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Rayner Rowen appointed to complete No8 First Street

Blog

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07/02/2018

Rayner Rowen appointed to complete No8 First Street

No8 First Street, the 170,000 sq ft Grade A office scheme, is still on track for completion following Carillion’s demise, with the appointment of specialist construction management team Rayner Rowen and supporting sub contractors.

Rayner Rowen has been appointed by GVA on behalf of the Greater Manchester Property Venture Fund and work has now restarted back on site. Ask Real Estate is managing the development on behalf of the Fund and Patrizia.

Commenting on the appointment Dan Williams Head of Real Estate Development UK and Ireland for Patrizia said: “We had robust contingency plans in place to minimise the threat of any potential delays in construction and, following the news of Carillion’s insolvency, we have appointed Rayner Rowen to oversee the completion of No8.

“The team has a great deal of experience in managing medium to large scale construction developments and they have spent a lot of time on site over the last couple of weeks to immerse themselves in the build programme. We now have a critical path in place to complete the building as planned.”

Chris Cheap, senior regional director GVA who are investment managers for GMPVF, added: “Rayner Rowen has considerable experience and has quickly picked up the remaining development requirement to take No8 forward to completion. They have been on site since 25^th January and have retained a number of key individuals to ensure continuity and the retention of specialist knowledge during the remaining months of construction. They are now fully engaged on site and we expect completion to be achieved in late Spring with minimal delay to the programme.”

Gazprom signed as a pre-let occupier early in the construction process, and has already taken access to fit out circa 42,000 sq ft office which is split across two floors.

Forward Role kick starts exciting 2018 with five new hires

Blog

Sam Whitear

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06/02/2018

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Forward Role kick starts exciting 2018 with five new hires

Specialist marketing, digital and IT recruiter Forward Role has kicked off 2018 by welcoming five new members of staff to its award-winning team.

The new recruits – two Business Managers and three Recruitment Consultants – will bolster Forward Role’s nationwide coverage and expand its IT, Digital, Analytics and UX divisions.

And the new hires take the Forward Role team to 32, making it the largest specialist Marketing & Digital recruiter in the North of England and a major player on the national stage.

Managing Director, Steve Thompson said: “These five new hires tie into our strategic aims for 2018 focused on continuing to grow our nationwide offering and building our capability to provide our clients with both short-term and long-term recruitment solutions.

“It’s so important for us to continue to identify the very best talent in our industry and create our own future recruitment stars. We’re really pleased to welcome another intake of bright and hungry graduates that we can train and develop in the Forward Role culture we’re renowned for.”

All five of the latest additions to the team will be based at Forward Role’s new office in Manchester city centre.

As a result of substantial client demand for Forward Role’s tech recruitment capabilities over the past 12 months, Daniel Haydon has joined as Business Manager to grow the firm’s nationwide Interim IT offering.

Daniel comes to Forward Role from Talent International and has a 10-year background in IT recruitment. He joins Forward Role’s established Tech team and will be specialising in temporary and contract roles within the Enterprise Business Systems arena.

Joining the Digital team as Business Manager, Matthew Borthwick comes to Forward Role from LOFT Talent Acquisition.

Matthew has four years’ experience in Marketing & Digital recruitment and will be using his expertise to strengthen Forward Role’s position in London. He’s also actively working on digital roles nationally.

Recruitment consultants, Josh Pepper, Desi Todorova and Ryan Dolan joined the business to help grow Forward Role’s UX, Analytics and IT divisions respectively.

Josh and Ryan each possess one-year recruitment experience and Desi joined the company as a recent Advertising & Marketing Graduate from the University of Lancaster.

The five new hires come at a crucial time for Forward Role as it looks to build on a record turnover in 2017. The firm is also gearing up to celebrate its ten-year anniversary in February.

“2017 was a fantastic, record-breaking year for Forward Role,” Steve added. “But with five new team members now on board, we’re looking forward to an even better 2018 and beyond.”

Investment strategies to cater for volatile stock markets

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Finance

Sam Whitear

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06/02/2018

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Investment strategies to cater for volatile stock markets

Patrick Connolly, Certified Financial Planner, Chase de Vere, the independent financial advisers with offices in Manchester, has commented on investment strategies to cater for volatile stock markets.

Investors have been well rewarded over the past nine years as stock markets have raced ahead. However, there are concerns that the tide is turning, as we have seen significant falls in recent days and a high degree of volatility. This culminated yesterday (5 February) with the American Dow Jones Index suffering its biggest intra-day loss in history, falling by nearly 1,600 points or 6.3%.

