Business News

Birmingham business leaders have accused the Chancellor of shunning the West Midlands in his Budget – and warned the region would not be relegated to ‘second best.’ Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce went on the attack after George Osborne made no mention of the Midlands Engine in his Budget Day speech – despite announcing significant investment in the Northern Powerhouse.

Leading Midlands Wealth Management and Financial Planning firm, Cooper Parry Wealth has expanded its service offering in the West Midlands with the launch of a new wealth management team. This follows the merger of PKF Cooper Parry with established West Midlands accountants Clement Keys at the turn of the year. The new team, which will be headed-up by chief executive Stephen Jones, will be based at the firm’s Edgbaston offices.

The parliamentary committee for the Policing and Crime Bill heard from the leader of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) that there is no appetite among firefighters or the public for a police takeover of the fire and rescue service. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, told the committee: “It’s no secret that we don’t support this shift….there is no appetite among firefighters and there is no public appetite for it."

UK grandparents are Super Generous (‘Super G’) when it comes to giving money to their grandchildren, with £6.4bn gifted in the past year to those under 18 years, according to new research from Orbis Access. On average, grandparents said they gave all their grandchildren a total of £547 in financial gifts over the past year, or £209 per grandchild. Among the gifts given are cash, contributions to hobbies, school fees and savings and investments made on their behalf.

A council worker became a life saver when she came to a rescue of a service user who had become unwell. City of Wolverhampton Council Housing Outreach Officer Andrea Smart became concerned when she rang one of her regular clients to arrange a home visit. She thought something didn’t seem “quite right” while speaking to the 60-year-old woman on the phone. The service user said she was okay, but Andrea wasn’t convinced and asked if she could call round to see her.

Responding to surveys that suggest as few as 3% of manufacturers and 28% of service sector leaders understand the implications of EU reforms on their own businesses, Keith Bryan, Chief Executive of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, said: “It is clear that with the referendum imminent, many private sector leaders do not have enough information to assess the impact on their business of either staying in or leaving the EU.

Despite UK house prices hitting near record levels, it’s still possible to find a bargain on the property market. Research has found some of the cheapest properties currently for sale in the UK, that are literally the price of a new car. How about a property for the price of a Ford Fiesta? In Preston, there is a flat for sale in Ribbleton for just £15,000. A new Ford Fiesta Titanium will set you back £15,295.

The West Brom is a significant step closer to completing the move to its prestigious new headquarters. Contractors have formally handed over the 70,000 sq ft premises at Providence Place in West Bromwich town centre, a step referred to as ‘practical completion’. Work to equip and furnish the building has now begun and colleagues will relocate from the West Brom’s current office on High Street on a phased basis across the next eight weeks.

Plans to create a West Midlands Combined Authority and sign-up to an ‘historic’ devolution deal have been endorsed, following a full meeting of City of Wolverhampton Council. It means that the City of Wolverhampton follows Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley and Solihull in becoming constituent members of the West Midlands Combined Authority.

Export of goods from the West Midlands region increased to £28.97 billion last year – up 0.8% on 2014, the latest figures released by HM Revenue & Customs reveal. They also show that West Midlands remains the third largest exporting region in the country, behind South East and London, with 10.4% of total exports.

Thousands of residents have already had their say in Wolverhampton's biggest ever health and lifestyle survey, which continues until the end of this month (March). Researchers have been knocking on doors across Wolverhampton over the last seven weeks, gathering information on the health and wellbeing of the local population.

Someone paying rent for an average two bedroom home in the West Midlands would have forked out £32,313 to their landlord over the last five years, new analysis by housing and homelessness charity Shelter has revealed. This is more than the sum needed for a 20% deposit on the average first time buyer home in the region, which is currently priced at £156,548 

HSBC has chosen to relocate to Birmingham, the UK's second city, and to keep the building works under wraps, leading graphics and signage company, Hollywood Monster have manufactured and installed over 150m of giant hoardings using their creative and technical expertise since work began at 2 Arena Central, the new base of the HSBC UK headquarters.

Homebuyers in less than ten years’ time will visit properties remotely through virtual reality devices - and check out potential neighbourhoods using their own personal drones, a new report reveals. Trends analysts The Future Laboratory said the idea of actually physically visiting properties while house-hunting will be less and less common by the 2020s.

Local councils, of all political parties, have agreed that the Government’s Starter Homes policy will hinder rather than help to tackle the growing need for genuinely affordable housing in England. They have also raised concerns about the impacts of the Government’s plans to reduce social rents by 1% a year for the next four years and the extension of the Right to Buy to housing association tenants.

Businesses in the West Midlands were urged by Jajid Javid to “get engaged” in order to make the most of the opportunities offered by the government’s devolution programme and the Midlands Engine. The secretary of state for business, innovation and skills was speaking to business leaders as guest of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (GBCC) hosted by Mondelez International at their Cadbury headquarters.