North Yorkshire firms offered free digital marketing advice
Businesses in North Yorkshire have the chance to enhance the way they use social media and digital marketing with fully funded one-to-one bespoke support from industry expert Sue Thompson of Catch Design Management.
This opportunity is suitable for any small business looking to improve their social media and digital marketing skills. Whether you are the business owner, marketing manager or social media assistant, this support is for you.
Firms will gain an overview of the benefits of creating a social media strategy and the skills to develop and curate time-effective quality content for your target audiences .
Sue will guide you through the most popular social media platforms available for small businesses including Facebook, Instagram and Google Business Profile, highlighting best practice ideas for these platforms as well as some of the new features that have been developed specifically to help small businesses to reach their audiences.
Further information from joseph.midgley@ynygrowthhub.com
Yorkshire Building Society partnership with Citizens’ Advice goes nationwide
An award-winning partnership between Citizens Advice and Yorkshire Building Society will now provide more support to more people after expanding nationally to over 40 locations.
The partnership sees Citizens Advice advisers hold free, impartial and confidential appointments in private meeting rooms at selected high street branches of the Society.
It initially started with just six Yorkshire Building Society branches in 2021, but due to increased demand the amount of Yorkshire locations offering the service trebled in the first 18 months. Now, this latest expansion nationally will see 42 branches offer Citizen s Advice advisers across Scotland, Yorkshire and the North West, East Anglia and the South West of the country. Glasgow, Newcastle, Norwich and Plymouth are among the new locations.
The service, which is available to all members of the public, not just the Society’s customers, supports people with a range of issues, and to date has unlocked more than £1 million worth of estimated additional income for those it has helped.
Yorkshire Building Society Chief Exec Susan Allen said: “As a mutual organisation we are committed to providing real help to people in our communities, and this is just one of the ways we do this. In the current climate, this partnership is incredibly relevant – offering an immediate lifeline to people who need it, in an accessible location.
“We know from the current locations just how valuable this service continues to be and I have no doubt extending the use of our retail space to host Citizen Advice advisers nationally will ensure more people across the country benefit from the support, where and when they need it.”
Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “We’re thrilled to be extending our partnership with Yorkshire Building Society. The number of people helped by Citizens Advice hit a record high during the first four months of 2023, and this partnership will help us to reach even more people who need support during these particularly challenging times.”
Dairy farmers to get new rules over contracts, says Government
The government has announced that the regulations will come into force later this year and will enable farmers to challenge prices, prevent changes being made to contracts without farmers’ agreement, and make it easier for farmers to raise concerns.
The development of the regulations has been supported by detailed discussion with key industry players including the NFU and Dairy UK, with Mr Oakes describing the announcement as a “significant step forward” in increasing fairness and transparency across the dairy supply chain.
He said: “For a long time, unfair milk contracts have held British dairy businesses back, and these changes will give dairy farmers much needed business security and confidence, as well as helping to share risk along the dairy supply chain.”
Farming Minister Mark Spencer said: “Farmers must be paid a fair price for their produce and these regulations will provide price certainty and stability for farmers by establishing written milk purchase agreements with clear and unambiguous terms.
“This represents a key milestone in our commitment to promote fairness and transparency across food supply chains to support farmers and build a stronger future for the industry, and will be followed by reviews into the egg and horticulture sector supply chains this Autumn.”
NHS names new Chief Exec for trusts north and south of the Humber
Today Jonathan Lofthouse has taken up the role of Group Chief Executive at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust.
Formerly site Chief Executive as part of King’s College Hospitals, Mr Lofthouse will oversee the management of both organisations. As well as five hospitals – Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill Hospital, Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, Scunthorpe General and Goole – he will be responsible for some community services on the south bank of the Humber. He has previously held the position of Director of Improvement at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. HUTH and NLaG will continue to be two separate organisations although they will, in future, share an executive team. While the two organisations already collaborate closely in the delivery of many key hospitals services, the appointment of Jonathan Lofthouse is the most significant step in enabling them to work more effectively on shared regional challenges. Mr Lofthouse said:“We all know how busy NHS services are and how much pressure services are under. We also know that following the pandemic many of the demands we are now experiencing across our hospitals and community services are really challenging and difficult to respond to. That’s true across all our north and south bank hospitals. We have emergency pressures, challenges in discharging patients and too many patients who have been waiting far longer than we would desire for our care, whether that be surgery, diagnostic or therapeutic. “Now is the time for us to act creatively and courageously and innovate, focusing all of our efforts on making things better for patients and for staff. Through a group operating model we get to do that on a far bigger scale, and the power of that collective focus, the effect of coming together, I believe will allow us to create stronger, higher quality, better functioning services for our patients, and create more opportunities for our 17,000 staff.”Rising debt and inflation fuel surge of Yorkshire businesses in financial distress
Yorkshire businesses are facing a growing burden of escalating economic pressures including rising interest rates and higher labour and materials costs, according to the latest Red Flag Alert data from independent business rescue and recovery specialist Begbies Traynor.