We meet many people who have too much of their money invested in shares. This is often the result of making their own investment decisions or where they’ve received advice in the past but haven’t reviewed their finances since.

It’s often fine for younger investors to hold more of their money in shares, especially if they’re paying monthly amounts into their pension or ISA. However, as you get older and the value of your investments grows, capital protection becomes as important as capital growth.

The best way to protect your money is usually through asset allocation, where you hold other investments such as fixed interest and property alongside shares. This helps you to spread risks. Nobody knows for sure which investments will perform the best and having too much money in one area that under-performs will have a negative effect on your overall finances.

It is really important to stay calm and rational. Many people make investment decisions based on short-term performance or sentiment, meaning they often buy at the top of the market when sentiment is positive and sell at the bottom when it is negative. Investors will achieve better long-term returns, and ride through the difficult times, by staying calm, adopting a long-term strategy and sticking to it without being distracted by all of the short-term noise.

To ensure that you don’t end up taking too much, or too little, risk, you should also look to rebalance regularly. This involves selling some of your investments which have performed well and now represent a larger proportion of your portfolio and reinvesting into those which have performed poorly and are now a smaller amount of your portfolio. This is particularly important during volatile times as the shape and risk profile of your portfolio can change quickly over a short period.

Brave investors may see stock market falls as an opportunity to buy. Many companies around the world continue to perform well, make consistent profits and have large amount of cash on their balance sheets. It is now possible to buy these companies at a lower price.

However, stock markets could fall further and so to help negate the risks of market timing you could consider investing monthly premiums rather than lump sums. This approach means that if investments fall in value then you simply buy at a cheaper price the following month, bringing down your average purchase cost.

You are likely to rely on the investments you hold within your pensions and ISAs and so you must ensure you aren’t thrown off course by stock market volatility as the investment choices you make are too important to get wrong.

Stay calm and rational, make sure your investments are properly diversified and review them on a regular basis. If you are spooked by stock market volatility, or if you’re not sure what you’re doing, then you should take independent financial advice.

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Citibase bolsters Manchester economy with opening of new flexible officing hub in Salford Quays

Transport

Sam Whitear

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06/02/2018

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Citibase bolsters Manchester economy with opening of new flexible officing hub in Salford Quays

Citibase, the flexible officing champion, is continuing its expansion in Manchester with the opening of its third brand new flexible office hub in the area, Citibase Manchester Salford Quays. The centre is set to provide a significant boost to the local economy, with the potential to offer flexible, fully serviced office space for nearly 300 Mancunian entrepreneurs, SMEs and start-ups.

Housed in an entirely refurbished red brick building, Citibase Manchester Salford Quays will provide up to nearly 17,000 sq ft of high quality, flexible space in an excellent location within the Merchants Quay area of Salford Quays. The centre has recently been fully redesigned to offer stylish interiors which are flooded with natural light, while customers will also benefit from high speed broadband, meeting room facilities, 24/7 access, on-site parking and business support services.

The regeneration of Salford Quays has been one of the North West’s most exciting transformation stories, now forming a world-class business, cultural and residential area, with the ongoing expansion of MediaCityUK acting as a driving force behind this. The new centre, housed in CERT Property’s The Junction building, is just two minutes’ walk to Salford Quays Metrolink stop, which provides fast access to Deansgate in Manchester City Centre in under ten minutes. In addition to this, all the shops, restaurants and amenities of Salford Quays are just a pleasant stroll away along the waterfront.

Following the launch of Citibase Manchester Old Trafford in early 2017 and the existing Citibase Manchester office hub located on Princess Street, the opening of Citibase Salford Quays marks the company’s third Manchester location. Citibase’s expanding presence in the city is clear evidence of the rapidly burgeoning demand for flexible workspace in the Manchester area. The latest quarterly Citibase Business Confidence Index also provided hard evidence in this respect, with 72% of respondents from the North West expressing a desire for short term office contracts under three years in length.

Steve Jude, CEO of Citibase, comments: “We are excited to continue our Manchester expansion with the opening of a new centre in the heart of one of Manchester’s most vibrant districts, Salford Quays. Its thriving waterfront location offers everything from restaurants, shopping and sport to history and drama. Thanks to this alluring mixture of excellent transport links and culture, we know this will prove a popular location for businesses both large and small looking for flexible office space.

