Fintech and support services business makes third and fourth acquisitions of the year
Fintel, the Huddersfield provider of fintech and support services to the UK retail financial services sector, has acquired of VouchedFor, a review site for professional advisers.
VouchedFor provides reviews on a wide range of services, including financial advisers, mortgage advisers, solicitors, and accountants and currently has over 5,000 paying members and over 350,000 client reviews.
Following the acquisition, its leadership and team will remain in place and work alongside the Fintel management team to play a crucial role in significantly expanding the reach and services of VouchedFor.
Fintel, the parent company of SimplyBiz and Defaqto, will acquire VouchedFor for £7.5m through Fintel IQ, the business’s technology and knowledge platform.
The news comes as Fintel’s subsidiary Defaqto acquires ratings provider AKG. The addition of VouchedFor and AKG mark the third and fourth acquisitions by Fintel this year, following the acquisitions of learning and development provider, Competent Adviser, and tax efficient investing specialists, Micap completed in July 2023.
Matt Timmins, joint CEO of Fintel, said: “VouchedFor and AKG are two market leading businesses which are highly complementary to our offering and share our vision.
“VouchedFor is the UK’s standard bearer for Trusted Advice while AKG has been at the forefront of financial strength ratings and consultancy for over 20 years. Both have strong adjacencies in terms of our capabilities and customers, and we look forward to further developing their compelling growth prospects.”
Leeds-based fashion brand names new Chairman
Michael Truluck has joined Leeds-based Joe Browns fashion brand as Chairman with immediate effect.
The move will be Michael’s first chair position after recently leaving his role as CEO of La Redoute International, to spend more time with his family in Yorkshire and to build a non-exec portfolio.
The company aspires to have ten new stores within a year, and has completed a £2m warehouse upgrade to support growth ambitions and increase pick face capacity.Michael said: “I join at probably the most exciting time in the brands 25-year history. With a unique and confident approach to remarkable product across womenswear, menswear and home it means Joe Browns really stands out in the market – something that has been evident by the growth delivered by Simon, Peter and the team.
“With a great leadership team in place I look forward to supporting them by ensuring that Joe Browns is seen and loved by more customers than ever before. Be it through stores, an even stronger on-line experience or third-party partnerships – and from what I have seen already it’s all to play for from a really firm foundation.”
Simon Brown, Founder of Joe Browns, added: “I couldn’t be happier to welcome Michael into the Joe Browns family. We met years ago during a business meeting and I wrote in my notebook at the time ‘This guy is smart. Keep in touch.’… I didn’t. Later down the line our paths crossed again, and I made a similar scribble.
“When I learned Michael was looking for a non-exec role I was keen to meet with him and discuss the vision for Joe Browns future, and establish if he shared a similar excitement for our opportunities. It’s safe to say he could see the wealth of potential in our unique offering and I’m excited to have him along for the journey.”
Work completes on 14-storey residential development in Sheffield
Henry Boot Construction has officially completed work on Kangaroo Works, Sheffield City Centre’s new 14-storey build-to-rent development.
The development on Rockingham Street, which brings 365 homes to the city centre, forms part of Sheffield City Council’s Heart of the City masterplan – delivering a significant influx of new residents in the city centre.
Delivered for build-to-rent developer Ridgeback Group and designed by Whittam Cox Architects, the 14-storey block comprises a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments, with five commercial units incorporated into the ground floor.
The development’s design focuses on traditional brick buildings, reflecting the typology and heritage of the traditional little mesters works seen in the original ‘Kangaroo Works’ on the same site.
Tony Shaw, Managing Director for Henry Boot Construction, said: “We’re thrilled to see Kangaroo Works reach completion. It’s very rewarding to see people moving in and calling the development home.
“At Henry Boot, we really understand the changing trends of our urban centres and the important role of new homes in creating vibrant and active cities.
“Kangaroo Works is another important piece of the jigsaw and will provide a permanent community to support and complement our other projects in the Heart of the City masterplan, including Pound’s Park, the Cambridge Street Collection food hall and net-zero carbon office Elshaw House.
“We are proud to be helping private and public developers, like Ridgeback Group and Sheffield City Council, transform our hometown and provide a sustainable and well-balanced city centre.”
Christopher Allen, development director at Ridgeback Group, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with the Henry Boot team over the past four years to deliver Kangaroo Works. This scheme was Ridgeback’s first acquisition and established the high standard for our growing portfolio. The quality of the workmanship has been impressive, and we are grateful to receive such a fantastic looking building.”
