Sills & Betteridge LLP, a regional law firm offering a wide range of corporate and commercial services, have appointed Partner Wendy Martin to its team. Primarily based at the firm’s Marshalls Yard, Gainsborough and Hallgate, Doncaster offices, Wendy will handle the commercial property matters for a growing number of clients in the North Lincolnshire – South Yorkshire area. Wendy has practiced exclusively in commercial property since qualifying as a solicitor in 1997. She has extensive experience in acting for a wide range of clients including small independent business owners, SMEs, larger national companies, investors and pension schemes, advising on new leases, assignments, licences, and freehold and leasehold sales and purchases for occupiers and investors. Wendy said: “It is great to join Sills & Betteridge at such an exciting time of growth and I look forward to working with the existing team to further grow the firm’s commercial property offering in the area.” Head of Department Malachy McGill said: “Wendy’s appointment is a very positive development for the team. She is a highly-rated property specialist with a strong background and we are confident that she will play a key part in our plans to build our commercial profile across the north of our region.” Sills & Betteridge now has 18 offices across Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and the East Midlands employing over 400 people. The firm acquired Nottingham-headquartered Campions Solicitors in March 2024 and looks forward to relocating to larger premises in Sheffield, Northampton and Sleaford later this year.

Hull City Council is exploring the possibilities for expansion of the city’s Heating Network as it confirms that it has varied its existing contract with technical consultants Ove Arup and Partners. This will enable scope changes to the design of HDHN, including future connections to East Bank Urban Village, as well as providing additional network routing to Great Thornton Street Flats and an enhanced energy centre at Trippett Street. With £10 million of Levelling Up funding allocated to the East Bank development, it presents an opportunity to provide district heat to the site as part of the enabling works. A direct connection from HDHN to Great Thornton Street Flats would significantly lower construction and operational risks, whilst an enhanced energy centre at Trippett Street would mean an energy centre on Anlaby Road is not required. Also included are energy performance and building fabric assessments to those council buildings connecting to the network. This will provide a holistic approach to the future decarbonisation of buildings and maximising the performance of the HDHN. These contract variations will incur £270,905 of costs to the council which will be partly financed through its funding allocation of £13m from Green Heat Network Fund received in 2022.

Three multi-academy trusts in North Yorkshire and beyond have benefitted from an innovative business collaboration designed to bring state-of-the-art connectivity to students in over 40 of the region’s schools.

NYnet, which builds and manages its own full fibre network across North Yorkshire, has worked with specialist education technology company Vital York Limited and North Yorkshire Council’s NYES Digital team to improve broadband connectivity, introduce the latest firewall and filtering technology and provide ongoing technical support to Ebor Academy Trust, South Bank Multi Academy Trust and Pathfinder Multi Academy Trust.

Together, the three Yorkshire academy trusts manage over 40 schools, from rural village primaries to inner-city primary and secondary schools.

The collaboration, which is thought to be the first of its kind in the region, has seen NYnet, Vital and NYES Digital pool their experience of working with the education sector to develop a programme of digital improvement, resilience and technical support.

NYNet CEO Alastair Taylor said: “NYnet has built its reputation over a period of almost two decades with a remit to deliver robust full fibre broadband to the NHS, blue light services, schools and remote rural communities in North Yorkshire.

“The knowledge we have built up over that time was invaluable as we worked with our partners on this project to make sure every learning community within the three trusts has access to the same high performance digital connectivity.”

James Pawson from Vital said: “It has been highly rewarding to work as part of a larger tech team to bring together our knowledge and expertise and develop the best possible solution for the academies involved.”

Keren Wild from NYES Digital said: “This partnership has brought huge benefits for all the schools involved and will futureproof their digital communications for many years to come. The academies can now benefit from ongoing support from Vital and NYnet to keep their IT systems trouble free and ensure school staff are not spending time fixing IT issues.”

Everfield, the Europe-based, long-term B2B software investor, has acquired education software specialist MyKnowledgeMap. York-based MyKnowledgeMap provides competency assessment, ePortfolio and digital credentialing software to universities and professional bodies across 15 countries, including the UK, Australia and the USA, with a particular focus on medicine, nursing and midwifery. The acquisition of the company by Everfield will enable MyKnowledgeMap to achieve further growth across the university sector and expand its overseas footprint. MyKnowledgeMap’s Adam Doyle will continue in the role of CEO of the company, while the transaction allows an exit for founder and majority shareholder Robert Arntsen. Adam Doyle, CEO of MyKnowledgeMap, said: “Joining forces with Everfield marks a significant milestone in our journey. It’s a unique opportunity to accelerate our mission in creating best-in-class learning technology for leading educational institutions and training organisations around the world. “While maintaining our focus on business as usual, we will increasingly expand our impact, reach new markets, and drive forward the evolution of learning technology. This strategic direction will enable us to capitalise on new opportunities while upholding our commitment to service excellence.” Nicki Berrange, acquisitions manager at Everfield, said: “We’re delighted to bring MyKnowledgeMap into the Everfield ecosystem. MyKnowledgeMap’s niche expertise in healthcare e-assessment and e-portfolio platforms, combined with its seasoned team and deep expertise, aligns seamlessly with our strategic objectives, promising an exciting path ahead.” Henning Schreiber, head of acquisitions for Everfield, added: “MyKnowledgeMap is a great business that has developed a comprehensive portfolio of learning technology platforms to support university faculties and their students. “We’re looking forward to supporting Adam and his team, providing them with the operational support and resources to achieve further growth in the UK and beyond.” Founded in 2000, MyKnowledgeMap has grown to have 24 employees and thousands of end users around the world. Henning Schreiber added: “Our investment model enables us to provide our businesses with the tools, advice and resources to achieve sustainable business growth, while their experienced management teams get on with doing what they do best – developing great software to support their customer’s daily operations. “Our partnership with MyKnowledgeMap will help the company consolidate its leading position in nursing, midwifery and medicine, but also continue to grow across all university faculties, as well as postgraduate healthcare markets.” Everfield was advised by Grant Thornton (financial and tax), CMS (legal), TC Group (HR), and Shiker Consulting (technology). MyKnowledgeMap was advised by Benchmark International (corporate finance) and EMW Law (legal).

