Platinum Business Magazine - issue 94

platinum ISSUE 94 FEBRUARY 2022

THE LARGEST CIRCULATION REGIONAL BUSINESS PUBLICATION IN THE UK

The Cyber Resilience Centre joins Platinum AWARDS SEASON Launches now The Power of Difference Simon Fanshawe OBE INFLUENCERS FORUM Shaping our Future World MOTORING Maserati Ghibli Trofeo TRAVEL Off on Safari

THE BIG STORY

THE BLAIR AFFAIR

The Platinum Club has been the region’s leading peer-to-peer business networking event for CEOs, Managing Directors and Partners of many of the leading companies across the South East for over 12 years.

Limited memberships are available and to apply, please contact maarten@platinummediagroup.co.uk

The Platinum

for Leaders and I

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❛❛ The Platinum Club is unique in the manner in which it is run and the high level of guests that attend. There is no other networking event quite like it and l ensure if l only attend one such event, it is the Platinum Club ❜❜

❛❛ The Platinum Club is a fantastic networking event. There is always such a great turnout of diverse businesses and it is hosted in such a way that all you need to do is relax and wait to be introduced to everyone in the room.

The most important networking event of the month ❜❜

❛❛ I make sure l never miss an event and thoroughly enjoy the evening ❜❜

ALAN HARBER REGIONAL DIRECTOR LLOYDS BANK

KATIE GIBSON MANAGING DIRECTOR PIER RECRUITMENT

GARY CHOWN FORMER REGIONAL DIRECTOR NATWEST BANK

Business Club

Innovators in Business

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❛❛ The networking highlight of the month and never to be missed ❜❜

❛❛ The Platinum Club is all l could ask from a networking event, superbly run and full of high level decision makers ❜❜

KEITH JACKMAN MARKETING DIRECTOR MERCEDES-BENZ

RICHARD KENDALL-TOBIAS CEO BLUE DIAMOND SECURITY

THE PLATINUM CLUB

Business & IP Centre Brighton & Hove

F E B R U A R Y 2022

CONT ENT S

INFLUENCERS FORUM

62 CHARITY FOCUS

52

13 Rockinghorse appoints new CEO

EVENTS

14 Brighton and Hove Business Awards 20 The Dynamic Awards 32 Brighton Summit is back, with an exciting speaker announcement…

43 The Tiger’s Pen pounces on Brighton University

LEGAL

16 Have the lines between work and private life been blurred?

40 Financing business acquisitions – How ambitious regional businesses can fast track their expansion 50 Hybrid working and employer’s duties – the new normal?

EDUCATION

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52 Why STEM should be at the root of education

BIG STORY

BUSINESS

34 The Blair affair

BOOK REVIEW

46 The power of difference

By Simon Fanshawe OBE

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78 TRAVEL

78 Safari in Limpopo

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MOTORING

84 Maserati Ghibli Trofeo

PLATINUM MEDIA GROUP

23 How can LoCASE help your business?

24 Strengthen your business’s cyber security with FREE membership at The Cyber Resilience Centre for the South East 56 The sustainable argument for business printers 58 Plenty of choice

ECONOMY

26 NatWest’s market analysis

FINANCE

28 Should we acquire key parts of our supply chain?

44 Why retirement could cost less than you think 49 What’s more important for businesses – growth or profitability?

INNOVATION

60 Master innovation in your business this year!

All rights reserved. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher.

The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions relating to advertising or editorial.

The publisher reserves the right to change or amend any competitions or prizes offered.

No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written consent from the publisher.

No responsibility is taken for unsolicited materials or the return of these materials whilst in transit.

Platinum Business Magazine is owned and published by Platinum Media Group.

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It’s finally time to bring that idea to life.

Join NatWest’s free online Business Builder course today to start turning your idea into a business tomorrow.

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WELCOME With one month into 2022, business has come alive with deals being done, hand-over-fist, across every sector.

This month’s Platinum brings you all the news, views and opinion from across the South East with big news on the 2022 Awards Season. The 16th year of the Brighton & Hove Business Awards and the exciting all-new Dynamic Awards are all launched in this issue with the Surrey Business Awards and Sussex Business Awards launching next month. And there’s more news to come but NOW is the time to be thinking about your entry to win one of the coveted trophies that can be a game-changer for many companies.

Simon Fanshawe OBE launches his new book – The Power of Difference – in this issue. It is a fascinating read and there is a Platinum readers discount. Hurst College discuss why STEM is so important for everyone in education, the Influencers Forum debates how we shape the workforce for the future, and Loch Associates look at the blurring of the lines between work and home. We are delighted to announce that the Cyber Resilience Centre have joined Platinum with vital news on keeping safe online.

Maarten went all Maserati with the Ghibli Trofeo and, as they came in a pair, will review the Maserati Levante Trofeo next month. Tess goes ‘home’ with her travel review of South Africa’s best game reserves and we introduce the new CEO of the Rockinghorse Children’s Charity.

There’s so much more so we hope you enjoy the February issue of the UK’s largest circulation business magazine.

The Platinum Team CONTACTS PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Maarten Hoffmann maarten@platinummediagroup.co.uk COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR: Lesley Alcock lesley@platinummediagroup.co.uk EVENTS DIRECTOR: Fiona Graves fiona@platinummediagroup.co.uk TR AVEL EDITOR: Tess de Klerk tess@platinummediagroup.co.uk HEAD OF DESIGN: Michelle Shakesby design@platinummediagroup.co.uk PROOFING: Alan Wares alan@platinummediagroup.co.uk

W W W.PL ATINUMME DIAGROUP.CO.UK

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SUN SHINES FOR THE PIER The company behind Brighton Palace Pier reported a big rise in sales but warned that increasing costs could force it to raise prices. Anne Ackord, CEO of Brighton Pier Group, said the company had faced cost increases of ‘considerable magnitude’ over the past three to four years and would be waiting to see what further costs come their way. Brighton Pier Group is chaired by serial investor Luke Johnson, who bought the pier in 2016 in an £18 million deal and reversed it into Eclectic Bar Group, an Aim-listed bar operator in which he holds a 27% stake.

The group had sales of £22.7 million, up 117% on 2020 and its shares rose by 17% to 86p.

NEWS BULLETIN CHILD’S PLAY Microsoft says it plans to buy major games company Activision Blizzard in a deal worth £50.57bn. It would be the biggest acquisition in the company’s history and is expected to be finalised in 2023. The move means Microsoft will take ownership of gaming franchises like Call of Duty, Warcraft and Overwatch.

Microsoft claims it will help them grow their gaming business across mobile, PC and consoles along with providing building blocks for the metaverse. This deal is the biggest in gaming history and comes a year after Microsoft bought another influential gaming company Bethesda for $7.5bn.

❛❛ It’s a delightful thing

to think of perfection; but it’s vastly more amusing to talk of errors and absurdities ❜❜ Fanny Burney, novelist, 1796

TOO ENERGETIC One of the UK’s largest insurance groups is to replace the words “energetic” and “enthusiastic” in its job adverts, saying they put off older applicants. Phoenix Group, which owns Standard Life, said this was not because people’s enthusiasm waned with age.

Instead, older workers often ruled themselves out of applying if they felt unwanted, it said. It comes as firms scramble for workers with job vacancies at record highs.

It said it wanted to replace words such as “innovative” in job ads to try to avoid discouraging older applicants.

Instead it will say it is looking for competencies such as “contributing new ideas” or “problem solving”.

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NEWS RISKY STUFF

THOUSANDS UNDER THREAT More than 400,000 small firms could go under because customers are failing to pay their bills on time, a survey has warned. The FSB said that late payments, inflationary pressures and Brexit-related red tape could reduce the number of companies operating in the UK. In a poll of 1,271 small companies, it found that 30% of companies had experienced a rise in delayed payment of invoices over the past three months.

With the UK having 5.5 million small firms, that means that 400,000 businesses could close this year alone.

78% of businesses also report a rise in overheads.

Risky stuff from Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England guv’nor who got one of his economists to pen a new pop up economics book aimed at Boris Johnson. The title?

“Can’t We Just Print More Money?”

❛❛ The battles that count

aren’t the ones for gold medals.

The struggles within yourself… that’s where it’s at ❜❜ Jess Owens, gold medalist, 1970

A GRIM RECORD Soaring food costs and the energy bill crisis are driving up prices at their fastest rate in almost 30 years, squeezing living standards.

Inflation surged to 5.4% in the 12 months to December, up from 5.1% the month before, in another blow to struggling families.