Ian Lowson, director at Whittam Cox Architects, added: “It’s incredibly rewarding to witness the final realisation of this scheme. Our approach has been guided by an unwavering commitment to delivering a best-in-class, Build to Rent offering in the heart of one of Yorkshire’s great cities, Sheffield.”
KCOM scoops national internet ‘oscar’
Hull-based KCOM has scooped a top award at ‘the Oscars’ of the internet industry.
The Hull-based broadband provider was given the award for the “Best Integrated Communications Campaign” at the ISPA 2023 Awards for its efforts to raise awareness of its copper to fibre phone network upgrade. The £17m upgrade programme is will see 170,000 homes and businesses across Hull and East Yorkshire migrated from old copper phone lines to fibre cables fit to face future demands. In 2022 KCOM launched a publicity blitz across the region with the tagline “Let’s get everyone’s landline fibre ready” to make everyone aware of the upcoming changes. A KCOM spokesperson said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have been recognised at the ISPAs which are the most sought-after awards in our industry. “Work to upgrade our legacy copper landline phone network with future-proof fibre is arguably the biggest infrastructure project in KCOM’s 120-year history and it’s vital that our customers across the region understand the process and the reason why we’re doing it. It’s also incredibly important that vulnerable customers are aware of the change and are supported throughout the process to make sure everyone remains connected. “A huge amount of work has gone on behind the scenes to make this happen and we’re delighted all our teams involved in making the programme such a success so far have been given this national recognition.” KCOM began upgrading premises to fibre in Beverley earlier this year and is now migrating thousands of customers in areas including east and west Hull each week. KCOM was also nominated in a second category on the night for Best Consumer Internet Service Provider (for companies with between 50,000 and 250,000 customers).New culinary training facility opens at Dean Clough
Michelin-trained chef Matthew Benson-Smith has launched a new Hospitality and Catering Apprentice Academy at the historic Dean Clough Mill complex in Halifax.
Chef Benson-Smith Academy is a state of the art practical training facility, purpose designed to educate and mentor intimate numbers of apprentices working for establishments across the UK. The government registered and approved independent training academy is now operating level 2 -5 training programmes tailored to the requirements of a broad range of workplace clients.
Benson-Smith forged his culinary skills during his Michelin training at Ecole Lenotre Paris, and made his mark in Yorkshire through helping convert Hazelwood Castle with his brother John Benson-Smith, ex-BBC MasterChef judge, before becoming Head Chef at Rudding Park Hotel.
After becoming a Consultant Assessor/Examiner for City & Guilds of London Institute and a Consultant Assessor/Examiner for Highfield Qualifications, Matthew is pursuing his passion to deliver highly skilled professionals for Hotels, Restaurants, Fishmongers, Butchers and Bakers.
Matthew Benson-Smith was a Principal tutor and Director at the former cooking school at Dean Clough. He said: “I am delighted to return to Dean Clough for this exciting venture that I feel is so important for the hospitality industry. My father was a steel business entrepreneur in Sheffield and often hosted dinner parties from which I was raised to appreciate good food. Both my brother John and I have forged great careers in the industry, and I want to inspire young people to do the same. Certainly, the industry needs some positive injection after a turbulent few years throughout the pandemic and other economic events, and putting skilled and motivated individuals directly into the business is our objective.
“Dean Clough provides the prefect environment to help inspire our apprentices to be the best that they can. There is a special quality about the place with an ownership team that engenders strong family values and community spirit. Good public transport accessible by foot is also an important attribute given that our apprentices travel from all over the UK.”
“The feedback so far from both employers and apprentices has been exceptional. Not only do they value the focused training they’re receiving, they also enjoy the culture and environment of Dean Clough Mills.”
Jeremy Hall, Chairman and MD at Dean Clough Ltd, said: “We are so pleased to welcome Matthew and his team to Dean Clough. To be a host to such an accomplished operator working for the greater good of an ailing industry whilst supporting fledgling careers is reward indeed and we look forward to seeing some great achievements. Chef Benson-Smith is another fine example of our capacity to provide suitable space for a diverse range of occupiers.”
Academic experts help revolutionise performance of West Yorkshire greetings card company with new RFID and AI tech
A team of academic experts from Leeds Beckett University are driving innovation and boosting productivity in the region by supporting the development of new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology with Wakefield-based Riverside Greetings, a supplier of greeting card solutions.