Sheffield Forgemasters has been awarded a crucial strategic qualification, positioning the company to support development and delivery of the next generation of civil nuclear power plants.

The company’s nuclear qualification came after an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Section III Division I NCA 3300 (NCA 3800), NCA 4000 and NQA-1 Code survey and audit, recommended it for Material Organisation (MO), and welding (NPT) accreditations.

Sheffield Forgemasters’ status as the only company in the UK capable of manufacturing reactor vessel components for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), coupled with its ASME status, make it a crucial capability in delivery of this advanced power-generation technology.

Ian Nicholls, group technical director at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “We undertook the ASME audit in November and have now received confirmation that the audit recommendation has been approved by the committee. The accreditation is a huge development with heightened requirements and protocols embracing all our processes, employees and selected sub-suppliers.”

The qualification comes soon after the company announced a ground-breaking development in the acceleration of welding for large nuclear vessels, using Electron Beam Welding to reduce more than a year’s worth of manual welding to less than 24 hours.

As well as being the sole UK supplier of large, nuclear-grade forgings and castings, Sheffield Forgemasters’ MO and NPT status now makes it one of the only UK companies qualified for fabrication of the main components within a civil nuclear power plant.

Ian added: “The ASME accreditation, coupled with our development of Electron Beam Welding for large diameter, nuclear grade vessels, places Sheffield Forgemasters at the pinnacle of development for Small Modular Reactors and presents significant possibilities for the UK’s domestic nuclear new-build programme.”

The ASME code is the most comprehensive series of guidelines for civil nuclear manufacture in the world with an emphasis on doctrines that have parallels with the European Nuclear manufacturing code, RCC-M, and other submarine nuclear standards.

Sheffield Forgemasters first gained ASME accreditation as a Nuclear Materials Organisation in 1992 will now continue its work to advance manufacturing technologies for the next generation of SMR civil nuclear power plants.

One of the key indicators of a buoyant economy, the number of new businesses launching, once again fell across almost all regions and nations in March compared with the previous month, according to the latest research from the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body, R3. However, Yorkshire and the Humber saw one of the smallest month-on-month decreases.

The research, which is based on an analysis of data provided by CreditSafe, showed that the number of start-ups in Yorkshire and the Humber fell by just 4.7% between February and March 2024, with 5,132 start-ups launching last month. Although levels have decreased slightly in the region over the last quarter, the figures for March show that over 1,200 more businesses launched compared with December 2023.

In March 2024, only Northern Ireland saw a rise in start-ups since the previous month, with an increase of 19.4%. Scotland and Wales were the only other nations to perform more strongly than Yorkshire and the Humber, with falls of 1.1% and 4.2% respectively. In contrast, the greatest decreases were in the South East (-11.7%), Greater London (-11.6%) and the South West (-10.4%).

Looking at insolvency-related activity last month, Yorkshire and the Humber was one of five regions and nations to experience a fall since February. The region saw an 8% decrease in this type of activity (which includes liquidator and administrator appointments and creditors’ meetings) with 242 businesses here affected.

The most marked falls were in Greater London (-13.9%), the West Midlands (-9.6%) and the North East (-8.8%). In contrast, the largest increases were in the South West (up by 38.1%), Scotland (up by 31%) and East Anglia (up by 14.2%).

Eleanor Temple, chair of R3 in Yorkshire and a barrister at Kings Chambers in Leeds, said: “While the UK economic landscape looks far from rosy, it is certainly good news that Yorkshire and the Humber is holding its own, both in terms of levels start-ups and insolvency-related activity.

“Despite confirmation that the UK entered recession in the second half of 2023, there already appear to be some green shoots of recovery. Recent growth figures are encouraging, along with signs of a resurgence of the housing market and various consumer and business surveys suggesting that confidence is returning.

“Nevertheless, with GPD lower than before Covid and living standards continuing to fall, interest rates remain high and businesses continue to face a challenging economic environment. We urge business owners to keep a close eye on cash flow and seek advice from an insolvency expert at the first signs of financial difficulties.”