The last time inflation was higher was in March 1992, when it was 7.1%. And with gas and electricity costs set to increase further soon, analysts warned it could reach that level again.

A LESSON FOR BORIS The chairman of global banking giant Credit Suisse, Antonio Horta-Osorio, has resigned with immediate effect after breaking Covid quarantine rules. Mr Horta-Osorio, who was with the bank for just nine months, left following an internal investigation. The former boss of Lloyds Banking Group joined Credit Suisse after a series of scandals at the Swiss bank. But it has emerged he breached Covid rules last year, including by attending the Wimbledon tennis finals.

“I regret that a number of my personal actions have led to difficulties for the bank and compromised my ability to represent the bank internally and externally,” Mr HortaOsorio said in a statement issued by the bank.

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WHITE ELEPHANT The i360 tourist attraction in Brighton risks becoming an ‘expensive white elephant’ after British Airways decided to end its sponsorship with the attraction amid a decline in visitors.

Councillor Dawn Barnett warned the split could mark the “beginning of the end” for the tower, which has suffered from low visitor numbers since it opened in 2016. The structure is now urgently seeking new sponsors after it was announced the airline would not be supporting the site once naming rights expire on November 3rd, 2022.

Reacting to the split, the Conservative Hangleton and Knoll councillor slammed the tower as “expensive” while predicting that the 530-foot structure will be dismantled next year. She said the city should have retained the wheel which was to the east of the Palace Pier.

LOCAL NEWS ❛❛ Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life ❜❜ Steve Jobs

NEW DEVELOPMENT Plans for a development site with 210 new homes has been approved. The new 23-acre site in St Leonards-on-Sea will deliver 158 homes for private sale and 52 affordable properties through rent or shared ownership after approval

by Hastings Borough Council planning committee.

The former Darwell Campus of St Leonards Academy is located south of Crowhurst Road and north of Darwell Close. Developer Bellway will build a range of one and two-bedroom apartments and two, three and four-bedroom houses, as well as providing a multi-use games area and children’s play areas.

NEWHAVEN BUZZ The Chancellor of the Exchequer hopes hopes that nearly £13 million in funding will bring the “buzz” back to a town that has been neglected for years. Rishi Sunak toured Newhaven recently pushing his “levelling up” scheme which aims to bring jobs and more economic activity to dozens of struggling towns across the country. The Chancellor surprised staff at West Quay Fisheries in Riverside North with a visit before buying a turbot for dinner and travelling back to London to try a “new recipe”. More than £19 million in funding for Newhaven was also signed off in December in a separate Town Deal, to deliver a transport network that will improve connectivity to the town and create new opportunities for people across Sussex.

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NEWS

❛❛ The things you regret most in life are the risks you didn’t take ❜❜ Lewis Carroll

MWB EXPANSION Leading Sussex law firm Mayo Wynne Baxter has joined national legal and professional services group, Ampa, to enhance its ambitious plans for growth.

Mayo Wynne Baxter, founded more than 150 years ago in Lewes, will continue to operate as a separate LLP retaining its brand and growing its market position as it continues to deliver legal services for businesses, people and their families throughout the South East. No money will be exchanged as part of the merger and the firm’s equity partners will merge into Ampa’s membership. The group is proactively looking to recruit talented people and teams across the region and no redundancies are planned.

BRIGHTON TOPS THE LIST Brighton & Hove has been ranked the best city to start a business this year, according to a recent study.

The City Index for Entrepreneurs, by Total Processing, said that the city is a ‘great all-round city that ticks all the boxes when it comes to launching a successful enterprise’, with the highest number of active businesses per capita and second highest new enterprise survival rate in the UK at 34%.

“Considering it’s a city known for its wealth of independent businesses, this comes as no surprise,” the report said of Brighton’s place in the index. However, the report pointed out: “Out of all the cities we analysed, it has the highest rent outside of London. Despite this, it still offers excellent quality of life and loads to offer in this department to both its business-owners and residents alike.” Also making the top three were Bristol, praised for its range of available business premises and co-working spaces, with Edinburgh and Cardiff tied in third place.

Dean Orgill, Chief Executive Partner at Mayo Wynne Baxter, said: “A merger with Ampa, which shares our values, will enable us to do even more to support our clients, people and our local community. It’s an exciting time in our firm’s evolution, which will build on its historic foundations”. Dean will sit on the Ampa group board while also working with the firm’s partners to steer the growth of Mayo Wynne Baxter as a regional anchor brand for the group.

Mayo Wynne Baxter has started its transition to the group and its equity partners will officially become members of Ampa from May 1st 2022.

The merger will take Ampa to a turnover above £100m for 2022/23 and a group of more than 1,100 people immediately.

❛❛ If you don’t build

your dream, some else will hire you to build theirs ❜❜ Anon

SOLICITORS ANNOUNCE MERGER Sussex-based solicitors Griffith Smith and DMH Stallard have announced a merger. This merger will strengthen the services the combined firm provides to private clients in the areas of inheritance tax planning, wills, trusts, power of attorney, estate administration, family, contentious probate and real estate.

Richard Pollins, Managing Partner of DMH Stallard, said: “Griffith Smith is a well-established and highly-regarded firm in the Sussex market and their

joining will strengthen the services we provide to private individuals, families, businesses and entrepreneurs. Our combined offering to high net worth clients is now unparalleled in Sussex and will strengthen our position as the ‘go to’ firm for those clients seeking quality advice.

“This is another key merger for DMH Stallard with a firm comprising top quality partners who share our core values around providing a first-class service to their clients. It is also another

important milestone in our broader expansion plans for the coming years as we continue to grow.”

DMH Stallard’s merger with Griffith Smith is the fifth in recent years. The firm merged with Brookman in May 2021, Rawlison Butler in 2017 and both AWB Partnership and Ross & Craig Solicitors in 2015.

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By focusing on your finances The last couple of years have presented many challenges for businesses.

We’re here to help navigate the next 18 months, with a central hub of resources that will help you and your business move forwards and grow.

Start shaping your future.

For more than accountancy, business and financial advice.

Call: +44 (0)330 124 1399 Email: enquiries@krestonreeves.com Visit: www.krestonreeves.com/shapingyourfuture

CHARITY FOCUS

Rockinghorse Children’s Charity announces the appointment of Donna Holland as their new Chief Executive Officer

ROCKINGHORSE APPOINTS NEW CEO Donna takes up her role with the wellloved children’s charity after working in the charity sector for the past 20 years, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to the position.

She joins Rockinghorse from Concordia where she was Deputy CEO, supporting the charity to expand and improves its youth programmes across Sussex. She has previously been Interim CEO at Brighton-based charity Maternity Worldwide, as well as holding senior roles with many national youth charities over the past 20 years.

Donna is also currently a Trustee of Grassroots, the Brighton - based, suicide-prevention charity and she has held trustee roles at several other national and local charities. Her passion has always been working for charities that support children and young people.

Her passion has always been working for charities that support children and young people ❜❜

❛❛

Phil Frier, Chair of Trustees for Rockinghorse said: “We are delighted to welcome Donna to the Rockinghorse family and we’re really looking forward to working with her. She brings a wealth of experience in leading charities with a collaborative, kind and compassionate approach, not to mention a passion for supporting children and young people and for the local area of Sussex.

She joins us at a pivotal time for the charity after a challenging 18 months, but we believe that we have made a strong choice in selecting someone with the strategic vision to lead Rockinghorse through the next phase of our development.”

And Donna is really looking forward to a new challenge. She said: “I am delighted to be leading Rockinghorse into the next chapter of its incredible history.

I have long admired the work they do, and it is a tremendous privilege to have been chosen for this role.

“As someone who lives and works in Sussex, I’ve seen first-hand the impact the charity has and I’m really looking forward to continuing the vital work of Rockinghorse with a team that shows professionalism, warmth and understanding of the issues faced by sick and

disabled babies, children and teenagers across Sussex.”

Phil added: “Donna is joining an incredible staff team with a great mix of skills and experience along with a brilliant team of committed and expert fundraisers and administrators.

We believe that, with this appointment, Rockinghorse has the right team to carry out our mission of supporting the children’s hospital and other local children’s health provision.”

Donna added: “I am very much looking forward to getting to know all the incredible projects we are currently fundraising for, and I’m determined to ensure that every pound raised for Rockinghorse is spent on making the maximum impact for sick and disabled babies, children and teenagers across Sussex. I can’t wait to meet everyone and get started!”

