Roundup: Esh Group, Croft Residential, M&S, YPP

CONSTRUCTION company, Esh Group, has launched a new £3.6m Academy to address the construction skills shortage, committing to training 150 apprentices in the North.

The Esh Academy will complement the group’s apprenticeships, and learning and development programme.

The first apprentices from Yorkshire to benefit from the initiative are Ben Vickers, Tom McDonagh, Zac Widera, Joseph Knaggs and Josh Morris, attendees at Leeds College of Building, studying construction engineering and quantity surveying.

The Academy is managed by Esh Training Solutions, the training arm of Esh Group. Tricia Mullen, manager of Esh Training Solutions told us: “We have a huge variety of opportunities available – from construction through to finance, administration and support. Esh Group has a massive range of different jobs needed to deliver its work. Site based work ranges from pipe layers or general operatives through to technical roles in quantity surveying and engineering.

Andy Gawthorpe, regional managing director (Yorkshire) at Esh explained: “Our industry is facing a growing skills gap and it is important for companies like ours to nurture the next generation of talent.”

Esh Group turns over £280m and directly employs around 1,200 people in its construction and property operations throughout the North from offices in Northumberland, Cumbria, Scotland, County Durham and Yorkshire.

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AN HISTORIC grade II-listed house in Ripon has gone on the market with a price tag of £1.45m.

Prospect House on Palace Road was built around 1835 for the wealthy Kearsley family, who owned Ripon’s varnish works which supplied the burgeoning rail industry at the time.

The house was requisitioned during the First World War and acted as the officers mess for those stationed there en route to the Somme. By the 1960s however the grand house, which is set in an acre of gardens, had fallen into disrepair. It was then bought by local couple, Barrie and Elizabeth Price in 1967.

Mr Price, who was Mayor of Ripon from 1980-81, still works part time at Eura Audit, the regional Yorkshire accountancy firm he established, and has seen his home city change for the better over the years.

Toby Cockcroft, director of Croft Residential, the agency which is marketing the property, said: “Prospect House is a 19th century treasure. Mr and Mrs Price’s restoration programme has produced stunning results, and its location, in Ripon with all its amenities, yet so close to superb countryside makes it one of the best period properties on the market in North Yorkshire. We are expecting very high levels of interest from prospective buyers.”

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RETAILER Marks & Spencer is opening its Foodhall in Knaresborough at the beginning of December.

On Wednesday 9 December staff will open the doors on the new site which will create 60 jobs for the area.

Spread across 8,200 sq ft, the Foodhall will bring together 6,500 food and drink lines.

Store manager, Jess Pickard, said: “We are delighted to be opening a Foodhall in Knaresborough, and I am looking forward to welcoming customers to see all we have to offer. M&S Foodhall Knaresborough will provide local customers with a great new shopping experience, with a wide selection of quality meat, fish and poultry as well as an in-store Bakery.

“We hope that customers will join us on 9th December to see all of the new and exciting features that we will be bringing to the area.”

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LETTINGS company YPP is drumming up interest in its Q Two development on Queen Street.

The company awarded a Leeds University student, Hassan Ali Raja, with a new Hyundai i10 and complementary after a prize draw for the student accommodations.

YPP provides accommodation for students and professionals in Leeds ranging from flats and houses in Hyde Park and Headingley, to luxury apartments in large, refurbished buildings in the city centre.

Jennifer Pierce of YPP commented: “We were delighted at the interest in Q One and Q Two and for both schemes to be fully let before they opened shows the level of demand for superior, stylish quality accommodation in Leeds city centre.

“We offered all new tenants the chance to win a city car and free parking and there was huge excitement from all of the tenants as one of them definitely knew they were going to win the car but Hassan was the lucky winner. “