Trading Standards services across Lincolnshire have joined a national scheme that allows residents to know they’re buying from businesses that work in a legal, honest and fair way.

Doncaster’s first-ever Women in Business Conference will shine a light on female entrepreneurs and explore the challenges many of them face. Jade Dyer, Business Director at Doncaster Chamber said the event would allow examination of serious issues that didn’t always get the attention they deserved. “It’s a particularly relevant conversation for us in Doncaster, where females are underrepresented in terms of entrepreneurship. Data from the Office of National Statistics shows that only 2.5% of women in our local population are self-employed, a relatively low figure when compared to other places around the UK, while a comprehensive study from Money.co.uk found that we are also one of the country’s most challenging districts for female business owners. “Despite this, we have assembled a fantastic line-up of speakers for the conference — spanning different backgrounds and sectors —who we believe will really inspire the community. For example, we have Rebecca Dickenson; an internationally-acclaimed hairdresser who recently won our Self-Employed Person of the Year award and who is, with good reason, recognised as a true leader in her field. “She will be joined on the day by other amazing guests, including: Leana Coopoosamy-Pearson, Global Inclusion Business Partner at Mastercard and owner of her own Boutique; Julie Carrier, Chief Commercial Officer at Unipart Rail; Zoe Hands, MD in the region for First Bus Midlands; and Amelia Banful, Head of Business Strategy at Enviro Electronics. We cannot wait to hear from all of these professionals, and from those who attend on the day itself, about how we can make Doncaster a more friendly environment for women in business.” The event is sponsored by Polypipe Building Products, and takes place on January 24th.

Leeds Beckett University and Q Medical Technologies Limited have secured Government funding to develop and commercialise innovative new products repurposing healthcare waste. The team will begin by commercialising new, low-carbon aggregate substitutes known as floc – repurposed and treated, clinical and offensive NHS waste – which are in demand for use in civil engineering. Dr Ash Ahmed, Reader in Civil Engineering Materials Science in the School of Built Environment, Engineering and Computing at Leeds Beckett University, is leading the project. He explained: “This innovative opportunity to process and utilise healthcare waste – particularly NHS waste – to create new products, has multiple benefits: reducing costs to the healthcare sector, reducing the emissions from the disposal of healthcare waste, and reducing the drain on dwindling natural resources such as sand. “Sand suitable for construction is a finite resource and there is pressure to create more sustainable supply chains to preserve this valuable commodity for future generations. “The NHS produces an estimated 156,000 tonnes of clinical waste per year with disposal costs of around £700million per year – largely through waste management contracts that end in incineration or landfill, both of which are harmful to the environment.” The 30-month project is a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), part-funded by the Government through Innovate UK. The KTP aims to create long-term innovation and New Product Development (NPD) capabilities and pathways for NuGreen – a sister company of Q Medical – to develop, test, commercialise and launch products in new sectors. The project will refine and commercialise earlier proof of concept studies between Leeds Beckett and NuGreen in the use of floc as an aggregate – most notably sand – replacement in cementitious materials, for example concrete and asphalt. The market for aggregate replacements is very large. The worldwide construction industry consumes 25-30 billion tonnes of sand per year and the cost of aggregates is increasing. Clare Atkinson, Founder of NuGreen, said: “The opportunity to divert high volumes of healthcare waste from incineration and transform it into a valuable, low carbon construction material – that replaces the use of a finite resource such as sand – is the future we see. “Healthcare waste incineration contributes to poor air quality, increasing the strain on NHS resources by impacting respiratory health – this is a cycle we want to break. The opportunity for healthcare to be at the forefront of a lower carbon future is vital to drive the global shift required for true connectivity, progress, and sustainability.” Use of healthcare waste is challenging from a regulatory perspective and tightly controlled by the Environment Agency. Construction materials are also highly regulated and rigorous testing and compliance for the floc will be required to meet British standards for commercial use. By the end of the project, NuGreen will have taken healthcare waste through a product development lifecycle, resulting in a commercially viable product to take to market as an aggregate substitute. The Leeds Beckett team will support NuGreen to develop and commercialise further products using other forms of healthcare waste, such as silicone, during and beyond the completion of the KTP. A skilled graduate will be recruited, as a full-time member of the NuGreen team and with the full support of the Leeds Beckett academic team, to manage the project as a KTP Associate. Dr Sepehr Ghaffari, Senior Lecturer in Engineering, and Killian Ngong, Senior Lecturer and Chartered Civil Engineer, will lead the asphalt concrete investigations. Dr Alfred Chinta – an expert in supply chain management with a focus on technology and sustainability – will lead on the strategic support, embedding the innovation and product development systems into the business. Professor Silke Machold, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Leeds Beckett University, said: “There is a very high level of innovation attached to this project that addresses the UK’s Net Zero ambitions. It offers the potential for an agile solution to the healthcare sector – particularly the NHS – to manage and reduce their carbon footprint. “At Leeds Beckett University, our School of Built Environment, Engineering and Computing is an international leader in sustainability research. This includes research on retrofitting and net zero technologies in buildings conducted by our Leeds Sustainability Institute.”