To find out more about Rockinghorse Children’s Charity, take a look at their website at www.rockinghorse.org.uk

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OPEN FOR ENTRIES

NOW IN THEIR 16TH YEAR, THE BAHBAS AIM TO RECOGNISE, REWARD AND CELEBRATE ALL THE SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES AND PROFESSIONAL INDIVIDUALS ACROSS THE CITY VIEW CATEGORIES AND DOWNLOAD ENTRY FORMS ONLINE

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ENTRY DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES MAY 11TH 2022 | £25 PER ENTRY AWARD CEREMONY JULY 21ST 2022 | THE GRAND BRIGHTON

LIMITED SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE Sponsoring the awards offers a fantastic opportunity to position your brand alongside a well-established, prestigious, high-profile and comprehensively marketed event across the city.

To discuss sponsorship opportunities, please get in touch: Maarten Hoffmann m: 07966 244046 | Maarten@platinummediagroup.co.uk Lesley Alcock m: 07767 613707 | Lesley@platinummediagroup.co.uk

LEGAL

By Pam Loch, Employment Law Solicitor and Managing Director of Loch Associates Group

HAVE THE LINES BETWEEN WORK AND PRIVATE LIFE BEEN BLURRED? One consequence of Covid-19 is that employers had to get a better understanding of their employees’ home life as employees were forced to work from home. Recent research by Aviva however has found that 52% of UK employees felt the boundaries between their work and home life have become increasingly blurred. It’s more than likely working from home, the increasing use of personal devices and social media for work purposes, has contributed to this. Some employees feel unable to switch off and under pressure to be constantly available to respond to messages from managers or work-related emails. With hybrid and remote working here to stay for some of us, do we now need to re-address the blurring of the lines between home and work life?

Covid is not entirely to blame for the blurring of lines. The Health and Safety Executive repor ted that 828,000

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workers were suffering from workrelated stress, depression and anxiety in 2019/2020. Employees can feel an immense amount of pressure to respond to emails or messages whenever they are sent and in some cases, can feel bullied or harassed for not being available especially where work messages are sent by WhatsApp or by text. Some employers try to address this by providing mobile devices for work only to try to separate work and home life. However, with the increasing use of messaging via social media platforms such as WhatsApp, employees cannot escape messages sent to personal accounts on their own devices.

Some companies are already taking steps to allow employees to in effect, disconnect ❜❜

❛❛

LEGAL

Employers have a statutory duty to care for their staff under the Health and Safety Act at Work Act 1974 ❜❜

❛❛

As a result of the controversy around the impact of out-of-hour messaging there is an ongoing campaign by the TUC to introduce a ‘right to disconnect’ so that employees have a legal right not to be expected to be ‘on call’ to respond 24 hours a day.

Campaigners want to ensure that all employees feel free not to engage in any work-related emails and messages, outside of working hours. Instead of managers simply not expecting a response, this type of legislation is designed to actively discourage employees from looking at or responding outside of working hours.

Ireland have recently introduced the right to disconnect, and its code not only removes the need for an immediate response but also protects employees from any detriment if they are uncontactable outside of working hours.

Many employees with caring responsibilities however, like the flexibility of being able to catch up on emails outside their working hours. Therefore, even if the right to disconnect was introduced, employers will still need to consider how to protect staff who continue to access and respond to emails or messages out of working hours.

Employers have a statutory duty to care for their staff under the Health and Safety Act at Work Act 1974 and in essence, this requires employers to ensure there is a safe place to work, including at home. While it is evident that regular contact during working hours can assist with avoiding loneliness for remote or lone workers, getting the balance right is crucial to

avoid a culture of ‘digital presenteeism’ and minimise stress and anxiety.

Some companies are already taking steps to allow employees to in effect, disconnect.

For example, some employers have blocked email access in the evenings, others allow employees to state working hours on email footers and make known that is when they are available to answer emails. Adding footers and pop-up messages to remind employees there is no need to respond to emails outside of hours is another approach being taken.

There are other practical steps an employer can take to avoid employees feeling bullied and harassed from messaging. Having Mental Health First Aiders who are trained to spot the symptoms of mental health issues and offer initial help and support for staff is a proactive step to support the mental wellbeing of employees. Employers could also consider recording the hours employees are working outside working hours, to ensure they are complying with the Working Time Regulations and to monitor time spent working outside of working hours to ensure staff are not working excessive hours. It’s also important to encourage all employees to take their annual leave and encourage them to use this time to have a break from work emails and messages.

GET IN TOUCH Our team of Employment Law Solicitors and HR Consultants is on hand to guide you through and help you manage your team during these challenging times.

Get in touch if you need any assistance: Pam.loch@lochassociates.co.uk

Pam Loch, Employment Law Solicitor and Managing Director of Loch Associates Group

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BUSINESS

HOW CAN LoCASE HELP YOUR BUSINESS? FUNDING FOR GREEN BUSINESSES With COP26 over, and the Government setting legally-binding net zero commitments, time is running out to curb climate change, so a green business focus has never been higher up the agenda.

Increasingly consumers and investors are expecting businesses to show their green credentials, with regulations – such as the 2030 ban on petrol and diesel cars, on natural gas boiler installations from 2025 and tighter packaging regulations – coming in to enforce it.

The Low Carbon Across the South and East (LoCASE) programme is designed to help businesses across Kent, Greater Essex, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and the Solent area make the transition to a low carbon economy. The programme helps green SMEs grow and improve their resource efficiency through funding and business support.

FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SECTOR BUSINESSES If you help your customers reduce their impact on the environment or you serve an environmentally-focused industry, then you can apply for a LoCASE Business Growth and Innovation Grant of up to £10,000.

These grants can be used for a range of business development projects, including equipment and machinery,

product development, marketing, IT, consultancy, certification and accreditation or resource efficiency.

Businesses that have taken advantage of a LoCASE Business Growth and Innovation Grant include those supplying or manufacturing renewable energy, energy storage and energy efficiency products, green architects, landscapers and builders, recycling and re-use businesses, environmental advisors and consultants, and many more in this growing sector.

FOR OTHER TYPES OF BUSINESSES If you’re in an industry that isn’t typically considered a “green” industry, don’t fear. You can still apply for a LoCASE Energy/Resource Efficiency grant of up to £10,000. These grants are designed for projects that help you reduce your carbon footprint and operating costs. They can cover items such as LED lighting, insulation, heating or machinery upgrades, or renewable

energy systems. Similarly, projects reducing waste materials or water can also be covered. Note that grant requests over £5,000 will need to deliver more significant impacts than lower value projects.

Both types of grant cover 40% of the project’s expenditure. For example, if your energy efficiency project totals £10,000, the grant will cover £4,000 of your costs – so you end up only paying £6,000 once funds are claimed back.

GET INVOLVED LoCASE is delivered across the Local Enterprise Partnership areas of EM3, C2C, SOLENT and SELEP. It also runs Steps To Environmental Management workshops, a series of fully-funded accreditations designed to benchmark and set sustainability targets for the SME supply chains. LoCASE is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.

To find out more, visit the website at www.LoCASE.co.uk

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BUSINESS

Strengthen your business’s cyber security with FREE membership at The Cyber Resilience Centre for the South East The Cyber Resilience Centre for the South East (SECRC) is a police-led and not-for-profit partnership between academia and policing. The SECRC is one of nine Cyber Resilience Centre’s that have been set up as part of a network across the country to support businesses Our mission is simple, we exist to help businesses of all sizes (although we do have a focus on SMEs, micro businesses, and sole traders) to better protect themselves in the fight against cybercrime.

When it comes to cyber criminals, there’s nothing small about small businesses. If you’re open for business online, you could be open to cyberattacks.

Cybercrime is a growing problem. Last year, it was reported up to 88% of UK companies suffered data breaches over the previous 12 months. Indeed, according to one study, one small business in the UK is successfully hacked every 19 seconds.

The average cost of a cyber security breach in the UK is £1,010. However, this figure becomes greater as the size of a business increases. The cost of

a cyber-attack is not only financial, with the average time large businesses spend on managing the impact amounting to 3.4 days, according to statista.com.

The SECRC exists to help you reduce your business’s cyber-related risk and to increase your cyber resilience. We do this by developing your knowledge in key areas so that you can implement basic methods of cyber hygiene.

If you left your windows and doors open at night, your risk of burglary is signifi cantly increased. The impact of leaving your website unprotected or not doing regular software updates has the same level of risk, as they are your digital entry points as opposed to physical.