The report found that 29,261 businesses in Yorkshire were suffering early or ‘significant’ distress in Q2 2023, an 8% increase on the same period in 2022 and up 4.9% on the first quarter of this year. ‘Significant’ distress refers to businesses showing deterioration in key financial ratios and indicators including those measuring working capital, contingent liabilities, retained profits and net worth.
Across the UK, ‘significant’ distress was up by 8.5% in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, with a total of 438,702 businesses affected. The three sectors most severely affected by financial distress nationally were support services, construction and real estate and property services.
The latest data is sourced from a completely new Red Flag dataset that has involved deep dive analysis of eight years’ company data by data scientists over the past two years to track key factors behind company distress and failure rates.
Of the 22 sectors monitored by Red Flag Alert, in Yorkshire nine reported increases of over 10% in the number of companies in significant financial distress compared with a year ago. Sectors suffering the biggest increases in significant distress in the region, compared to last year, included sport and health clubs (16.7%), property businesses (14.2%) and retailers (14.6%) which accounted for 21% of this distress (6,074 businesses). Other sectors which saw escalating early distress were health and education (13.4%) and media (11.3%).
Julian Pitts, regional managing partner for Begbies Traynor in Yorkshire, said: “Higher interest rates have hit both consumers and businesses hard and there are mounting concerns that the situation may become worse in the second half of this year in Yorkshire and across the UK, when winter sets in and energy costs go up.
“Consumers are feeling the pinch and cutting back not just on discretionary spending but also on essentials to counteract higher mortgage and loan repayments. Meanwhile businesses are also seeing the cost of their debt rising and, still reeling from the effects of the pandemic and set back by higher energy bills and the effects of the war in Ukraine, it’s no wonder that the number of distressed companies has jumped since last year.
“Given the wider economic uncertainty we fear that time is simply running out for many businesses and we expect a surge in company collapses with the likely failure of many ‘zombie businesses’ in the coming months.”
He added: “Our advice to businesses is to monitor their financial position carefully and seek advice from qualified restructuring professionals as soon as any problems become apparent to avoid them escalating.”
Plans approved for £12.5m Hull facility to drive low carbon technologies
Ideal Heating has received the green light to establish a new £12.5m research and development facility to support low carbon technologies including heat pumps.
Hull City Council has granted full planning permission for the UK Technology Centre at Ideal Heating’s headquarters site in the city.
The R&D facility will create a testbed for product development and advancements in the heating solutions to help decarbonise UK homes and business premises.
The state-of-the-art facility, at Ideal Heating’s site at National Avenue in Hull, will see the company expand its R&D team.
It represents a significant investment from Ideal Heating and will play key role in the company’s transition to low carbon heating solutions including heat pumps.
Construction of the UK Technology Centre is expected to begin this October and is due be completed in late 2024. The R&D centre is set to be operational in early 2025.
Ideal Heating engineering director Helen Villamuera said: “Our UK Technology Centre is part of a major £60m investment we’re making in our Hull site, to support heat pump manufacturing, distribution and innovation in heating technologies.
“From the outset, Hull City Council has been fully supportive of our plans, which will create highly skilled jobs in the city and expand our existing R&D capabilities.
“We’re delighted to have secured full planning permission for the UK Technology Centre. We will now begin a competitive tender process to appoint a contractor to deliver this project.”
The two-storey building, with an additional partial storey to accommodate plant rooms for the centre, will help to develop and refine the low carbon heating technologies, including heat pumps, needed to decarbonise the UK’s 25 million homes.
The Government has set ambitious targets for heat pump deployment, including for 600,000 heat pumps to be installed in domestic properties annually by 2028.
The UK Technology Centre will provide a purpose-designed new home for Ideal Heating’s expert R&D team, which has an increasing range of engineering roles related to design, development, electronics, simulation and product testing disciplines.
Laboratory facilities within the 38,000 sq ft building will enable Ideal Heating’s R&D team to simulate a range of scenarios and conditions to test new innovations and advancements.
The R&D facility is one of a series of major investments from Ideal Heating at its Hull site.
Construction work has been completed on a heat pump production facility and expanded distribution centre, totalling £20m of investment. Ideal Heating also announced recently it had started producing its new monobloc heat pump, Logic Air, in Hull as the company supports the rollout of renewable heating products.
Ideal Heating has also opened a £2.2m National Training and Technology Centre in Hessle, on the outskirts of Hull, with capacity for up to 5,000 installers every year to learn the skills needed to supply and maintain heat pumps.
New commercial scheme set for central Lincoln
Lincoln contractor, Stirlin, has revealed details for a new commercial scheme in central Lincoln.
The scheme, Witham Enterprise Park, is planned to offer nine new industrial units with sizes starting from circa 956 sq ft, designed by Johnathan Roberts Architects and constructed by Stirlin.
The 1.22-acre site, located off Newark Road, adjacent to the Esso fuel station and the River Witham, serves as a prime gateway into Lincoln City Centre. Split across three phases, Witham Enterprise Park will provide over 16,000 sq ft of employment space.
Tony Lawton, Managing Director of Stirlin, says: “We’re delighted to collaborate with our joint venture partner to bring forward Witham Enterprise Park. The existing site will greatly benefit from a complete regeneration and there is a notable lack of sufficient contemporary industrial space within the city centre.