“We have entered the dawn of a new era where UK businesses do not want to be tied down in the long term. As the flexible workspace revolution gathers momentum, more and more SMEs are waking up to the benefits of flexible space and the agility it affords them, allowing them to focus on what’s really important – running and growing their business.”

Clough & Willis to stage free event that will show how employers should deal with sexual harassment complaints

Blog

Sam Whitear

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06/02/2018

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Clough & Willis to stage free event that will show how employers should deal with sexual harassment complaints

Bury & Bolton law firm Clough & Willis is staging a free event Thursday 15th February for employers and business owners that will discuss how companies should deal with allegations of sexual harassment made against their staff.

The event will cover various topics and will provide a guide on existing legislation and will give some practical tips on how to investigate and deal with sexual harassment complaints. Attendees will also learn the methods of limiting problems arising in the first place.

The seminar will be led by Chris Macwilliam who is Head of Employment & Dispute Resolution at Clough & Willis. Chris advises all types of companies on employment law issues, from SMEs with a small number of employees to PLCs. Chris also works with owner managed businesses and with established HR professionals – both in-house and consultants.

As well as conducting employment litigation, he has offered employment law advice for many firms on all aspects of employment law and human resource management from drafting policies and procedures to complex transfer of undertakings matters.

Chris said: “Sexual harassment has been in the headlines recently – and research shows that the problem is widespread in the workplace – so it’s vital that employers know what to do if the allegations arise in their business. Our aim is for this event to do just that so people know the facts and how to deal with such sensitive matters in a proper way.”

Virgin Trains announces free WiFi for millions of passengers on its West Coast route

Transport

Sam Whitear

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06/02/2018

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Virgin Trains announces free WiFi for millions of passengers on its West Coast route

Virgin Trains customers on the West Coast will see a significant improvement in on-board WiFi later this year. All 5656 Pendolino trains will undergo a refit which will vastly improve the on-board equipment, and allow free WiFi to be extended to all Pendolino customers.

The £7.5m investment is part of a new deal agreed with the Government, which will see Virgin Trains continue to run the West Coast franchise through to at least 31^st March 2019, with the option for up to a further one-year extension at the Department for Transport’s discretion. The existing franchise expires on 31^st March 2018, and the new contract will bridge the gap between the existing franchise and the new West Coast Partnership, due to start on 1^st April 2019.

Installation of the WiFi upgrade is planned to begin on the Pendolino fleet from May 2018, with the work expected to be completed by January 2019, when free WiFi will be extended to all Pendolino customers. More than 85% of our customers travel on Pendolinos. In addition, the new technology is ‘future-proofed’ so it will work with 5G mobile phone networks as they come on stream and offer further speed improvements. The upgrade will also unlock the ability to offer more technology-led improvements in the future, all of which will increase customer satisfaction.

Welcoming the new deal, Phil Whittingham, Managing Director of Virgin Trains on the West Coast commented: “Virgin Trains has led the industry for more than two decades, and I’m delighted that we have secured a new contract to continue operating on the West Coast. The investment will see a big improvement in our on-board WiFi, and follows our industry-leading innovations such as automatic delay-repay and free films and TV on board via our Beam app.

“I’m pleased that we’ll be able to offer almost all of our customers access to the improved WiFi for free. We know WiFi is a top priority for our customers and I’m sure they’ll welcome the upgrades to both speed and availability.”

In addition to the WiFi improvements on board, Virgin Trains will also investigate eliminating ‘not-spots’, or places without mobile phone coverage, on parts of its network. The route taken by the west coast mainline sees a large number of these ‘not-spots’ as trains pass through cuttings and tunnels, and where there is no mobile phone coverage there is also no WiFi available. This work, together with the WiFi improvements, will allow customers to work more effectively on our trains, securing increased economic benefits for the UK.

easyJet showcases its new Airbus A320neo at Manchester Airport and continues its decarbonisation strategy

Blog

Sam Whitear

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05/02/2018

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easyJet showcases its new Airbus A320neo at Manchester Airport and continues its decarbonisation strategy

easyJet, Europe’s leading airline, is today showcasing the airbus A320neo at Manchester Airport. The neo brings significant environmental and operational benefits – up to 15 percent savings in fuel burn and CO2 emissions, and a reduced noise footprint of 50 percent on take-off and landing phase.