To help you to guard your business from cyber-attacks in the way you would protect your premises against fire and flood, we offer a free membership package. This is not a membership package that puts heavy demand on you, instead it gives you access to regular simple, easy-to-follow guidance, tools, and resources as well as the

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BUSINESS

To become a member of the SECRC, all you need to do is sign up for free via our website and provide us with a few basic details, such as your contact details and your company name, size and the sector your business falls within. From there, you will automatically receive our welcome pack which provides you with key resources and the latest guidance available on ways to make your business more secure.

We will leave you to read and digest this pack before dropping you a short note from our Membership and Services Advisor a few days later to see if you have any particular questions or areas of concern and if you would like, we’ll also help to arrange your free 1:1 cyber risk conversation.

❛❛ Cybercrime is a growing problem. Last year, it was reported up to 88% of UK companies suffered data breaches over the previous 12 months ❜❜ opportunity to have a jargon-free 1:1 conversation to help you understand your current business cyber-related risks.

The SECRC is regionally based. What we mean by that is we fall under the policing umbrella of the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU). The Unit comprises of police officers and staff drawn from police forces across the country and works in partnership with the Hampshire Constabulary, Surrey Police, Sussex Police, Thames Valley Police, UK Border Force, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the National Crime Agency

(NCA) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to combat cross-border organised crime which includes cybercrime.

As part of your membership, every month you’ll receive our centre newsletter which will give you details on the latest cyber breaches, giving simple steps to follow should they be likely to impact you. It will also include our upcoming events and webinars providing opportunities for you to learn more.

Falling under this umbrella means we support businesses, charities and third sector organisations in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Surrey, East and West Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. This doesn’t mean that if you’re in another area within the UK you won’t be supported, as there is a network of Cyber Resilience Centres in existence ready and waiting to help you.

You can discover those here.

Like any membership, there is always the opportunity to enhance your package in a way that suits you. If you did want to learn more about further ways we can support you, whether that be a discussion around providing direct services, from cyber training to system and policy checks, or to see whether you may have left any cyber doors open for cyber-criminals, we can do this too.

We are here when you’re ready, but in the meantime, you can see what we’re up to by following our social media channels or learning more about us on our website www.secrc.co.uk If you are ready to join us, that’s great! You can do so by visiting www.secrc.co.uk/ core-membership-sign-up.

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ECONOMY

› COM M E N T STUART JOHNSTONE

Managing Director, London & South East, Corporate & Commercial Banking

SOUTH E AST BUSINES S ACTIVIT Y INDE X

sa, >50=growth since previous month 70 60 50

“Amid the re-introduction of some pandemic restrictions following a new wave of Covid-19 cases, businesses in the South East recorded a moderation in activity growth. Nevertheless, firms continued to add to their staffing levels at sharp rates.

There were also signs that softer inflows of new work encouraged businesses to divert attention to backlogs which rose at the softest rate in the current sequence of accumulation.

“But, as has been the case over the last year or so, intense cost pressures were prominent. Despite easing, rates of inflation were among the steepest in the series history with higher prices for wages, raw materials, transportation and energy often among those mentioned as driving up costs.

“That said, despite news of the Omicron variant, firms remain hopeful that pandemic restrictions will retreat over the course of 2022, and also reported efforts to facilitate growth through new product launches, machinery upgrades and business expansions.”

40 30 20 10 2001

2003

2005

2007

2009

2011

2013

2015

2017

2019

2021

Sources: Natwest, IHS Markit

NATWEST'S MARKET ANALYSIS DEMAND AND OUTLOOK MARKED SLOWDOWN IN NEW ORDER GROWTH

NEW BUSINESS INDE X

sa, >50=growth since previous month

52.9 Dec 2021

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Sources: Natwest, IHS Markit

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Private sector firms in the South East reported another increase in new business during December.

However, the rate of growth was modest compared to the long-run series average and much slower than that seen during November. Anecdotal evidence suggested that while some companies faced greater client demand, others saw sales fall due to news of the Omicron variant and the associated restrictions.

Sector data revealed that service providers noted a stronger expansion in new orders than manufacturers.

ECONOMY SENTIMENT IMPROVES TO JOINT-FOUR MONTH HIGH

FUTURE ACTIVIT Y INDE X

Optimism towards the 12-month outlook for output improved to a joint-four month high during the final month of the year. In fact, the degree of positivity was among the strongest in the series history fuelled by expectations that the pandemic will retreat, the planned launch of new products, and hopes that international travel will resume.

>50=growth expected over next 12 months

Only Yorkshire & Humber recorded a stronger level of optimism than the South East.

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80.4 Dec 2021

90 80 70 60 50

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Sources: Natwest, IHS Markit

❛❛ Private sector firms in the

South East reported another increase in new business during December ❜❜

EXPORTS EXPORT CONDITIONS IMPROVE SOLIDLY

The South East Export Climate Index is calculated by weighting together national PMI output data according to their importance to the manufacturing exports of the South East.

This produces an indicator for the economic health of the region’s export markets.

At 54.3 in December, down from 55.3 in November, the Export Climate Index signalled an 18th successive monthly improvement in export conditions faced by South East businesses.

Growth in the region’s top export markets was predominantly driven by robust output expansions in the US and Ireland.

Meanwhile, France saw activity growth slow. Germany was the only one of the top five export destinations to not record growth, with output levels broadly stagnating.

E X P O R T C L I M AT E I N D E X

sa, >50=growth since previous month

54.3 Dec 2021

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 07

08 09

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

Sources: Natwest, IHS Markit

PRICES

INPUT PRICES INDE X

sa, >50=inflation since previous month

79.5 Dec 2021

90 80 70 60 50

INPUT PRICES RISE SUBSTANTIALLY IN DECEMBER

Cost burdens faced by businesses in the South East continued to rise substantially in December. The rate of input price inflation moderated from November’s series high but was the third-steepest in the series history. Anecdotal evidence indicated that the increase was predominantly driven by higher raw material prices and rising wage costs. Sector data indicated that manufacturers registered a much steeper rate of input price inflation than service providers.

40 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Sources: Natwest, IHS Markit

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FINANCE

Jack Clipsham, Corporate Finance Partner, Kreston Reeves

SHOULD WE ACQUIRE KEY PARTS OF OUR SUPPLY CHAIN? As we enter a third year with the Covid pandemic continuing to dominate many aspects of corporate life, businesses with complex supply chains are looking to increasingly novel ways to ease delays and future pressures.

tion: suppliers are in your control providing greater security, there is a potential strategic advantage over competitors who may rely on the same suppliers, and there are welcomed additional revenue streams.

One of those measures is to create greater certainty by taking control of key elements of a supply chain through targeted acquisitions, says Jack Clipsham.

But, as with all corporate acquisitions it is not a decision to take lightly. It is a potential costly and time-consuming step to solve what is a relatively shortterm problem, and complex supply chains may not be entirely eased via one acquisition.

In November 2021 a survey of business leaders conducted by Kreston Reeves, ‘Shaping Your Future’, found that 52% of businesses are experiencing delays in their supply chains of up to six months. Over a third (34%) told us they are actively looking to acquire key parts of their supply chain to reduce those delays.

Our research is supported by a signifi cantly increased deal flow in the last six months of 2021 with businesses looking to acquire a wide range of businesses in their supply chains, from specialist manufacturers through to staff recruitment agencies to ease key worker shortages such as HGV drivers.

It is at first glance an attractive proposi-

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Let us assume that a business has identified the supplier it wishes to acquire and they agre e to sell.

Business leaders will often under-estimate the time and effort needed to purchase and integrate a new business. They will need to be sure that the business can be acquired in a timely way to resolve the supply chain challenges before they might naturally resolve themselves, and they have the time to dedicate to integrating the new business without taking their eyes off the ball.

Next, look to whether there is the expertise inside the organisation to integrate

and manage the new business. A manufacturing business, for example, may not have the expertise to successfully run a staffing agency business. If the senior management team in the target

One of those ❛❛ measures is to create

greater certainty by taking control of key elements of a supply chain through targeted acquisitions ❜❜

FINANCE business choose to use a sale to retire or exit the business, the acquiring business may face a significant skills gap.

And there is the question of competitors. Will your competitors want to do business with a competitor? Will they see the new owners as a threat to their own business and move their business elsewhere? If they do, the value of the business being acquired may fall, leaving you potentially over-paying for the business. Any loss in revenue may not matter if that business is being acquired solely to provide certainty in supply chains.

Business leaders should also consider their long-term strategy and the impact a tactical acquisition might have.