By embedding the new technology, the team are set to dramatically boost the performance of greeting cards in the convenience and forecourt sector. It has been developed as part of a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), part-funded by the Government through Innovate UK.
Andrew Glen, Managing Director of Riverside Greetings, said: “Many small businesses struggle to access the resources they need to innovate effectively and at scale. By participating in a KTP we’ve been able to work closely with a team at Leeds Beckett University who have helped us to develop this initiative.”
The team has created an automated inventory and category management system that combines AI with RFID technology to analyse and increase the performance of greeting cards – whilst significantly improving the productivity and effectiveness of Riverside’s merchandising service.
The new, patent pending, technology, is now being piloted in several test stores in England. It will allow merchandisers to complete a full stock count of hundreds of cards by design in less than two minutes, with 100% accuracy – versus the current manual counting system which can take 30 to 45 minutes.
Riverside Greetings estimate that this new approach will grow sales with existing customers by more than 20%. Riverside’s operational model provides consignment stock for retailers who then only pay for what they sell, which means that they don’t have cash tied up in stock.
Andrew Glen added: “The project is innovative in a number of ways: firstly, because it employs RFID with relatively low value items; and secondly because it will utilise tags in close proximity to each other. This revolutionary new technology is going to provide us with real-time information and transform the overall performance of greetings cards in the sector.
“We are very excited about this new approach. Our conservative estimate for the scale of the opportunity for the sector measures it at £25 million, a sales figure which will generate approximately £12.5 million of incremental profit for retailers.”
Planning secured for 800,000 sq ft industrial & logistics development
Harworth Group plc has secured planning approval from Leeds City Council for the development of 800,000 sq ft of industrial & logistics space at its Skelton Grange site in Leeds.
The 50-acre site is adjacent to Junction 45 of the M1, to the south-east of Leeds city centre. It was formerly the location of the Skelton Grange Power Station and was acquired by Harworth in 2014, with remediation and enabling works commencing shortly after.
In April 2020, Harworth sold 19.5 acres of land at the site to Enfinium for the development of an Energy from Waste facility, which is currently under construction. In August 2021, further plans were approved for the development of a 99-megawatt battery storage facility on a 5.4-acre parcel on the site.
The approved plans would see the development of up to 800,000 sq ft of industrial & logistics space across up to five units, ranging in size from 126,000 sq ft to 202,000 sq ft.
The units would be built to Grade A specification, incorporating on-site renewable energy and the highest standards of environmental efficiency. Alongside infrastructure upgrades, the plans include a segregated cycle and pedestrian path that is proposed to connect to the Trans Pennine Trail and Sustrans Route 67, as well as tree and hedge planting and other ecological enhancements.
Lynda Shillaw, Chief Executive, Harworth Group, said: “Skelton Grange demonstrates Harworth’s unique skillset in identifying and acquiring complex brownfield sites, devising a masterplan that realises their potential and then progressing this through the planning system to unlock value.
“This development will meet the growing demand for high-specification and well-connected Grade A industrial space across West Yorkshire, in turn supporting jobs and investment for the region. It will also add to Harworth’s already extensive consented pipeline, which has a gross development value of around £2.4 billion.”
New devolution milestone reached for York and North Yorkshire
York and North Yorkshire’s devolution order has been laid in Parliament – marking another step towards the devolution deal becoming law in early 2024.
The deal, which was announced in August 2022, will bring investment of more than £540 million over the next 30 years to the region. York and North Yorkshire councils and a new combined authority led by an elected mayor will have more decision-making powers over key local issues, such as adult education, transport, infrastructure, skills, jobs and housing.
Work is already underway to maximise the impact of the deal. Last month, £7 million was allocated to 23 net zero schemes across York and North Yorkshire, funding that will be received should the combined authority be approved by Parliament. Alongside carbon reduction, funding will create a pipeline of net zero projects that will drive economic growth, create jobs, reduce energy costs for businesses and leverage further investment.
The devolution order was laid in Parliament on Tuesday (7th).
North Yorkshire Council’s leader, Cllr Carl Les, said: “The prospect of bringing more decision-making powers and millions of pounds in additional funding from the Government will bring real and tangible benefits for hundreds of thousands of people in York and North Yorkshire.
“Devolution is about ensuring levelling up becomes a reality, tackling regional inequalities and bringing the prospect for more equal opportunities with better job opportunities and improved skills and training, more affordable housing and tackling the threat of climate change.