The quieter aircraft also crucially minimises impact on local communities. easyJet serves 50 destinations from Manchester and is set to fly 3.5 million passengers this year. The airline is excited to be introducing the neo to some of these routes this year, as our fleet of A320neo increases.

Since 2000 easyJet has reduced its carbon emissions per passenger, per kilometre by over 32%. Its current target is a 10% reduction from its financial year 2016 performance by 2022, which would be a 38% improvement from 2000.

easyJet’s biggest impact on the environment is its fuel consumption and the associated carbon emissions and that is why the airline is currently working on several projects with the aim of continuing to significantly reduce its carbon footprint.

In September easyJet announced that it was providing an airline operator’s perspective to Wright Electric which is developing a commercial passenger plane that runs on electric batteries. The collaboration will support their goal for short haul flights to be operated by all-electric planes within 10 years.

easyJet is working with Safran Landing Systems to trial e-taxi hydrogen fuel cell technology in the coming months in what will be a revolutionary zero emissions taxiing system for its aircraft.

Due to the high frequency and short sector lengths of easyJet’s operations, around 4% of the airline’s total fuel consumed annually is used when the airline’s aircraft are taxiing. Once applied across its fleet of 272 aircraft, this technology could save around 55,000 tonnes of fuel and associated CO2 emissions per year. Trials will take place next year at Toulouse Airport.

easyJet operates an efficient fleet of Airbus A320 family aircraft equipped with CFM56 engines.

This year easyJet started to operate the new generation Airbus A320neo aircraft. There will be 100 of these aircraft in the fleet by the end of 2022. These aircraft, equipped with CFM LEAP-1A engines and wingtip ‘Sharklets’, are 15% more fuel efficient than current generation aircraft.

From summer 2018 easyJet will also start to receive 30 A321neo aircraft, with 235 seats compared to 186 seats on the A320neo aircraft. This will also contribute to easyJet’s carbon reduction target by reducing the amount of fuel used to carry each passenger.

Ali Gayward, UK Country Manager, easyJet said: “We are very pleased to have continued to deliver a reduction in the amount of CO₂ we emit and look forward to reaching our target of 77 grams by 2020. By using modern Airbus aircraft and flying them efficiently we have reduced the carbon impact of our flights by a third since 2000.

“We are delighted to be showcasing our new Airbus A320neo in Manchester today. We are committed to sustainable growth. We believe that within the current cap, there is still room to increase efficiency – for example by incentivising higher load factors as well as the use of modern and efficient aircraft like the Airbus A320neo.

“The A320neo is also 50% quieter during take off and landing, which is hugely important to easyJet as it minimises our impact on the local community.

“Next summer, easyJet will also introduce the 235-seat A321neo which will enable easyJet to continue to deliver growth in slot constrained airports and deliver a further improvement in CO2 per passenger kilometre”

Stephen Turner, Commercial Director, Manchester Airport said: “It is great to see easyJet bring more environmentally friendly aircraft to Manchester Airport.

“easyJet’s commitment to sustainability and the environment echo ours here at the hub for the North. Manchester was the first UK airport to achieve Level 3+ Airport Carbon Accreditation for the carbon neutrality of our operations, we are also dedicated to working with our partners to minimise impacts of the airport on the environment and those around us.

“Furthermore I am sure our 27.8m passengers will welcome this modern new aircraft here at Manchester.”

£12 million award for Rivington Chase

Blog

Sam Whitear

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05/02/2018

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Bolton Council has been awarded £12 million to create a new road across the £262 million Rivington Chase development which will enable much-needed homes to be built more quickly.

The money will also be used for remediating the land which the road will be built on.

The road will provide the main access to vehicles for Rivington Chase and will link the planned 1,700 home site with Middlebrook retail park, Horwich Parkway railway station, and junction 6 of the M61.

The government funding is to support local infrastructure to make housing developments viable and accelerate housing delivery.

Bolton’s award is the joint seventh largest in the country and the largest award in the North West among the 133 council-led projects to be given money.

Acting Leader of Bolton Council, Cllr Linda Thomas, said: “This is great news and we always promised we would address local residents’ concerns about access to the site and how any extra vehicles in the area would be catered for.

“We understood that the local community had concerns about highways infrastructure, and we said this would have to be in place before any houses are built.

“The level of investment proposed in the whole scheme will result in major direct financial investment into Horwich, which will benefit both the town and the whole borough.

“Work on the site will also bring hundreds of new jobs for the community.”

Rivington Chase is being delivered by the council and landowners including Bluemantle, Homes England (formerly the Homes and Communities Agency) and Network Rail.