Businesses with a ‘build-and-sell’

strategy will need to consider what future acquirers might make of such an acquisition. Will they, for example, see it as an outlier to the main business of little value or benefit? Will it hold back future investors who might struggle to see how it sits with the overall strategy and direction?

Funding acquisitions is unlikely to be a significant challenge if a business can demonstrate a strategic fit that contributes to the long-term aims of a business.

Private equity, family office investors and debt lenders have money to invest, but the rules of the game have not changed.

Businesses looking to acquire businesses in their supply chains would do well to first speak to an accountant or M&A adviser. They will challenge business leaders helping them clarify strategy, acquisition criteria, potential targets, approaches and deal structure to get an acquisition over the line.

Jack Clipsham is Corporate Finance Partner at Kreston Reeves and can be reached by email at jack.clipsham@krestonreeves.com.

Visit www.krestonreeves.com/shapingyourfuture or call us on 0330 124 1399.

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‘Face Media Group’

EVENTS

After a two-year break, Brighton Chamber is delighted to be bringing Brighton Summit back on April 29th, for our eighth Summit – Unite

Brighton Summit is back, with an exciting speaker announcement…

It’s been a tumultuous few years for businesses in Brighton and beyond.

But, teaming up and collaborating with each other epitomises everything that the Brighton business community is about.

In 2018, the Summit explored new ways of working and challenged you to Look up. In 2019, we dared you to Crack on, step up and just get on with it.

When Covid happened, we adapted, filling the gap with a virtual Base Camp Bananas and Base Camp En Route. Now we’re back in person, we’re looking at how we can Unite. How we can motivate, be inspired, talk and listen – and link together to improve everything really – our businesses, our lives and those of others.

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WHO’S THE SUMMIT FOR? Brighton Summit is a day for everyone in and around Brighton who wants to evolve and grow their business. Whether you’re a big business CEO, a not-forprofit, an entrepreneur or an employee, the Summit is for you.

AND, WE’RE BRINGING YOU THE SUMMIT FROM A NEW VENUE Brighton Summit: Unite is at a new venue this year, the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts at the University of Sussex. Escape the hustle and bustle of the city centre on campus, and focus on getting the most out of the day at an amazing venue.

WHAT TO EXPECT As always, the Summit will offer unrivalled oppor tunities to connect, communicate and combine with likeminded businesses.

With over 300 businesses and entrepreneurs from across our city’s diverse business community, there’s plenty of time built in for networking at every turn.

We’ve also got a line-up of inspiring speakers, expert-led workshops and energising discussions (plus plenty of snacks, food and caffeine to keep you energised!) throughout the day.

❛❛ Brighton Summit is a day for everyone in and around Brighton who wants to evolve and grow their business ❜❜

EVENTS

BRIGHTON SUMMIT:

UNITE IS ON APRIL 29TH, HOSTED BY BRIGHTON CHAMBER We’ll be announcing more keynote speakers, workshops and sessions over the next few weeks.

To find out more about Brighton Summit: Unite, and get a ticket, head over to brightonsummit.com

SPEAKING OF WHICH WE HAVE ANNOUNCED OUR FIRST KEYNOTE SPEAKER AS… BARONESS FLOELLA BENJAMIN: NO HALF MEASURES You’d be hard-pressed to think of anyone who embodies the word ‘Unite’ more than Baroness Floella Benjamin.

She’s a dame, author, actress, politician, campaigner, and former Playschool presenter, on a mission to make a better world. Arriving in the UK from Trinidad in 1960, she found Britain bleak and unwelcoming. At 16, her parents couldn’t afford to keep her on for A Levels, so she had to leave school and get a bank job. She dreamed of becoming Britain’s first black female

bank manager – but 50 years on that’s about the only thing she hasn’t achieved.

Floella has been a member of the House of Lords since 2010, speaking out about diversity, equality and women’s issues, advocating for the wellbeing, care and education of children across the globe. And, this year she’s also celebrating 51 years in the entertainment industry.

At Brighton Summit: Unite, Floella will share her story of coming to Britain as a schoolgirl, the huge culture shock she experienced, and how her resilience, humour, social conscience, and Playschool, have helped her to become one of the most influential women in the UK.

With thanks to our headline sponsor Cardens Accountants, our sustainability sponsor Paper Round, and to our event sponsors: A-plan Insurance, EMW Law, EQ Investors, Ingenio Technologies, Psydro and University of Sussex.

With thanks also to The Sentence Works for copy, illustration by Sandra Staufer, graphic design by Visual Function, website my Madison and print by Lollipop and to Platinum Media Group as our media sponsor.

PLATINUM

M E D I A G RO U P

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BUSINESS

THE BLAIR AFFAIR

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BIG STORY

By Alan Wares “Things can only get better!” belted out the D:Ream hit, on auto-repeat across the South Bank in the early hours of May 2nd 1997. (NB: if you’re going to have a party - and a big one at that - at least bring along a second record.) The Prime Minister-elect Tony Blair, had just secured an astonishing landslide General Election victory for Labour, and addressed the crowd promising that “we were elected as New Labour, and will govern as New Labour”.

These were uncharted waters, especially as ‘New Labour’ was a phrase - totally unofficial - attached to a hitherto socialist party that had no real intention of governing as a socialist party.

That a highly charismatic Blair was expected, in the run up, to win the General Election was a safe and secure bet, though the size of this victory raised many eyebrows across the political spectrum. As incumbent Conservative Cabinet Minister after Cabinet Minister was blown away by the Labour or Liberal Democrat opposition, mostly as a result of the sleaze and corruption Platinum wrote about in issue 92, Labour’s majority of 179 was the largest the party had ever seen.

For the next 10 years, Tony Blair held sway over the twists and turns of the United Kingdom, domestically, and its relationships with Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and the rise of the Islamic jihadis. But he will mostly be known as a Prime Minister who ignored advice, evidence and plain common sense for so long to take the UK into an unnecessar y, unwarranted and, ultimately, illegal war with Iraq.

Now, 25 years after his election victory, and nearly 15 years since leaving office, Tony Blair has been offered a knighthood. At the time of writing, 1,133,335 people have signed the petition to have this honour removed. So the question that now remains is - does Tony Blair deserve his knighthood?

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BIG STORY

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born in Edinburgh on May 6th 1953. After attending the independent Fettes College in his home city, he studied at Oxford and eventually qualified as a barrister. At the age of 30, he was elected into Parliament at the 1983 General Election for the constituency of Sedgefield in Northumberland, having been soundly beaten the year before in a by - ele ction in B eaconsf ield in Buckinghamshire.

From his first dabbling’s in local politics in east London in the mid-1970s through to his time as being made Leader of the Opposition in 1994, it’s not unreasonable to say Blair shifted his personal political beliefs along with those of the hierarchy of the Labour Party. He would say in the early 1980s, while Labour was led by traditional socialist Michael Foot, that he was ‘a socialist; man of the Left’, before venturing, under Neil Kinnock’s leadership, that he was ‘very much of the centre left’.

During his rise through the Parliamentary ranks in through the 1980s and 90s, he would be noted as a reformer. He was disappointed in Labour only focusing on a narrow part of society which he felt was a shrinking one anyway - that of the working-class voter who was a trade unionist in subsidised council housing.

Rather than stick with those hard-core

suppor ters alone, Blair took the approach of reaching out to those same people but who had been encouraged to aspire by Margaret Thatcher, to buy their own council homes, to own a car - the new middle-class - which both parties had hitherto been ignoring.

In 1992, when Neil Kinnock resigned his post as leader of the Labour Party following the Conservatives’ fourth election victory in a row (albeit one which they were not expected to win), reformer and strong frontbencher John Smith was elected the new leader. He immediately brought in Tony Blair to his shadow cabinet. Realising that Labour’s

Blair’s behaviour ❛❛ cost him three senior

Cabinet members who resigned in disgust ❜❜

narrative was being dictated to by the Tories and the press (‘Labour are the party of higher taxes, higher interest rates’ etc., notwithstanding Margaret Thatcher had overseen those problems and worse during her first term of leadership), they set about updating - if not the party - then at least the party’s image.

When, in 1994, John Smith – probably the UK’s next Prime Minister, given both parties’ direction of travel in the polls died in office of a heart attack, Tony Blair was seen by Labour members as the safest pair of hands to lead, and carry on Smith’s agenda.

Every opinion poll since late 1992 had put Labour ahead of the Tories, with the lead being a variety of chasm widths.

