Business News
Investment for new WMR trains
A £680m order for new trains has been welcomed by West Midlands Rail (WMR), the consortium of 16 local councils set up to jointly manage the region’s rail services. The trains, which will be made up of 413 carriages, have been ordered by
West Midlands Trains, the company that will run local services on behalf of WMR and the Department for Transport (DfT) from this December onwards. West Midlands Trains, which is made up of Abellio, JR East and Mitsui, has
selected Bombardier Trains and Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) to manufacture 107 new trains for the next West Midlands franchise. The order is part of a near £1bn investment into the franchise that Abellio, JR
East and Mitsui will be overseeing in the coming years. A total of 333 of the new trains, which will feature air conditioning, free Wi-Fi
and in-seat power sockets provided as standard, will be produced by Bombardier at its facility in Derby.
Local firms to represent region
CV-Library and JC Social Media have been named among the regional winners in the West Midlands heats of the Chamber Business Awards 2017. Now in their 14th year, the
Awards are a highlight of the business calendar, recognising the key role that local businesses play in driving the UK economy. Job board CV-Library is a Birmingham Chamber member, while JC Social Media is made up of members of Future Faces, the young professionals’ arm of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce. Both companies will now go
forward to represent the West Midlands in the national finals, which take place in London this month. Francis Martin, president of
the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said: “The Chamber Business Awards are the perfect opportunity for us to celebrate our business communities’ achievements, to take stock of the outstanding performances of UK businesses over the past year.”
Boost in private sector job figures
More than 23,000 new private sectors jobs were created across the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) area during 2016. The region recorded 750,198
private sector jobs in 2016, compared with 726,941 in 2015 – a 3.2 per cent rise, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This outperforms the average across England, which is 2.3 per cent. GBSLEP aims to deliver 250,000
private sector jobs between 2010 and 2030 and has now reached 55 per cent of its target, with 136,605 new jobs generated since 2010. A strong pipeline of investment
and a growing network of business support, are encouraging companies to employ more staff in Greater Birmingham, according to GBSLEP chair Steve Hollis. Mr Hollis said: “The ongoing
transformation of Greater Birmingham demonstrates that this is a highly attractive place for companies to locate and grow. It is imperative that GBSLEP continues to support and finance a range of business support programmes to ensure that we will meet our ambitious job creation targets.”
November 2017 CHAMBERLINK 25
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