It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.  It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years. Here we speak to Luke Gidney, Managing Director at estate agent HOP. The rentals market in Leeds has been very busy in the last 12 months and rents in many areas increased by between 10% and 12% in 2023. We now typically receive between 25 and 30 enquiries for every property we list and will pre-qualify around 10 people for a viewing. Of these we usually expect three to apply, so it’s a very competitive market for tenants. Generally, property stock levels do increase slightly in December and January as people usually try to avoid moving during the Christmas period. This is a trend that we are seeing this year as normal, so any tenants looking for a home might have a slightly better chance if they act now. Looking ahead to 2024, the shortage of available rental property looks set to be an ongoing theme. Substantial tax increases and higher interest rates combined with some laborious legislation mean many landlords continue to sell up. As a result, we expect rents to rise further, although possibly at a slightly slower pace than in 2023, but growth of between 8% and 10% would come as no surprise. However, the reality is that many tenants are already over-stretched financially, and lots are already facing a tough time due to sky high energy bills and food inflation. There has been an increase in the number of tenants falling into rental arrears in 2023 and this is likely to remain an issue in 2024. This is also driving the popularity of rent guarantee insurance, often known as tenant default insurance, amongst landlords, which typically costs around £250 a year and gives landlords peace of mind that they are protected from financial losses incurred by tenants failing to pay their rent. Ultimately, the market needs more rental property and although landlords are selling up in droves, there are others who are recognising the opportunities that the current market offers. This is particularly true for seasoned investors. Our specialist investment division agreed approximately £5million worth of off-market investment sales in 2023. How this pans out in 2024 will depend on what interest rates do. However, there’s no doubt Leeds is still very attractive to investors and especially because it offers an excellent average rental yield of 6.3%, which means you can get even higher yields in certain pockets of the city. In some areas of Leeds, you can find two-bedroom houses at £130,000 and three-bedroom homes around £180,000, so it still offers great value for money. These would rent for £850 and £975 respectively. Plus, there’s the potential for capital growth over the medium to long term. Leeds sits comfortably in the top 10 table for the best UK cities to invest in property, and there is an abundance of reasons why. The city brings together several compelling factors – a growing younger population, thriving economy, great value investment and high yields, making it a savvy choice for investors on the hunt for decent returns. Research by JLL shows that Leeds is consistently one of the top five cities in the UK for capital growth and our own five-year prediction suggests house price growth of 14% for Leeds between 2023 and 2027. With a skilled workforce of 1.4 million people, Leeds is fast becoming a leading business hub in the UK, hosting big companies including newcomers Channel 4, BT, Sky, First Direct and Asda. The city has also been named the “Digital Capital of the North” with one of the fastest-growing tech hubs in the UK. With continued investment being pumped into the city with the likes of the exciting new South Bank region and TransPennine Routes upgrades being approved, Leeds isn’t putting the brakes on anytime soon.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council is to urge Ofcom to launch an emergency market review and pause the erection of more broadband poles in the Hull Telecoms Area. Reacting to residents’ concerns, councillors feel that waiting until the next scheduled review in 2026 is too long to wait. The council has limited powers to control the erection of more masts, since they don’t ned planning permission. Coun Coleen Gill said the review was necessary because more telegraph poles were being installed in areas across the Hull Telecoms Area, already served by an existing gigabit capable duct and pole Network. She wanted Ofcom to consider: 1. Imposing a duty on telecoms companies to demonstrate reasonable efforts have been made to reach an agreement with existing providers for access to infrastructure. 2. Compelling existing providers to publish pricing for access to its infrastructure. 3. In the event that no agreement is reached, oblige companies to pursue a formal dispute via Ofcom, prior to installing further infrastructure of their own. 4. And to reiterate, stop any such installations until a Market review has been concluded.