North West business briefs: Shawton Telecoms; HMRC; Expleo; Housemates; Pagoda Projects
A Merseyside telecoms and broadband installation firm is investing in its traffic management division after a period of extensive growth.
Shawton Telecoms, which was established just 18 months ago, has seen work double in the past eight months, and the team grow from 70 direct employees in July to more than 100 in February 2023 at its Newton-le-Willows headquarters. It is now investing in Shawton Traffic Management after it experienced a substantial increase in demand for its services with work coming in from all over the country, with key clients such as Digital Infrastructure, Openreach, and Brsk.
Operators director, Gavin Collier, said: “By investing in this area, and with the excellent team that we have on board, we know that we will continue to expand. We are fortunate that we have been able to recruit an excellent team which we have been able to add to as we have seen demand for our services increase.”
As well as investing in people, the company has recently purchased a specialist fleet of vehicles and equipment for installing and removing traffic management schemes. Gavin added: “It’s a really exciting time for Shawton and we are so pleased that our excellent reputation has allowed us to expand in another sector.
“We have an impressive track record in other areas of the business which demonstrates that we always deliver a great service. This tells prospective clients that we can be trusted to deliver an effective solution for them with a highly skilled team.”
The traffic management expert can deliver everything from simple road closures and diversion routes to temporary traffic signals, barrier works, road markings, design and implementation.
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Taxpayers now have until April 5, 2025, to fill gaps in their National Insurance record from April 2006 that may increase their State Pension – an extension of nearly two years.
Extending the voluntary National Insurance contributions deadline until 2025 means that people have more time to properly consider whether paying voluntary contributions is right for them and ensures no-one need miss out on the possibility of boosting their State Pension entitlements. The original deadline was extended to July 31, 2023, earlier this year, and tens of thousands of people have taken advantage to pay voluntary contributions to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) since then. The revised deadline is expected to enable tens of thousands more to do the same.
Victoria Atkins, financial secretary to the Treasury, said: “People who have worked hard all their lives deserve to receive their State Pension entitlement, and filling gaps in National Insurance records can make a real difference. With the deadline extended, there is no immediate rush for people to complete gaps in their record and they will have more time to spread the cost.”
Laura Trott, Minister for Pensions, Department for Work and Pensions, said: “I am pleased to see so many people taking steps to review their State Pension, which is why we have extended the deadline for customers to add extra years to their National Insurance record. This extension means thousands more people will have time to check their entitlement, and in many cases, increase the amount they receive when they retire.
Paying voluntary contributions does not always increase your State Pension. Before starting the process, eligible individuals with gaps in their National Insurance record from April 2006 onwards should check whether they would benefit from filling those gaps.
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Deal done
Expleo, the engineering technology and consultancy provider with its UK head office in the North West, is now a partnership-level sponsor of former Liverpool and Manchester United footballer Michael Owen’s Cheshire-based Manor House Stables.
The partnership is the first sponsorship agreement between the elite racehorse training facility and Expleo, a signal of the engineering company’s ambition to increase its presence in the local area. Jeff Hoyle, Expleo managing director and Global EVP of Aero, Space and Defence said: “We’re incredibly proud to be working with another North West based business that has built a reputation in its field for excellence and shares our values around creating local jobs, developing its employees and attracting business to the region.”
Formed in 2017, Expleo, ,which has offices in Preston, Chester and Derby, currently employees around 1,200 people in the UK and expects this to grow to 1,700 by the end of 2023. It employs more than 300 technical experts at its UK head office in Preston, working on complex engineering projects for clients in aerospace, marine and automotive.
The partnership with Manor House Stables will see it run exclusive on-site events for business clients and its branding will appear on horse boxes, yard clothing and across the yard itself. Expleo will also sponsor several events at Chester Races later this year, in a further partnership with a local business.
Michael Owen said: “After family and football, horseracing is a major passion of mine and it’s been my great pleasure to be able to connect that passion to investing in a business here in the North West. It’s equally important to me that our sponsors also have a significant presence in the North West.”
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Lydia Jones
A new powerful booking engine for businesses looking to offer fast and secure student accommodation has been launched by Manchester-based Housemates.
Set to disrupt and revolutionise the student housing sector, Housemates Connect API enables businesses to easily access and integrate with the company’s proven and growing platform. Students from more than 20 countries use Housemates’ platform.
Lydia Jones, CEO of Housemates, says their platform currently has more than 1.2 million beds across the UK, Ireland and Australia: “We are thrilled to be launching the Housemates Connect API, which represents a major step forward in our efforts to provide innovative, tech-driven solutions for the student accommodation market,” she said.
“With the Housemates Connect API, we are providing businesses with a powerful new tool that makes it easier than ever to access and integrate with our platform, enabling them to provide their users with the best possible student accommodation experience.”
Housemates, founded by entrepreneur Jones in 2020, is headquartered in Manchester and has an office in Bangalore, India. The company has been backed by GC Angels and has become a key provider of student accommodation solutions in a fast growing sector. Jones says Housemates Connect API represents “a first for the sector.”
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Manchester-based global education business, Pagoda Projects, has announced its certification as a B Corporation (or B Corp), joining a growing group of companies reinventing business by pursuing purpose as well as profit. Pagoda Projects has been certified by B Lab, the not-for-profit behind the B Corp movement, as having met rigorous social and environmental standards which represent its commitment to goals outside of shareholder profit.
The B Corp certification addresses the entirety of a business’s operations and covers five key impact areas of governance, workers, community, environment and customers. The certification process is rigorous, with applicants required to reach a benchmark score of more than 80 while providing evidence of socially and environmentally responsible practices relating to energy supplies, waste and water use, worker compensation, diversity and corporate transparency.
Pagoda Projects is now part of a community of 6,889 businesses globally which have certified as B Corps. The B Corp community in the UK, representing a broad cross section of industries and sizes, comprises more than 1,400 companies and include well known brands such as The Guardian, innocent, Patagonia, The Body Shop and organic food pioneers Abel & Cole.
Recent attention on the UK higher education sector makes Pagoda Projects’ B Corp certification a notable step and signals a shift towards greater accountability and transparency in the sector. Jamie Bettles, Pagoda Projects founder, said: “Joining the B Corp community is such an exciting step in the next stage in our journey. My ambition is for Pagoda to be a globally recognised education business with a measurable impact on society.”
Chris Turner, executive director of B Lab UK, said: “This is a movement of companies who are committed to changing how business operates and believe business really can be a force for good.”