The 1997 General Election result was never really in doubt, though Blair himself refused to admit this until he saw the result for the constituency of Hove come in. It wasn’t until 3.45am on May 2nd that Blair finally acknowledged “I think we’ve won.”

Domestically, the ‘New Labour’ project sought to reverse many strands of 18 years of Conservatism; a Conservatism that had lost ‘Middle England’. In the first Parliament, they sought closer co-operation, and therefore clarity, with the EU (something Labour had been split on in the 1970s); shorter NHS queues, introduction of SureStart, the minimum wage, a vote on devolution to name a few domestic policies that helped him secure another landslide in the 2001 General Election.

In his second Parliament, he (finally) rescinded Section 28 from the Local

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BIG STORY was basically little threat to the West.

But Bush didn’t want to be seen to go it alone. He wanted the coalition his father had secured for the original invasion of Iraq 12 years earlier. He didn’t get it.

But he still managed to persuade Tony Blair to ride gung-ho into the Middle East with him. Despite so little evidence of Iraq’s WMD programme, its threat to the West, its capability to cause havoc, onwards into the dark pitches of war Bush and Blair sauntered.

Tony Blair is being offered the most senior ❛❛ knighthood available in the UK honours system The Most Noble Order of the Garter ❜❜ Government Act 1988; an Act which had sought to criminalise education of homosexuality, and the introduction of the ban of hunting with dogs.

However, despite a fair amount of domestic gains - and a few defeats and reversals - there is one albatross that Blair may never shake off.

Following George W Bush’s presidential election victory in 2000, US government policy sought to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, at whatever the cost. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, Bush sought to punish Hussein, blaming him for the attack. He formulated a notion of a ‘War on Terror’; a meaningless phrase, and proving ultimately unwinnable.

UN weapons inspectors. So, Bush pressed ahead. He managed to persuade the American public, not generally noted for its knowledge of international affairs, and US Congress, that Saddam Hussein’s regime posed a threat to the West.

Operation Desert Storm, which took place across Iraq in 1991 to push Hussein back from his unilateral invasion of Kuwait, had largely cleared away any notion of that nation having a military of any note. The United Nations policy of containment, enthusiastically supported by the Security Council members (including the US and the UK), was working and still in place. Hussein

An unprecedented one million people marched through London ahead of the 2003 invasion, with an estimated 36 million people worldwide, protesting at the lack of evidence the UK government was providing its citizens and UK Parliament as justification for going to war. They felt then, as they still feel now; that this was an illegal war. Blair’s behaviour cost him three senior Cabinet members who resigned in disgust, including the highly-respected Robin Cook.

In the end, Blair won his argument in Parliament, but only after he had presented false accounts (the so-called ‘Dodgy Dossier’ - a briefing of such scant intelligence as to render it wor thless), thin advice from US attorneys who had declared any potential invasion as ‘legal’ despite offering little evidence, and by sheer force of personality.

Despite clear international evidence, including historical precedent, three decades of trade with the West, and reports submitted to Bush himself, it was found that there were no links between the Iraqi regime and Al-Qaeda.

It was ludicrous to link them in the first place given that Hussein had run Iraq on largely secular lines since 1979, and had no time for any religious extremism.

But Bush wanted his war. He would use the lack of evidence of not being able to find weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) as a reason for saying Iraq had WMDs. His case was enhanced when Iraq refused further co-operation with

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BIG STORY

The legacy of that invasion is still being felt today, nearly two decades afterwards. Estimates of between 150,000 and 1.1m non-combat Iraqi people (i.e. civilians) died as a result of the initial invasion - plus tens of thousands of military personnel, and the insurgency over the next eight years that the lack of planning by the US and the UK had encouraged.

It gave succour to Islamic extremist groups - many of whom had been at the bitter end of Saddam Hussein’s massacres with them - to rise up and inflict their retribution on the population, and onto unwelcome international forces.

The 2016 Chilcot Report, an inquiry into the UK’s decision to go to war, eventually concluded that not every alternative had been examined, that the UK and US had undermined the United Nations Security Council in the process of declaring war, that the process of identification for a legal basis of war was “ far from satisfactory”, and that, taken together, the war was unnecessary.

And no WMDs were ever found.

And that’s to say nothing of the efforts the UK ended up putting in to seek out the Islamic extremists training, fighting and hiding across Afghanistan, and the rest of southern Asia. Afghanistan, a country the British tried to control in the 19th Century; where the Soviet Union, invited in by a tame government tried to exert its authority; and where the US under Bush had a crack at its

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impenetrability. And all left with their tails between their legs.

So with hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of dead and injured, and a further destabilisation of the Middle East, and the rise of new Jihadis, does Tony Blair deserve his knighthood?

Tony Blair is being offered the most senior knighthood available in the UK honours system - The Most Noble Order of the Garter. Appointments are made at the sole discretion of the Monarch - as opposed to recommendations from the Cabinet - and is usually offered to those who have served at the highest levels of public life. There are never more than 24 Knights Garter, though Blair would become the 20th incumbent.

To look into one aspect of whether he should receive his knighthood, let’s look at the current day thinking of ‘why’. The petition on Change.org challenging Parliament to remove Blair’s honour is worded ‘Tony Blair caused irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation’s society. He was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts. For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes.’

Herein lies a petition in two parts. For his part, Angus Scott, who started the petition, doesn’t elaborate on the meaning of ‘irreparable damage to the constitution to the UK and the fabric of

BIG STORY

But what he also did was to arrogantly walk away from the carnage he helped create four years earlier, without a hint of regret, still justifying it with the line about Saddam Hussein’s apparent menace in the region.

society’. Both are abstract concepts which can held open to a wider - very wide - debate. One wonders if Angus has seen what the current incumbent is doing to the constitution of the UK? However, it’s the second part, and specifically Blair’s approval to send British troops into Iraq and Afghanistan that has touched on the nation’s ire for so long. For many, he is an unconvicted war criminal. For those who wish to have this honour rescinded on behalf of all those who lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq, this petition is aimed at Parliament for it to debate.

Unfortunately for the petition signatories, Parliament has no say in this appointment.

Additionally, Blair has moved into that raref ied strata of international statesman; a world diplomat; part of a global ‘Elite’; an untouchable. And for that reason, those who wish to see him on trial at The Hague will probably never get their day in court.

has one, and he’s partially responsible for Boris Johnson’s behaviour now.

Blair left national and international party politics in 2007, when he resigned as Leader of the Labour Party (and hence as Prime Minister) ahead of Gordon Brown’s coronation. Since then, he has taken up many international diplomatic roles, including - incredibly enough - as a peace envoy to the Middle East. No, really.

Those who wish to ❛❛ see him on trial at The Hague will probably never get their day in court ❜❜

For the fact that Blair led his country, including 10 years as a leader with a strong track record domestically and, until 2003, internationally, a very strong case is made for his knighthood. Many on the Conservative side of the House have commented or even praised his role as a statesman and politician during his time as Prime Minister. He is respected, at least in that regard.

Additionally, Sir John Major is also within the elite group of 24 making up the Knights Garter; he was Prime Minister for seven years, and look at the ongoing corruption he had to deal with.

Conversely, for the utter disdain and contempt with which Blair treated his own par ty, his own people, the international community and, most concerning of all, the innocent people of Iraq and Afghanistan, a question of a knighthood ought to – in times more enlightened than ours – be considered a farce.

Sod it - let him have his knighthood. The debates into his worthiness will be meaningless, and HM The Queen will bestow it upon him anyway and we, the general public, have no say in the matter.

There is one additional consideration as to whether Tony Blair deserves to put ‘Sir’ at the front of his name. The UK Honours system itself has, probably since it started, long had a reputation as a system of rewarding mediocrity or worse, cronyism and nepotism. Many public figures - political and apolitical, Left and Right, male and female - have refused an Honour from their country on the back of what they feel is a outdated system. So what value a knighthood now? Even Lynton Crosby

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LEGAL

By Nick Williams and Mark Diamond of DMH Stallard LLP

FINANCING BUSINESS ACQUISITIONS

How ambitious regional businesses can fast track their expansion One of the striking features of the period since the Covid pandemic took hold is that M&A activity involving regional businesses has remained strong in the South East. Many businesses have managed to adapt to the changing business environment and 2022 sees them continuing to look for opportunities to make business acquisitions.

1

WHY BUY A BUSINESS? Acquiring another business can provide immediate access to a market or build a market presence. The acquisition may result in economies of scale for the combined business, and in certain cases an acquisition can be a means of eliminating competition.

An acquisition strategy enables a business to grow more quickly than it might do organically.

