▲ PHX Training has expanded its footprint by opening an office in Blackburn town centre, the company’s eighth in the North West. The team has also secured a part of the Adult Education Budget for 2023 to help support people aged 19 and over acquire basic vocational and functional skills which can help them find work or improve their quality of life.


▲ Skelmersdale-based Stuart Energy has recorded double-digit revenue and profit growth over the first half of the year. The generator specialist increased sales by 31 per cent in the first half of 2023 when compared to the same period in 2022. Net profit has also increased by over a quarter, reaching 26 per cent over the same period.


▲ The Annual Fundraising Ball held by Trinity Hospice at Blackpool Tower Ballroom has raised £100,431 for the Bispham based charity.


▲ Blackburn-based Vision Techniques has developed a new safety radar which it will install in all new waste collection vehicles it provides for Blackburn with Darwen Council. The radar gives drivers an audible and visual warning in advance of a collision and automatically applies the brakes if the driver doesn’t respond.


▲ Accrington, Burnley, Darwen and Nelson - considered ‘overlooked’ by the government - will each receive £20m of Levelling Up funding over the next decade. Town boards will be set up to bring together community leaders, employers, local authorities and the local MP to deliver a long-term plan for their town. The funds will be accompanied by “a suite of regeneration powers” to unlock more private sector investment by auctioning empty high street shops, reforming licensing rules on shops and restaurants, and supporting more housing in town centres.


▲ Residential care, home care and dementia care specialist Townfield Care has secured a new £12m contract with Lancashire County Council, which will create 60 new jobs across Hyndburn, Rossendale, Burnley and the Ribble Valley.


▲ After impressing the Department for Transport with significant improvements over the last 11 months, Avanti West Coast has now been handed a long-term rail contract of up to nine years. The company operates routes between Glasgow and Edinburgh and London. In Lancashire, it serves Blackpool North, Poulton-le-Fylde, Kirkham and Wesham, Lancaster and Preston stations.


▲ Lancashire’s Growing Places Fund, which is managed by the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, has provided a £1.6m loan towards the £3m cost of converting the former Ormskirk Magistrates building into 23 luxury apartments. The refurbishment has been designed by Preston based FWP and undertaken by developer Walker & Williams.


▲ A planning application has been submitted for a two-hectare site in Darwen to house a new manufacturing and research centre. The proposals have been put forward by a joint venture between the Barnfield Group and Blackburn with Darwen Council. The Chapels site would feature eight smaller industrial units alongside the main centre. Sheffield University’s AMRC is in advanced talks to become the anchor tenant, with plans to house its first-of-its-kind Additive Manufacturing Accelerator there.


▲ An innovative property business committed to helping first time buyers has launched. Preston-based My First House offers affordable, modular homes to people looking to get on the property ladder.


▲ Blackburn College has launched a new facility to help it work closer with industry and to help deliver in-demand skills in tech, cyber security, health and engineering. The Industry Collaboration Zone (ICZ) provides a high-tech, central hub which businesses of all sizes, public bodies and other organisations can use to host their own events. It will also provide a base for the college to expand its own industry events programme and bring new co- working spaces to the town centre to support business start-ups. Students will be given the opportunity to network and learn from a range of business experts.


DOWN


▼ Administrators have been appointed at Nelson based Pendle Engineering following increasing financial difficulties. All 55 staff remain employed and the company continues to trade as the joint administrators explore options for its future, including the possibility of a sale.


▼ Forterra has announced that it will temporarily close its brick manufacturing plant at Claughton. Demand for bricks increased in May and June of this year. But brick dispatches in July and August were 16 per cent lower than June and 28 per cent lower than the same period last year.


▼ Rossendale-based structural steelwork specialist James Killelea & Co is set to enter administration after two years of significant losses. The family firm was founded in 1970 and employed almost 100 staff. Revenues were £22.7m for 2021, but losses were £434,000. A year later, revenues fell to £11.4m resulting in a loss of £772,000.


▼ The reopening of Preston’s iconic Harris museum has been delayed after the £16.2m renovation project was hit by a series of setbacks. The Harris was originally set to be reopened to the public in 2024, but this has been extended to spring 2025.


LANCASHIREBUSINES SV IEW.CO.UK


Amy Mehers Director / head of personal insolvency


/leonard-curtis- business-solutions-group


SEEK EARLY ADVICE WITH PERSONAL DEBT


As the UK battles the biggest cost of living crisis in modern times, the number of households struggling with debt has increased by two thirds since 2017.


Although inflation is expected to fall towards the end of the year, the cost of food and drink was 12.1 per cent higher in September 2023 compared to the previous year.


Financial worries are a key concern for many people. High interest mortgage payments, rent increases, and the soaring price of food and energy means that many people are struggling with unmanageable debt repayments.


Deciding on the right response to personal debt depends on whom the money was borrowed from in the first instance - as different creditors have different approaches.


HMRC, councils and personal guarantors are more likely to issue bankruptcy petitions and/ or use bailiff action to recoup their money. It is crucial that people with these unmanageable liabilities seek advice at the earliest opportunity.


Credit card providers and high street banks are usually easier to deal with and may accept payment plans to assist people with repayment, however people should be aware there are many options out there to help.


Options include a Debt Management Plan - which helps avoid formal insolvency, or a Debt Relief Order - available for those with no assets and nominal surplus income and debt below £30,000.


Formal insolvency options such as an IVA and bankruptcy are all possibilities that should be explored by an individual.


At Leonard Curtis, we urge anyone who is worried about their finances to seek advice as soon as possible.


Call us on 0161 413 4940 or visit www.leonardcurtis.co.uk


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