“We are looking forward to delivering another fantastic project that will boost the county’s economic growth and support the local business base. With its excellent access to Lincoln City Centre and the A46, Witham Enterprise Park will act as the perfect hub for a variety of both local and national enterprises.”
Jasper Caudwell, Chartered Surveyor at Pygott & Crone, says: “We are delighted to be named as sole agents on another one of Stirlin’s leading developments in Lincoln, Witham Enterprise Park. The scheme sits in an extremely attractive and strong strategic position located just off Newark Road and will fill a much-needed gap in the market for accessible, modern warehouse space.
“The success of the scheme has already been proven by the early interest off-plan, with two units already under offer. We recommend interested parties to get in touch at the earliest to see how your business could benefit from being located at Witham Enterprise Park.”
Site preparation works are underway, with construction due to commence imminently.
Kay joins Chamber in membership and marketing role
The Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce’s appointed Kay Hudson as Membership and Marketing Executive in the wake of Janice Harrison’s retirement in July.
Kay has more than 25 years’ experience in both private and public sector organisations and thrives on creating successful results for clients and is now looking forward to putting those skills to good use in a membership organisation.
Kay has previously worked in numerous sectors, including inward investment and economic development, healthcare, education, legal, luxury retail, property, sports, military, tourism and leisure, agriculture and food and energy and renewables, and has met some interesting characters along the way, including Brian Clough, Stuart Pearce and boxers Anthony Joshua and David Hayes.
Alongside David Hooper, External Affairs and Membership Director and Anne Tate, Northern Lincolnshire Manager, Kay will be helping to create an exciting Chamber Events Diary for 2024 to support the region’s businesses, keeping them informed of new opportunities and helping them to flourish in the Humber region.
Kay said: “I was thrilled to be invited to join the Chamber team and I’m already enjoying my new role. There’s a lot to learn and I’m looking forward to putting my skills and knowledge to good use for the Chamber’s members.”
David Hooper said: “Kay has a strong skill set and some great ideas for some different events and she is already proving to be a valuable asset to our team. She is really looking forward to getting to know our members, so feel free to give her a call and say hello!”
Work starts onsite at Leeds Beckett University city campus building
Leeds Beckett University’s Rose Bowl building is undergoing a four-floor transformation, which will revolutionise the way staff and students work, study and collaborate.
Chameleon Business Interiors has been commissioned to deliver interior design, fit-out and furniture services at the city centre building. Harriet Wagstaff, head of sales, at Chameleon said: “The work is taking place across a mix of staff work departments, teaching spaces and student areas.
“Research shows that working in a collaborative – rather than individual – setting sees a 50% increase in productivity. This boosts motivation and engagement. But Leeds Beckett University had identified that the Rose Bowl building was quite segregated. Departments needed to be strategically brought together to enable better collaboration and in turn, greater productivity – all while embracing hybrid working.
“So, we’ll be incorporating collaboration hubs and lounges, a collection of different work environments – from comfortable seating to high benches – and contemporary, glass-fronted meeting pods. Alongside this, work-café areas will feature at the end of each wing on all four floors to create an informal space away from desks, where staff and students can hold informal meetings and hot desk.
“We’ve delivered a number of projects in the education sector, but this is our first piece of work with Leeds Beckett University – so we’re incredibly proud and excited to play a role in improving the working environment for staff and students for years to come.”
Work is due to complete in September.
Shawbrook increases facility for York-based One Stop Finance
York-based One Stop Business Finance has agreed an extended deal with Shawbrook to sustain its work in lending to SMEs.
The increased facility provided by Shawbrook will allow One Stop Business Finance to keep delivering flexible funding to its clients and grow their loan book, helping in delivering services to an increased number of small businesses, UK-wide.
Established in 2014 in York, One Stop Business Finance offers bespoke funding options to SMEs. From working capital solutions to invoice finance and development lending, the specialist lender offers clients a personal service which includes access to a dedicated ‘trusted advisor’ who works one-on-one with business owners.
Shawbrook and One Stop Business Finance’s relationship first began in 2019, when Shawbrook provided a £3m facility funding their bridging and development finance book. This has since increased in line with business needs and growth, most recently having grown from £10m to £15m in June this year.
Shawbrook is now the firm’s largest funding partner, with Shawbrook’s deep understanding both of One Stop Business Finance’s business and the wider market being a key driver behind the relationship.
Andrew Mackenzie, Group MD at One Stop Business Finance, said: “This additional funding line continues to sit well alongside our private money and ensures that we have sufficient cash availability to deliver our plan to become a nationwide lender.
“As conditions remain precarious across the country, it is important that we continue to strive in delivering our friendly flexible funding solutions to fund business growth for those who may struggle to access cash through the traditional routes.”
Luke Randell, Associate Director of Structured Finance at Shawbrook, said: “One Stop Business Finance offer much needed support to the UK’s SMEs, and we’re pleased to be assisting them with their next stage of growth. The senior team’s professionalism and strategic management skills have been particularly impressive throughout our relationship with them, and we’re excited to see where they take the business next.”
