Business News

Black Friday lands on 27th November this year and projected revenues are over £1 billion. In the run-up, more retailers are adopting aggressive discounting as a strategy in order to attract customers. The latest research from IRI Group has significant ramifications for retailers in the Midlands in the run-up to the all-important Christmas season.

UNISON West Midlands are warning that cuts to police jobs and budgets will leave the public of the West Midlands with a Police Service that they don't deserve."The Conservative Party promised not to cut frontline policing and yet all we have seen is attack after attack on hard working police staff and budgets that are already stretched as thin as they will go."

The world's leading community-driven hospitality company opened its annual host convention in Paris, France. Attended by 5,000 Airbnb hosts representing 110 nationalities, this year's Airbnb Open is over four times the size of last year's event which took place in San Francisco, USA. 

The Black Country Chamber of Commerce hosted an event at Wolverhampton Racecourse that aimed to explain the West Midlands Combined Authority to the local business community. 71 delegates heard Stewart Towe CBE, Chair of the Black Country LEP, explain that the West Midlands Combined authority has the largest concentration of businesses outside London with a £78 billion GVA and 1.9 million jobs and a population of 4 million.

Severn Trent Water is appealing for its customers to help them locate a large number of private pumping stations, which will soon become the company’s responsibility to maintain. A change in legislation from October 2016 will mean Severn Trent will be owning and maintaining these pumping stations, which will be welcome news for some customers who may find them costly and difficult to maintain.

Sandwell Council will be opening its doors to children and young people to ‘take over’ the jobs of council bosses as part of this year's Children’s Commissioner’s Takeover Challenge. Young people can ‘take over’ roles such as the chief executive and directors. Young people will also be given the chance to put their questions to all the top bosses at a Leader’s meeting.

The number of commuters in the West Midlands spending more than three hours travelling to and from work has increased by 87% over the past 10 years, according to a TUC analysis of official figures published. The figures – published to mark the start of Commute Smart Week organised by Work Wise UK – show that the number of people undertaking long commutes has risen sharply across the UK.

City of Wolverhampton Council officials this week welcomed their counterparts from China to the Civic Centre. Directors, engineers and researchers from the Changsha Urban Rural Planning Bureau made the long trip from Hunan Province to learn more about UK sustainable urban planning, and building knowledge and strategies.

City of Wolverhampton Council has confirmed the relocation of the city’s markets will be completed in March after appointing Speller Metcalfe as contractors to carry out the works. It signals another phase in the changing face of Westside, which recently went to market as a major development opportunity.

HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, Patron of the UK’s National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN), was the special guest at an exclusive New York lunch on board Queen Mary 2, sponsored by Cunard, in support of the world’s most iconic warship, HMS Victory.

Library customers will soon be able to log on to improved internet access. The City of Wolverhampton Council has been given £90,500 by the Arts Council to improve WiFi in the city's libraries. Work taking place over the next few months will see existing WiFi hotspots extended and upgraded in 11 libraries and WiFi installed for the first time in another five.

The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Cllr Raymond Hassall, will lead Birmingham’s Remembrance Sunday service and parade at the Hall of Memory and Centenary Square on Sunday, November 8. Everyone is welcome to attend the event and observe the two-minute silence at 11am.

A series of schemes to improve cycling along main city routes and quieter “parallel” routes have been approved by Birmingham City Council. Almost £2.8million will be spent on the routes, the latest element of the Birmingham Cycle Revolution project – which aims to make the bike a more attractive and mainstream mode of travel.

Hundreds of properties in Wolverhampton that stood empty for years have been transformed into family homes thanks to the efforts of City of Wolverhampton Council. Its Empty Property Strategy, launched in 2010, has seen more than 1,000 privately-owned houses which had been left occupied – often in poor condition – brought back into use in the last five years.

A trade and investment deal being negotiated between the European Union and the United States – which is not expected to be finalised before next year – stands to bring massive benefits to the automotive industry in the West Midlands.

Business leaders in Greater Birmingham today called for additional measures from the government to support the growth of the economic recovery. This followed the announcement that GDP grew by 0.5 per cent in Q3 2015, compared with growth of 0.7 per cent in Q2. Services output increased by 0.7 per cent on the quarter, production grew by 0.3 per cent, but construction output plunged by 2.2 per cent