“The announcement that the Government has laid the order before parliament, for the creation of a combined authority is very welcome, and the next significant step towards achieving the long-held ambition for devolution for both York and North Yorkshire.
“The new combined authority will be a driving force behind the devolution process, overseeing major strategic projects and how funding will be allocated, and working closely with both North Yorkshire Council and City of York Council.”
Cllr Claire Douglas, Leader of City of York Council, said: “Devolution and the creation of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority presents a huge opportunity for our region.
“City of York Council committed, in our four-year council plan, to working in partnership to maximise the opportunities arising from devolution and we can’t wait to get started. The laying of the draft order is another key milestone as we work towards establishing the new combined authority.
“This is a true partnership effort between York and North Yorkshire, and I want to thank everyone involved who has worked tirelessly to get us to this point. Devolution will allow us to bring significant new investment into York and the surrounding region.
“It brings vitally important new opportunities to deliver sustainable, affordable housing and transport, to tackle the climate emergency and to grow our economy for the benefit of all our residents. These are all priorities that align with our vision and ambition for the city to be more equal, affordable, climate focussed and healthy.”
The York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Order 2023 is a legal document which sets out the powers available to the incoming mayor and combined authority to deliver the content of the devolution deal.
MPs are now expected to consider the draft order before Christmas.
James Farrar, Interim Director of Transition for the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, added: “Subject to progress, a new combined authority could be operational in January and formally launched in February. A mayoral election would take place on 2nd May 2024.”
West Docklands plans to be discussed at Hull’s Cabinet
Hull City Council’s Cabinet will discuss a report detailing the design brief for the West Docklands area.
The design brief would set a planning framework for development and regeneration of the area.
The land is bounded by the operational Albert and William Wright Docks to the south, the A63 to the north, Daltry Street to the west and Commercial Road and Manor House Street to the east.
The framework seeks to:
- Support existing local businesses in the area
- Promote further employment growth, in particular, a new medi-tech centre
- Secure an area of new housing to the south of Wellington Street West
- Retain and improve the ice arena
- Allow for the consideration of a cruise facility at the Albert and William Wright Dock, dependent on external funding
Leeds City Council purchases church as part of £24.3m Morley Town Deal
Leeds City Council has been successful in its bid to purchase St Mary’s in the Wood United Reformed Church in central Morley for an undisclosed sum.
The Grade II listed Victorian building, located on Commercial Street, has housed the congregation of St Mary’s in the Wood since it relocated from the nearby church in 2008. The main church was destroyed by fire in 2010 and remains derelict.
The purchase forms a part of the Morley Town Deal’s investment in the town and will see the building’s use change from a church to a learning and skills centre for Morley operated by Luminate Education Group. It is envisaged that the centre will focus on raising skills for adults through vocational training, particularly in new and emerging technologies.
Commenting on the purchase, Leeds City Council executive member for sustainable development and infrastructure, Councillor Helen Hayden, said: “The purchase of St Mary’s in the Wood United Reformed Church is a key step in delivering the Morley Town Deal’s adult education ambitions.
“Public consultation has shown there is a real thirst for a local technology-focused learning provision in Morley. I am looking forward to seeing the plans and curriculum for this valuable resource develop over the coming months.”
All funding for the purchase of the building comes from the £24.3 million Towns Fund grant awarded by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to the Morley Town Deal in 2022. Leeds City College will commit further funds for the redevelopment of the building, running costs, and development of the curriculum.
Jo Dye, Director of Adult Curriculum at Leeds City College, said: “This campus will allow us to create a strong local education provision so that people in Morley and surrounding areas can learn new skills and gain the necessary qualifications they need to progress to further studies or improve their career prospects.
“The technology centre, as part of the campus, will aim to bridge the skills gaps in digital and IT, which are vital for current and future jobs across many industries. We’re proud that our facilities will allow us to deliver focused training to help the people and businesses of Morley, and Leeds, flourish.”
Chair of the Morley Town Deal Board, Gerald Jennings, added: “The purchase of St Mary’s in the Wood highlights the Town Deal Board’s commitment to not only the infrastructure of Morley but also long-term investment in its people.
“I have no doubt the Morley Learning and Skills Centre will become an educational centre of excellence in the coming years and provide access to learning that the people of Morley have called for through our consultations.”
Consultations on the new learning and skills centre and the curriculum will start in early 2024 and it is expected the college will open and start operating in 2025/26.
