Business News

Once again the phenomenon of Black Friday has hit British high streets in the run up to Christmas and Opinium Research analysed the nation’s behaviour in response to several days of deals and discounts with some surprising results. Despite the hype, the majority (69%) of Brits avoided Black Friday. Of those who did take advantage of the sales (29% overall) most avoided the madness of the stores and stuck to online shopping (81% versus 35% who shopped in store).

Dream jobs come wrapped up in all sorts of packages, but none could come close to being as magical as the one holidaycottages.co.uk’s has recently appointed. The leading property letting specialist has announced Hayley Kitto as their 2015 “head of Christmas wishes”. Chosen from a huge number of applicants, Hayley’s unfaltering festive nature and commitment to Christmas, as well as customer service, is what landed her this dream seasonal job.

A report seeking approval to build 166 affordable homes for rent and sale in Perry Common is to go to cabinet. This is the final phase of an area regeneration that has seen the replacement of 908 structurally defective homes with 913 new homes (including a 40 place Extra Care centre), a health centre, and a 60-bed special care centre. The regeneration has also seen the creation and improvement of over 27 acres of public open space and improvement of other community facilities.

Black Country Chamber of Commerce is delighted to reveal that they have been announced as runner-up for the Chamber of the Year Award in the British Chambers of Commerce Awards 2015. This comes a year after the Black Country Chamber of Commerce was awarded the Excellence in International Trade Award at the British Chambers of Commerce Awards 2014. The Awards took place at the Brewery London on 26^th November with over 500 people in attendance.

Nursery child care in Birmingham is set to get a £1.5 million funding boost from the city council to ensure there is enough good quality provision across the city. Cabinet is being asked to approve the increase to the Early Education Entitlement (EEE) funding rate for youngsters aged two, three and four at private, voluntary and independent (PVI) child care settings.

On the eve of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21, taking place in Paris next week, the members of the Global Travel Association Coalition (GTAC) reiterate the industry’s commitment to contribute to fight climate change, and express their hopes for successful talks.

The results are in for the Safer 6 campaign's fourth week, which had a special focus on Oldbury. Firefighters with council neighbourhood services officers carried out 109 home safety checks in Oldbury during the week as well as general safety visits across the town’s four wards – Bristnall, Langley, Old Warley and Oldbury. Oldbury Fire Station hosted a vehicle safety event, where firefighters checked 57 cars, highlighting and dealing with common faults including defective tyres and lights, wrongly fitting child seats, cracked windscreens and low fluid levels.

Today, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has made a historic move as the first trade union to re-affiliate to the Labour Party more than a decade after it withdrew its support. Union delegates voted for the FBU to support the Labour Party, reinvigorated after the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader, at a special conference in Blackpool. The FBU was one of the first trade unions to declare support for Corbyn’s leadership campaign.

The number of motorists driving illegally in Wolverhampton bus lanes has fallen dramatically since cameras began being used to enforce the law earlier this year – so much so that the city council is to extend the scheme to cover more routes.

The Commonwealth and the Government of Malta, together with the Governments of Mauritius, Sri Lanka and India announced a new trade financing fund to help boost trade and investment flows, particularly for small and developing countries. The voluntary fund hopes to attract start-up capital of $20 million.

Youth leaders from across the Commonwealth called for governments to prioritise youth employment opportunities, and to empower young people to partner and lead in processes of peace-building and climate change adaptation. The appeal was issued by over 200 youth delegates on the final day of the Commonwealth Youth Forum (CYF).

Pioneering Fair Trade retailer Traidcraft is offering an alternative to the frenzy of Black Friday – as new survey results show that more than half of the UK is negatively affected by shopping fever in the run-up to Christmas. Over half of all West Midlands shoppers surveyed (52%) said they experience negative emotions when shopping in the run-up to Christmas – feeling stressed, anxious, ill, argumentative and violent.

Reports setting out progress made in children’s social care services and education are to go before the city council. Children’s social care is over a year into its three-year improvement plan and the report sets out progress so far and plans for the next two years. The next two years will focus on improving social work practice and delivering more effective interventions with children and families.

With around 400 people in attendance, the Black Country Chamber of Commerce Awards 2015 was bigger and better than ever. The Dinner, sponsored by voestalpine Metsec plc, which took place on 19^th November at Wolverhampton Racecourse acknowledged and celebrated local business success.

This week’s announcement about the historic devolution agreement reached for the West Midlands has been welcomed by the Black Country Chamber of Commerce. Vice President Kevin Rogers, a former manufacturer said in response to the announcement: “We have always been concerned that Whitehall did not properly understand manufacturing. The devolution agreement enables us to take control back and invest in the areas that concern manufacturing.

The Lush Prize's annual awards have developed a reputation for identifying outstanding projects around the world which are contributing to animal-free laboratory science. Now in its fourth year, Lush Prize judges have decided to make a special breakthrough award of £250,000 to scientists involved in mapping the world's first 'human toxicity pathway'.