Author: Rhys Gregory

Business confidence in Wales rose two points during October to 2%, according to the latest Business Barometer from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. However, companies in Wales reported a lower confidence in their business prospects at 7%, which along with their views on the economy in general gives an overall confidence of 2%. Businesses’ hiring intentions showed that a net balance of 8% of businesses in the region expect to hire more staff during the next year, down one point on last month. Across the UK, overall confidence rose four points to 6% as firms’ confidence in their own prospects climbed…

A record number of people in Wales have been diagnosed with heart failure, according to a new analysis by British Heart Foundation Cymru (BHF Cymru). Admissions to hospital are rising, with 350 people a month in Wales now admitted due to heart failure as the primary diagnosis, and hundreds more being admitted with heart failure as part of their diagnosis. The rise in hospital admissions is reflective of increasing numbers of people living with heart failure in the UK. It’s estimated that around 920,000 people have the condition and its burden is now similar to the four most common cancers…

The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) has responded to the Welsh Government’s consultation on post-Brexit rural support by proposing a framework and dynamic farm support system that takes full account of all Welsh Wellbeing Goals, National Wellbeing Indicators and other Welsh objectives. The Welsh Government had proposed in its Sustainable Farming and our Land consultation – the deadline for which was 30 October – that future farm and rural support should be focussed on the United Nations’ definition of ‘Sustainable Land Management’, and that this should be the objective of a future policy. “While the UN’s Sustainable Land Management definition…

The team from the Electrical Industries Charity undertook the challenge with Omar Kahil of ECA – Excellence in Electrotechnical and Engineering Services. EFT Consult, a Wales-based company that specialises in cutting edge and innovative technologies in relation to the design and consultancy of the built environment, sponsored the charity team to reach the Mount Everest base camp. EFT Consult is part of the RD Group, which also comprises RDM Electrical Services and DRS Facilities and Environmental. On reaching their goal, the team said: “We would have felt berEFT without your sponsorship, EFT Consult. Omar Khalil and the EIC explorers applaud…

A town mayor admitted she got it wrong when she opposed the transfer of the estate where she lives to a housing association after they transformed it with a £1.4 million makeover. Cllr Angie O’Grady, the Mayor of Llandudno, was speaking at a special celebration to mark the presentation of a coveted Green Flag Award to the town’s Tre Cwm estate. The flag raising ceremony marked a momentous double coup for Cartrefi Conwy housing association which manages the only two Welsh social housing estates ever to be crowned with Green Flag status. Five years ago, the Peulwys estate in Llysfaen,…

As part of Occupational Therapy Week 2019, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) has launched a new campaign, ‘Small Change, Big Impact’, which celebrates how the small changes occupational therapists make can have a big impact on the people they support. Occupational Therapy Week 2019 takes place from 4 to 10 November and is a national awareness week run by RCOT to promote the value of occupational therapists and the fantastic work that they do across the UK. Taking the campaign as its theme, this year’s Occupational Therapy Week will showcase and champion the impact of occupational therapy and…

At a time when uncertainty about our future is impacting on business confidence, Business in Focus has committed to a large-scale property investment in the South Wales Valleys and Wrexham. A strong acquisition strategy has yielded results as the social enterprise increases the size of its portfolio by 67%, taking it from 227k to nearly 380k square feet, increasing its provision of affordable office space to growing numbers of small businesses. Since its inception more than 30 years ago, the company has been at the forefront of business advice and support in South Wales. Speaking of the investment, Chief Executive,…

Award-winning agency jamjar has been appointed to two new public sector design frameworks. The Cowbridge-based agency has been added to the Welsh Government’s Communication and Marketing Framework for Creative Design and Branding services and Bath and North East Somerset Council’s Framework for Graphic Design Services. The four-year Welsh Government Framework will see jamjar provide creative design and branding services to the Welsh Government in areas including Education, Health, Business & Tourism, Natural Resources, Communities, Culture and Sport. The framework can also be used by bodies funded by Welsh Government including Local Authorities in Wales; NHS Wales health boards; Higher and…

Transport for Wales is pleased to announce that Vernon Everitt, a Managing Director with Transport for London, has joined Transport for Wales as a Non-Executive Director. Vernon has worked for TfL for over twelve years where he is Managing Director for Customers, Communication and Technology, and is currently interim Managing Director for London Underground and TfL Engineering. At TfL, he is responsible for customer and technology/data strategies and their delivery. With a focus on putting the customer at the heart of operations, he is accountable for fares and payment operations, contact centres, customer information, marketing and customer insight, media relations,…

Swansea University Medical School has welcomed a new researcher under a prestigious European scheme. Dr Rémi Zallot successfully applied for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship from the European Commission and will be hosted by the Medical School’s Centre for Cytochrome P450 Biodiversity for the next two years. His expertise in mining microbial genomes using bioinformatics to hypothesise functions for uncharacterised genes as well as test the proposed functions was developed during his previous stay at University of Illinois’s Carl R Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and at University of Florida’s Department of Microbiology and Cell Science. Dr Zallot will be…