One of the UK’s leading warehousing, manufacturing, logistics, driving, engineering and managed services recruitment agencies - which places more than 4,000 workers each week – has announced ambitious plans to expand its Professional division, which is based in the West Midlands and specialises in senior hires. Encore Personnel - which operates 10 branches, including one in Birmingham, and 22 sites across the UK and employs more than 200 staff, has relaunched Encore Professional, with a new website and new team, headed by seasoned recruitment pro Nick Green.

Commenting on the strategies, Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the WMCA, said: “As the home of the green industrial revolution we are already developing the solutions to achieve our own ambitious target of becoming a net zero region by 2041.

“So, we welcome the announcement of these two new strategies in which government sets out a clear path on how the UK can reach its national net zero target by 2050.

Global cyber security firm CSS Assure is joining legal and professional services group Ampa – which has a presence in Birmingham - projected to add more than £7m to the group’s turnover over the next three years.

The addition, which marks the first non-legal service provider to join since the launch of Ampa’s ‘house of brands’ strategy, will see CSS Assure continue to trade under its existing brand across the UK and internationally.

Green jobs need to be created at 25 times the current rate if the Government is get its 440,000 new jobs target in green industries by 2030, according to new analysis by the job site Indeed. The UK’s low carbon and renewable energy economy is in the spotlight as it prepares to host the COP26 international summit on climate change in November.

A fall in trade between the UK and EU shows SMEs are shunning EU exports, a leading Midlands tax expert is warning.

Latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows a second consecutive monthly fall in trade, with the effects of Brexit and the global pandemic resulting in the total exports of goods, excluding precious metals, falling by £1.3 billion (4.6%) in August 2021.

The Leader of City of Wolverhampton Council has called on the Chancellor to make the future of local government funding a priority at the forthcoming comprehensive spending review. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, is due to deliver details of future Government spending plans on October 27.

Council Leader, Cllr Ian Brookfield said he wanted to see a clear commitment that enough money would be made available to councils to fund essential local services and level up their communities as the country emerges from the pandemic and after more than a decade of austerity.