2

HOW WILL THE ACQUISITION BE PAID FOR? Some buyers are in the happy position of having sufficient cash to fund a business acquisition. This may be achieved by a single payment on completion of the acquisition, or by partly deferring part of the cash payment, the amount of which is often dependant on the future profitability of the acquired business (known as an earn out). In other circumstances, the seller or sellers may wish to have a continuing interest in the business sold, in which case they may accept payment by way of the issue of shares (equity) in a buyer company in part payment, or full payment in the case of a merger of the businesses.

If the buyer is a listed company, then a seller of a business is likely to be more willing to accept the buyer’s shares as payment, as they can be traded on a stock exchange.

Acquiring another business can provide immediate access to a market or build a market presence ❜❜

❛❛

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LEGAL

3

DEBT FUNDING Both listed and private companies may need or prefer to fund an acquisition by taking on debt. This can be attractive as it avoids the dilution of the equity in a buyer company and may be a relatively cheap way of raising money while interest rates are low.

There are many different types of borrowing available: Senior Debt: a well established and profitable business may be able to obtain a secured term loan, which would take priority over other unsecured or junior debt. Such a loan is likely to have a relatively short term (up to five years) and may have a fixed or variable interest rate.

Mezzanine Debt: specialist lenders will provide mezzanine debt, which is a loan that can be converted into shares in the borrowing buyer company in certain cases, including the buyer’s default.

There is a great deal of flexibility as to the way it can be structured.

❛❛ An acquisition strategy enables a business to grow more quickly than it might do organically ❜❜ Asset Based Lending (ABL): the assets of the target business as well as of the buyer can in certain cases be used as collateral for a loan, and these can include property, plant and machinery, other fixed assets, and inventory and receivables.

Bonds: these are debt instruments providing for repayment of the amount borrowed at a future date and the payment of interest on the amount borrowed. As these can be technically complex to issue, they are usually issued in tradeable form by large companies to raise signif icant amounts.

The above methods in various forms can be used to finance acquisitions by one business of another or management buy-outs or buy-ins, where the management acquire a company or its business from the owners by using third party funding, in some cases private equity funds which typically make an equity investment.

The use of third party debt can increase the complexity and timetable of an acquisition, and buyers must expect the lenders to require access to the due diligence carried out on the target business and to carry out their own due diligence on the buyer.

4

STRUCTURING THE ACQUISITION FINANCING It is important that the financing for the acquisition is carefully structured to align with the nature of the transaction, the buyer’s plans for the combined business and its ability to service the debt that is assumed going forward.

Although the costs of debt finance are often preferred to the dilution of equity resulting from offering shares in a buyer company as payment, a buyer’s ability to fund an acquisition through debt will depend on its ability to meet the interest payments and capital repayments without disrupting future cash flows, and also on the strength of its asset base. Taking on a large amount of debt is generally more appropriate for mature businesses which have steady cash flows and don’t have a need for significant future capital investment. Fast growing and capital intensive businesses, or businesses that operate in unstable markets, will more likely consider equity financing.

For more information or to speak to a ‘very people-oriented team that is easy to get along with.

They take a commercial approach, quickly finding solutions to any potential conflicts’.

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EVENTS

THE TIGER’S PEN POUNCES ON BRIGHTON UNIVERSITY On January 11th 2022, The Tiger’s Pen – part of the Sussex Business Show – hosted a unique event at the University of Brighton. Organised by Sonny Cutting, founder of the Sussex Business Show and Dr Adam Jones of Brighton University, the Tiger’s Pen was an opportunity for aspiring student entrepreneurs to present their own business ideas to an experienced panel of business owners.

As part of an exciting new partnership, business leaders were a collective hub of wisdom and wealth of experience, offering advice and a critical eye for the next generation of entrepreneurs.

The cast of this unique initiative were to be judges, listening to the pitches from Brighton University’s very own business students – who had to be prepared to face the Tiger’s roar.

The panel of judges (the ‘Tigers’) comprised Nick Poyner (Rubix VT), Paul Britton (Britton & Time), Flo Powell (Midnight Communications), Sam Thomas (County Business Clubs Sussex) and Steve Rackley (James Chase, Silicon Brighton).

On the day, the Tiger’s Pen was a hive of activity, buzzing with dynamic young minds who generated innovative and creative ideas. The experienced Tigers

gave in-depth feedback, hoping to both help the students achieve better grades in their degrees, but also apply to real life; inspiring students to make their concepts their reality.

Throughout the event, the Tigers heard pitches for the following business ideas: n An app described as the Uber for clubbers. Features on the app included live queue updates so people can arrive when wait times are shorter, contacts for night time safe spaces, reviews of clubs, DJ profiles and other features to improve safety when out on a night out. n An online store for sustainable underwear aimed at 16-40 year olds.

The site would be environmentally and body positive, using materials such as ethically-sourced bamboo.

The site would also raise funds for ‘Smalls for all’.

n An independent app for photographers. The app would be a hub for photographers to upload and sell photos. It would also be a space where businesses can commission local photographers, and act as an alternative to the major stock photo libraries. n A smart bedside table top aimed at 18-35 year olds and students. The stylish table top, which is portable, would be the ultimate in convenience, with built-in phone chargers, a light and Bluetooth speakers. n An app to keep children safe while online. The app would allow parents to monitor messages or posts being seen by children, as well as the websites they visit. Children are highly vulnerable to online groomers and predators. The app would help keep them safe and give parents peace of mind.

With such innovative ideas, the Tigers were thoroughly impressed by the quality of the pitches and applauded their concepts and ideas. On the day, there were two prestigious awards given to the ‘Best Concept’ and the ‘Best Pitch’. Though tough to choose from the array on offer, Night Saver (the personal safety app for clubbers) won the best concept for its small, yet absolutely underrated feature focus; whilst Safe Guard (the child’s safety app) won the best pitch with dynamic delivery and enthusiasm.

This event was one to build confidence, encourage boldness and highlight the value of thinking differently – skills an entrepreneur leans on for success. The next Tiger’s Pen takes place at the Sussex Business Show on May 5th, 2022. Try your hand at facing the Tigers – can you handle it?

Book in on the website to attend the event – www.sussexbizshow.com Thank you to Stephen Lawrence for the photographs.

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FINANCE

WHY RETIREMENT COULD COST LESS THAN YOU THINK If your pension has fallen in value, or your predicted income is less than you had hoped for, you might assume you can’t afford to retire.

But you could be pleasantly surprised to find you need substantially less than you thought to fund retirement. Outgoings may change more than anticipated and, with financial advice, there are plenty of tax-efficient allowances to make use of when building your income.

Here are some considerations for working out how much you will really need.

YOUR SPENDING COULD CHANGE As a starting point, review your current outgoings by checking bank statements, and consider which of these you will no longer be paying for when you stop working, and which may rise.

taking 25% from your pot as a tax-free lump sum. If you have any outstanding liabilities, such as a mortgage or other debts, this could be used to clear these and enable you to retire debt-free.

Mortgages and loans are often paid off by the time you reach retirement but, conversely, your energy bills and food costs could rise as you spend more time at home. Think about what your outgoings in retirement are likely to be, and how you might cut any unnecessary costs. There are plenty of online budgeting tools that can help.

However, beware of the money purchase annual allowance (MPAA) if you take an income from any of your personal pensions, beyond the tax-free cash. This reduces the amount you can still save tax efficiently into a pension to only £4,000 per tax year, instead of £40,000. If you are unsure about how to manage pension withdrawals, an adviser can help you decide.

YOU WILL HAVE ACCESS TO TAX-FREE CASH From age 55 (57 from April 2028) you can draw your retirement income as you wish from your pension – including

YOU WILL LIKELY PAY LESS TAX Bear in mind that if you are no longer working, you won’t be paying income tax or National Insurance. On a £60,000

salary, for example, this amounts to just over £11,400 in income tax, and £5,078.84 in National Insurance, per year1.

You might also stop contributing to your pension in retirement, although rules enable you to carry on doing so, and receive tax relief, until age 75.

YOU COULD MINIMISE TAX LIABILITIES Your income is taxed as usual in retirement, at your marginal rate, but with careful management and advice from an adviser you could minimise this.

You have plenty of tax-free allowances, including the £12,5 70 personal allowance, £2,000 dividend allowance, and £1,000 personal savings allowance (PSA) for basic-rate taxpayers – falling to £500 for higher-rate taxpayers. You might also benefit from your £12,300 capital gains tax (CGT) exemption on any profits you make when you sell assets. By planning how to maximise these allowances in retirement, you could potentially receive a higher retirement income than anticipated.

