Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out further changes to lockdown measures in England to enable people to see more of their friends and family, help businesses get back on their feet and get people back in their jobs – Tuesday 23rd June. From Saturday 4th July, the Prime Minister has announced that pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will be able to reopen, providing they adhere to COVID Secure guidelines. From the same date, he has set out that two households will be able to meet up in any setting with social distancing measures, and that people can now enjoy staycations in…
Author: sme-admin
The UK Government has announced new measures and proposed trade agreements that will revitalise the agriculture, food and drink industry as the world recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. A “bounce back” plan of trade measures has been announced today to help support businesses that have been impacted by coronavirus. The new strategic interventions jointly announced by the Department for International Trade (DIT) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will offer immediate support to help businesses in the industry grow their trade activity overseas. The agriculture, food and drink industry is the UK’s largest manufacturing industry and plays a vital role in…
Fiera Real Estate and Cubex have secured a major investment deal for their Halo, landmark green office building at Finzels Reach in Bristol. Prominent legal firm Osborne Clarke will move its Bristol office from its current location in Temple Quay to Halo. Tesco Pension Investment has paid nearly £70m in a forward funding deal for the innovative 116,000 sq ft, Grade A office, currently under construction as part of the Finzels Reach regeneration project. Halo is set to be one of the greenest office buildings in the UK, with the developers targeting a BREEAM Outstanding accreditation to meet the toughest…
The world’s largest and first commercial liquid air battery facility is planned for Trafford, Greater Manchester. Backed by £10 million of government investment, the revolutionary CryoBattery liquid-air energy (LAES) plant in Manchester, will be developed jointly by Carlton Power and Highview and will help the UK make the most of the energy generated from its world-class solar and wind sectors. Highview Power’s cryogenic energy storage systems, which use liquid air as the storage medium, are the only long-duration energy storage solution available today that are locatable and can offer multiple gigawatt-hours of storage. That represents weeks’ worth of storage, not just…
The UK and US governments have signed a new agreement paving the way for US companies to operate from UK spaceports and export space launch technology. UK Ambassador Dame Karen Pierce and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-proliferation, Christopher Ford, signed the US-UK Technology Safeguards Agreement, which will enable U.S. companies to participate in space launches from the United Kingdom, on Tuesday 16 June 2020. The Agreement means US space and technology companies throughout the supply chain can contribute to and benefit from the commercial opportunities offered by the UK space sector which already employs 42,000…
The Culture Secretary and The Duke of Cambridge have joined some of Britain’s biggest sport stars to discuss the issue of mental health across UK sport, as elite athletes and many of the wider population return to work following an easing of lockdown restrictions. The virtual roundtable brought together British sporting greats who together have accumulated more than 400 caps for their country, 17 gold medals at Olympic or Paralympic Games, seven grand slams, and won a Davis Cup and Rugby World Cup. Many of those who attended spoke about their own personal experiences and how maintaining good mental health…
This morning on the news, I witnessed the players at Anfield ‘take a knee’ in the centre of the pitch following the death of George Floyd, a black man held in US policy custody. An open and collective representation in support of ‘Black Lives Matter’. This outward display of solidarity got me thinking about issues we face here in the UK and the issues I’ve encountered in my lifetime. I began to think of other issues where there needs to for a collective and public display of solidarity. Issues where we all need to ‘take a knee’. The injustices are…
Results of the regulator’s second survey of housing associations and local authorities on how they are coping with the coronavirus pandemic. The Regulator of Social Housing has today (9 June) published the results of its second monthly survey of housing associations and local authorities about how they are coping with the coronavirus pandemic. The social housing sector is generally reporting that it is continuing to maintain service delivery for emergency repairs and key health and safety checks, and that some of the challenges that it is facing have begun to ease. Providers report that almost all emergency repairs are being completed, but…
Wild Rose Couture offers made to measure women’s evening wear, all designed in their studio in England. Their customers have unparalleled choice in luxurious fabrics and handcrafted accessories all designed to create the perfect dress for any special occasion. However the implications of COVID-19 meant that Wild Rose would not be able to continue to support their one to one relationships with their customers. They needed to come up with a new plan. Linda Maristani, Owner and Director, of Wild Rose Couture and her family initially joined an army of volunteers to start sewing scrubs for our NHS frontline staff,…
Cobham is pleased to announce that it has acquired the Cropmead facility of the British aerospace and defence company, Tods Aerospace. Established in 1932 as W&J Tod Limited, Tods Aerospace specialises in the design and manufacture of specialist composite structures for use in the aerospace and defence industries and has over a long period supplied products to many of the sector’s leading companies. A partial sale of a Somerset-based Tods Aerospace Cropmead business has safeguarded 40 skilled jobs. The joint administrators of Tods Aerospace have completed the partial sale to defence engineering group Cobham Mission Systems (Cobham). However, 56 redundancies…