Business News

Further support with council tax bills is being provided for those in greatest need after Birmingham City Council confirmed details of its discretionary support scheme for the 2023/24 financial year.

Birmingham was awarded £3.04million to support households in the forthcoming year, with an expectation from the Government that councils use the majority of their funding allocations to reduce bills for current working age and pension age Local Council Tax Support (LCTS) households by up to £25.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Editor of Street Cred Magazine, Mark Dwayne attended an Embracing Equity event at Metro Bank.

International Women's Day celebrates women's rights and inspires people to act in the ongoing fight for gender equality - this year’s IWD theme is Embrace Equity. 

City of Wolverhampton Council’s Heath Town regeneration scheme will later this month (March) complete the construction of the first new council homes on the estate since it was officially opened by HRH Princess Margaret in 1969.

It forms part of a major transformation of the estate, which has seen an extensive demolition programme of vacant buildings, existing residential blocks undergo major improvements by Wolverhampton Homes, and the creation of three new play areas and a football pitch.

Entrepreneur Kameese Davis was celebrating today after walking away with £3,000 in prize money and a package of bespoke business support to help her award-winning hair care products grow to new lengths. An audience of more than 500 entrepreneurs, innovators and investors at the Venturefest WM 2023 festival of innovation in Birmingham on Wednesday March 1 voted Kameese the winner of this year’s Minerva Birmingham Pitch Up competition, which traditionally closes the annual festival.

Residents at a housing estate in Tottenham, in London, have demanded that their local council carry out “urgent safety and maintenance works” following a fire that broke out at a tower block on 17 February 2023.

Emergency services were able to successfully extinguish the flat fire at Northumberland Park, which had been caused by the “unsafe use of incense sticks” – the London Fire Brigade sent eight fire appliances and 60 firefighters to tackle the blaze.

In anticipation of the energy price cap increase in April 2023 to over £3,700, the National Homebuilding & Renovating Show (23-26 March 2023, NEC, Birmingham) is putting energy-saving solutions centre stage.  The biggest ever line-up of housing experts under one roof will be responding to visitors’ concerns and questions about how they can future proof their homes to improve energy efficiency and create energy sources to help them reduce rising fuel costs. 

Jamaica is set to receive a total of US$1.7 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as approved last week.

The Executive Board of the IMF gave the go ahead for this approved funding under its Precautionary and Liquidity Line (PLL) and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).

 “It’s official, the four-day week trial in the UK has been hailed a success, both for businesses and employees and it’s now on track to be continued by the majority of organisations and trialled even further”, said Lord Mark Price, Founder of WorkL, former Trade Minister and former Managing Director of Waitrose.

The UK has slipped to number 25 out of 51 countries on the quality of entrepreneurship ecosystem economies - according to the new Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) National Entrepreneurship Context Index (NECI) released today.

The ranking, reported in the ‘GEM 2022/2023 Global Report - Adapting to a New Normal’, is a fall from 18th last year, with the index score decreasing from 4.9 (in 2021) to 4.7.

A new West Midlands Metro tram has been named after Roy and Don Richardson. The twin entrepreneurs and philanthropists established a West Midlands business that now invests in real estate and growth capital around the world.

Their development activity, which famously included the Merry Hill Shopping Centre and Star City in Birmingham, has created tens of thousands of jobs in the region over many years.

A new and closer relationship between the UK and Germany was expected to be a core theme of Economic Secretary Andrew Griffith’s visit to Berlin yesterday. 

As part of the long-planned visit, the Minister hosted a breakfast roundtable with German financial services and banking chief executives.

A family-run Black Country manufacturer is to double the size of its operating base with a new, purpose-built factory thanks to a £9.5m investment by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). Drywall Steel Sections Ltd has been at its existing site in Cradley Heath for more than eight years but has outgrown the facility which is also no longer fit for modern production methods.

Businesses from across the region have one month left to submit entries for the prestigious Finance Awards North West. Entering its fourth year, the Finance Awards North West is the one-of-a-kind accolade which recognises the work and achievements of the region’s top finance professionals and businesses.

A new survey of 777 UK-based retail investors has revealed how the current economic climate is impacting their investment plans for the next 12 months.

It found: 

A local fast-growing technology business is celebrating after being named as one of the ‘UK’s Best Workplaces for Wellbeing’. 

Self-employment technology specialist Wise, based in Solihull town centre, is now a top-25 company on the prestigious UK’s Best Workplaces for Wellbeing list which has been curated by employee satisfaction specialist, Great Place To Work.

The General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) of Saudi Arabia successfully hosted the Saudi Pavilion at IDEX 2023, which drew over 25,000 visitors during the five-day international defence show in Abu Dhabi. The pavilion provided a platform for showcasing the Kingdom's latest developments in the defence sector, highlighting investment opportunities and strategic partnerships.