce the base rate by 25 basis points. This has resulted in more positive conversations and some ‘on hold’ requirements being re-activated.”
