Business News

The West Midlands continues to buck the national trend on jobs after figures released showed that the number of people out of work in the region fell by 7,000 to 165,000. Figures for Birmingham were also positive as the number of those unemployed fell. In the West Midlands there was a 0.3% growth in employment and a 1.9 per cent decrease in the Jobseeker’s Allowance Register in West Midlands compared to 0.3% decrease nationally.

It is no secret that getting on the property ladder is more difficult than it once was, so making use of schemes such as Help to Buy makes great sense to thousands of first-time buyers. Kevin Shaw, national sales director at Leaders, is one advocate of the government’s flagship housing policy, which is designed to assist people who have a relatively small deposit in proceeding with their plans to buy a property.

World Travel Market (WTM) London, the leading global event for the travel industry, boosted the London economy by more than £244million. WTM London 2014 - which ran from Monday, November 3, to Thursday, November 6, at ExCeL, London exhibition center – attracted a record 51,500 participants from the global travel and tourism industry’s most senior executives, who all came to London to profile the hottest travel destinations.

A group of cantaloupe farms in Costa Rica became the first in the world to obtain Rainforest Alliance certification, after fulfilling the sustainability guidelines of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), which protect the environment, wildlife and worker welfare. The farms produce for the company SFG Dulce, which has also earned the green frog seal for watermelon production.

The Black Country Chamber of Commerce Awards 2015 have been officially launched, celebrating the best in business from across the region. We are delighted to announce the 2015 headline sponsor as voestalpine Metsec plc, this follows their Business of the Year award win at the 2014 awards dinner.

A new interactive online tool aimed at helping landlords and tenants to more easily remember and meet their responsibilities has been launched. Property specialist Leaders has unveiled its clickable house design, which features a traditional home backdrop with more than 20 points of interest marked in different rooms and areas of the property.

Julia Gray has joined Greater Birmingham Chamber as a business development manager. Julia, who hails from Aldridge, will split her time between Birmingham and the newly launched Sutton Chamber. She said: “It will be an exciting challenge to build up the Sutton Chamber, which has only recently joined the Chamber family.

Lloyds Banking Group was named winner of the Experian Building Stronger Business Award at Business in the Community’s 2015 Annual Responsible Business Gala in London. The event at the Royal Albert Hall was the culmination of the 2015 Responsible Business Awards, run by The Prince of Wales’s business charity Business in the Community.

Greater Birmingham’s manufacturing industry is booming compared to the rest of the UK. Forty per cent of manufacturers reported increased domestic sales in Q2, up from 33 per cent in Q1. That’s in contrast with British Chambers’ Q2 UK figures, where only 20 per cent reported increased domestic sales.

Up to 50 new jobs are to be created in Shropshire at centres for production of yogurt and chilled desserts owned by Müller Dairy. The new roles at Müller's Telford and Minsterley facilities follow strong growth in demand for the private label yogurt and desserts produced at these sites.

Over 500 small business owners from across the West Midlands filled Birmingham Town Hall to learn how to use social media to grow their business. Local businesses were given practical tips on how to use Facebook to reach new customers and improve their bottom line, as well as hearing first-hand experience from other successful businesses. Enterprise Nation were also on hand to offer 1:1 guidance and advice.  

National research tracking the actions of UK pension planners imminently affected by the April 6^th pension reforms has unveiled 73% of those aged 55+ (and financially eligible) have chosen not to withdraw any funds since the freedoms became available. This is despite 60.4% of the same survey sample intending to do so in April, 2015 - before the reforms went live.

Following months of anticipation, the developers of the long awaited Grand Central Birmingham have announced that the doors will be opening to the public on Thursday, September 24, 2015. The city’s new £150 million premium retail and dining destination will see the arrival of one of the biggest John Lewis department stores in the UK and will coincide with the completion of the world-class Birmingham New Street station which will transform rail travel for millions of passengers using it every year.

London is creating jobs at three times the rate of the West Midlands according to new analysis published by the TUC today (Monday). The analysis shows that between 2010 and 2014 jobs growth in London (11.5 percent) was more than twice as fast as the UK as a whole (5.1 per cent) and three times as fast as the West Midlands (3.7 per cent).

Almost a quarter (24 per cent) of households will be part of the private rented sector (PRS) by the end of the current parliament in 2020. The latest Rent Check report, produced by BDRC Continental and Allsop LLP, outlines what is believed to lie in store for the property market over the next five years.

More than one in five English local authorities expects to become part of a new combined authority, governed by an elected mayor, by 2020, according to a new report from PwC.  That figure has soared since before the general election when a mere 12% of local authority chief executives and leaders told PwC they expected to integrate into a new combined authority.