The site has outline planning permission for 1,700 new homes and last November Bellway Homes received permission for 112 new homes to be built at the entrance to the site – the first phase of the comprehensive masterplan to deliver Rivington Chase.

Other applications will be submitted over the coming months for different phases of the scheme.

Wigan firm thrive from house move boom

Blog

Sam Whitear

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05/02/2018

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Local cardboard box manufacturers, Boxed-Up, have enjoyed a dramatic sales boost following trends in the UK property market.

According to data from Lloyds Bank, the number of house movers in the UK is at a 10 year high and as a result Boxed-Up have witnessed over a 20% increase in sales for their house moving packs in the last year alone.

The number of people moving homes in 2017 stood at 370,300 – its highest level since 2007, following continued low mortgage rates and an increasing demand for homes, according to Lloyds.

Kate Hulley, Director at Boxed-Up, explains: “These statistics definitely resonate with our team, who are dealing with an unprecedented amount of enquiries for home removal boxes as of late.”

Kate, who heads up the female-led team, goes on to say: “Whilst this trend is great for our business, it’s also an incredibly exciting time all-round for existing homeowners and young people looking to buy their first home.”

Lloyds also claim that increased employment levels have boosted people’s ‘buying confidence’, contributing to the trend.

Mortgage products director at Lloyds Bank, Andrew Mason, also claims that “house price increases will have boosted equity levels for many homeowners, enabling movement along the housing ladder.”

Largest digital skills festival returns to tackle skills gap and support region’s growth

Blog

Sam Whitear

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02/02/2018

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Largest digital skills festival returns to tackle skills gap and support region’s growth

The annual Digital Skills Festival, the only event of its kind in the North, returns to Manchester next month to help plug the widening skills gap.

The four-day event – which counts leading businesses such as Autotrader, CDL, and CodeNation among its sponsors – brings together those interested in a digital career with education providers and digital and tech businesses from across the region to boost talent and skills.

Now in its sixth year the event, which is organised by digital trade association, Manchester Digital, takes place from 13 to 16 of February at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester.

The Digital Skills Conference opens the first day of the festival; with a number of keynote speakers and futurists discussing the key issues affecting digital and technology businesses, such as growth, rewards, inclusivity and diversity. The lineup of experts includes John Harvey, delivery manager at MoneySuperMarket and Alex Alexandrescu, co-founder and chief strategist at Dicey Tech.

The results of the annual digital skills audit, which looks at the issues digital businesses in the North have experienced over the past 12 months, will also be revealed at the conference.

Students and job seekers wanting to break into the industry are invited to the Talent Day – held on 14 February from 11am-3:00pm – to meet businesses looking for new talent. More than 50 digital, creative and tech companies, including KPMG, TalkTalk and N Brown Group will be attending to discuss the range of careers in the industry and give workshops and seminars on how best to get on the ladder.

Over 25 schools have signed up to take part in the festival’s Experience Day, which offers students the chance to get practical digital skills including coding, website building and app development.

This year a new event has been added to the line up, called Digital Futures: Computing, Curriculum and Careers, which is aimed specifically at teachers and careers advisers at schools and colleges in Greater Manchester. The half-day event will feature inspirational speakers, as well as practical workshops in digital making, ed tech and careers, which are designed to help teachers improve their knowledge and expertise.

Katie Gallagher, managing director at Manchester Digital, said: “To achieve its ambition to become a leading digital city, Greater Manchester needs a strong pipeline of highly skilled digital talent. However, we are currently in the midst of a major talent shortage where demand for skilled professionals is outstripping supply.

“This is why the Digital Skills Festival is such an important event in showcasing the excellent career opportunities which are available with tech and digital businesses across the region. Not only this, but it presents a fantastic opportunity to bring the industry together, encouraging us to work towards solving our own problems rather than waiting for external solutions to present themselves.

“This Digital Skills Festival is an initiative to do just that – as well as tackling some of the key issues that our industry is currently facing, it aims to bring together education providers, business leaders and students to raise awareness, drive change and help deliver the volume and quality of digital and technology talent that our businesses need to thrive.”

John Harvey, delivery manager at MoneySupermarket commented: “Access to talent and the knock-on problems caused by the skills shortage are having a critical impact on businesses across the region. We’re hugely proud to be part of this year’s event, which will provide a great forum to discuss and tackle some of the key issues that our industry is currently facing.”

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