In Brief: Leeds and Sheffield City Regions; Hull City Council; Developers; Jules Energy; W Academy and Education; Opal Marketing

A JOINT partnership between the Leeds and Sheffield City Regions today said it is making headway with its plans to secure the regions’ position at the forefront of health and innovation internationally. 

Leeds and Partners, representing Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), and the Sheffield City Region LEP, recently returned from the Orthopaedic Manufacturing & Technology Exposition and Conference (OMTEC) 2013, held in Chicago. Following the delegation, designed to drive foreign investment through a demonstration of the city regions’ collective expertise in the field of orthopaedic manufacturing, an expressed interest has been made in establishing a European OMTEC, with the Yorkshire region being identified as a preferred host location.

According to Leeds and Partners, there are currently no expositions in Europe dedicated to orthopaedic manufacturing. The organisation said that establishing a presence in Yorkshire would present huge opportunities for the region to attract more investment from businesses and professionals from the sector, for trade and to potentially open up US markets.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has also praised the partnership. He said: “This is a huge opportunity for Yorkshire to attract more investment and become renowned across Europe as a leader in orthopaedic manufacturing.

“Sheffield and Leeds have long been at the forefront of the UK’s advanced manufacturing industries.” 

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HULL City Council has launched a new tender competition for a lead developer partner to drive regeneration in Hull’s Fruit Market.

The Council, with the support from the Homes and Communities Agency, is investing in the Fruit Market and is seeking companies with the appropriate expertise and capability to enter into a long-term development contract to comprehensively develop four sites totalling 3.22ha.

The tender is for four sites for the construction of a new arts centre, 70 new homes and the major refurbishment of Humber Street area for new venues and spaces for arts, cultural and music, new retail, office business growth spaces.

Steven Bayes, portfolio holder for visitor destination and cultural strategy, said:
“These are exciting times for Hull and our new City Plan puts cultural regeneration at the heart of the city’s renaissance and the development of the Fruit Market is a key part of that.”

The deadline for companies or consortia to submit a pre-qualification questionnaire is August 14.
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DEVELOPERS and landowners in York and Leeds have until the end of the month to submit comments on new homes plans.

Leeds City Council has requested comments by July 29, while the City of York Council has requested comments by July 31.

Leeds City Council has published a draft plan showing where development should happen over the next 15 years, which includes plans for 70,000 new homes.

Catherine Strofton, a senior planner at Savills in Leeds, said: “Both Leeds and York Councils need to pass a target number of new homes in the area to ensure the current housing crisis doesn’t worsen. Residents and particularly landowners will be interested to see where new development will be.”
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YORKSHIRE online energy trading business Jules Energy has joined forces with UK Power Reserve and Total Gas and Power to surpass a major milestone.

Leeds-based Jules is working with energy firm UK Power Reserve, which has a portfolio of power plants across the UK, and energy supplier Total to surpass the 200MW milestone of installed generation capacity on the Smart Energy Trading Platform called Julesmart.

The Smart Trading Platform, is a platform that enables owners/operators of decentralised power generation units to trade their excess power capacity online.

Tim Emrich, chief operating officer of UK Power Reserve, said: “Joining the Smart Energy Trading revolution fits with our operating strategy enabling us to explore further trading optimisation within our portfolio.”
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AN apprenticeship academy has reported an increase in the number of young people from across South Yorkshire looking to ‘earn while they learn’ after hosting a series of open days providing information about the popular alternative to higher education.

The school leavers’ events at the W Academy and Education boasted a day full of activities.

Marc Wildes, the W Academy’s founder and managing director, said: “We have hosted a number of open days now and have been extremely pleased by the response and the exceptional quality of the candidates who have attended.

“These are tough economic times and competition for school leaver level jobs is pretty fierce. With the increasing cost of higher education and the continued uncertainty about whether there is a graduate role at the end of it apprenticeships, and the earn while you learn approach, is an increasingly popular option.”

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A YORKSHIRE marketing consultancy is celebrating its one year anniversary with the launch of the Commercial Marketing Catapult – a practical and hands-on course tailored to meet the needs of busy and ambitious business owners in Yorkshire.

Opal Marketing has designed the course to demystify marketing and provide the range of tools needed to create sustained business success. 

Managing director Sally Oddy, said: “I am passionate about Yorkshire businesses succeeding in these challenging economic times and have developed The Commercial Marketing Catapult to empower business owners to become self-sufficient at effectively marketing their own business.”