YOU CAN MAXIMISE INCOME SOURCES There are several potential income sources for retirement, including company and personal pensions, the state pension, ISAs, other investments, savings and assets.

By taking advice in the run up to retirement, you can work out how to turn your various assets into an income, using your tax allowances.

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FINANCE

YOU HAVE FLEXIBILITY You have many options and can do as you wish with your retirement pot since the introduction of pension freedoms in April 2015. You might want some core, guaranteed income for essentials such as gas, electricity and food costs.

Your essential income could be met in various ways: n A final salary (or defined benefit) pension from an old employer; n Your state pension;

The remainder of your income could come from the rest of your savings and investments. Ultimately, however, doing the sums to decide how much you need and how this can be produced may prove difficult.

Seeking financial advice can give you an idea of how much money you need to cover your essential outgoings, alongside maximising additional income from various assets to meet your personal retirement aspirations.

1

n P urchasing an annuity, which is a financial product that guarantees an income for life.

Paul Cannons E: paul.cannons@brewin.co.uk www.brewin.co.uk

Source: HMRC

The value of investments, and any income from them, can fall and you may get back less than you invested. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in the future.

Neither simulated nor actual past performance are reliable indicators of future performance.

Information is provided only as an example and is not a recommendation to pursue a particular strategy. Information contained in this document is believed to be reliable and accurate, but without further investigation cannot be warranted as to accuracy or completeness.

Brewin Dolphin Limited is a member of the London Stock Exchange, and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Financial Services Register reference number: 124444).

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BOOK REVIEW

CREDIT: ANNA MOFFAT

Brighton campaigner calls for end to silencing of views at work in 2022 as 40% of adults admit to self-censoring in the workplace in UK cancel culture poll

THE POWER OF DIFFERENCE

By Simon Fanshawe OBE A growing intolerance of different political and social views in the world outside of work is having an increasingly negative impact on how we behave in the workplace, according to Brighton diversity expert, Stonewall co-founder and former Sussex University Chair, Simon Fanshawe OBE. “All the big social arguments about race, gender, sex and sexual orientation have crashed into work and while the extremes are fighting each other, the vast majority of people in the middle don’t know what to do. No one knows if they can speak up – if they are offended or if they might offend someone, both sides,” Simon explained.

“This fear of speaking up on social issues matters because that inhibition creates an overall culture at work where

collaboration is damaged, businesses and organisations don’t find the best solutions, innovation is hindered and markets are missed. “ The irony is that the progressive thinking and actions that have supported diversity and inclusion at work have now become tools of conformity, with HR acting as the enforcer of particular rules and managers and staff walking on eggshells, frightened about being penalised for saying the ‘wrong’ thing. At its most extreme, people are being silenced or sacked. We have got a crisis of dialogue at work.”

Recent research on the views people are afraid to express provides insight into the extent of this silencing effect here in the UK. Four in ten (40%) of the Britons polled by YouGov at the end of

❛❛ I urge leaders to read it and act on its solutions ❜❜

Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE, President of the CBI

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2021 said they had stopped themselves from expressing political or social views for fear of judgement or negative responses from others at work. Topics people were reluctant to talk about included race relations and discrimination, sexuality, women’s and gay rights and transgender issues.

“I have had conversation after conversation with concerned and progressive CEOs and HR directors who sincerely want to break out of this cycle and guide their people towards being able to value and talk openly about their differences.

But too many staff feel lectured at rather than engaged,” said Simon.

Awarded an Honorary Doctorate for his work on diversity and human rights, Simon now works with businesses and organisations to encourage honest conversations about diversity and to redesign recruitment to achieve real change. He has been listed as one of the UK’s Most Influential Thinkers by HR Magazine and called ‘inclusion Royalty’

by The Sunday Times.

BOOK REVIEW A MANIFESTO FOR CHANGE Frustrated by the growing evidence of a crisis of dialogue in 2021, Simon set about writing a manifesto for change at his home in Brighton – a city that has recently seen a very public breakdown of dialogue at Sussex University and the resignation of one of its professors, Kathleen Stock, following protests about her views on gender identity.

“Not agreeing with someone cannot lead to excluding or bullying them and people having to lose or leave their jobs. That has to stop,” says Simon.

“If you want to be a feminist, use your preferred pronouns, subscribe to #BlackLivesMatter, that’s fine, but you can’t use the authority of an organisation to impose your view on people.

And then refuse to talk about it. That is highly damaging, not just to your organisation but more widely to society.”

“The change that is needed is not about getting other people to agree with everything you think or say. Agreement is not the point. True diversity and inclusion means hearing all voices and understanding all viewpoints. To collaborate at our best, we need to explore how we are different. And the people you should be talking to should always include the people you disagree with.”

Following encouragement from academic and industry peers, Simon’s manifesto is now a book – The Power of Difference: Where The Complexities of

❛❛ Above all, the book is an

argument for conversation rather than shouting, for finding common ground rather than demanding obedience to a single view ❜❜ Diversity and Inclusion Meet Practical Solutions – which has already received international praise from business leaders and advocates for workplaces where all voices are heard, including: President of the CBI, Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE; Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, Amy C Edmondson; New York University’s Professor Kenji Yoshino and senior figures in the NHS. Through personal stories and experiences of working with movements of social change and clients in business, education, healthcare and government, ‘The Power of Difference’ offers research and advice on many of the hot diversity topics that managers and employers across the UK are currently having to address, including: n H ow ‘Unconscious Bias’ is just an excuse when it comes to tackling race or sex discrimination. Not only does it stop us taking personal responsibility, training programmes to tackle it are almost entirely counterproductive.

nH ow ‘inclusion’ by its very definition is based on the reality of difference.

By trying to outlaw certain views we don’t engage each other and damage collaboration. n W hy we need the big categories of BAME, LGBT and other group labels to tackle discrimination. But we need to avoid treating everyone in those groups as if they are the same – e.g. if we don’t see race we are missing something but if we only see race we are missing something, too. n The problem with preferred pronouns – people wanting to use them is not the issue, but imposing their use on everyone is. It doesn’t include, it excludes.

Above all, the book is an argument for conversation rather than shouting, for finding common ground rather than demanding obedience to a single view, and for creating spaces in and outside of work that are safe for disagreement not from disagreement.

PLATINUM READER DISCOUNT

25% off the RRP £19.99 price of Simon’s new book ‘The Power of Difference’.

Visit www. koganpage.com/ power-of-difference and enter the code DIFFERENCE25 at the checkout

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FINANCE

By Daniel Morgan, Managing Partner, Haines Watts Esher

What’s more important for businesses – growth or profitability?

A debate I often hear is ‘do you want to grow or do you want to be profitable?’.

However, it’s not always an either/or situation. Profitability and growth go hand in hand – you need that initial profit in order for your business to survive day to day and you also need growth to cement your long term prospects. The priority between the two will shift depending on where you are along your business journey and it’s important to understand which way you should be leaning at any one time.

STARTING OUT – CASH IS KING Profi t is key for that basic survival of a business, and for many owners it is that first goal that they set themselves when they start out on a new venture.

Most businesses who have failed have done so because they ran out of cash. Without profi t your business is reliant on external sources of investment whether that’s money from the bank or family and friends, eventually it will run out.

For many owners, having complete control of their own business is what appeals in the first place and having a business that is profitable allows you to keep that control over the direction of the business. Growing fast requires capital and the more you need to rely on external investment, the more likely it is you’ll have to dilute that ownership.

AIMING FOR GROWTH When you move beyond the startup phase many owners will shift their focus to growth opportunities. Growth of your business could happen in a variety of ways from tapping new markets, increasing capacity or launching new products. The ultimate aim of growth is to make your business more profitable.

Even if your current profitability is steady it is important to explore growth.

It allows you to protect your business’s future by increasing overall profitability and allowing your business to adapt to the changing demands of your customers. Businesses that stay exactly as they are now are not likely to remain relevant as time moves on and your competitors’ offerings expand and change.

HOW TO CREATE A GROWTH STRATEGY Having a good eye on your financials will be important when creating your growth strategy. It’s not just about the profit that your company is making, it’s also about cashflow. Do you have enough cash within the business to fund all of your commitments and will you still in six months’ time? You may have had a great year and ended with a profit but if sales have dried up and no cash is coming in then you’ll be in trouble very quickly.

When you begin to create your plan it is important to understand what you want to achieve, whether that’s increasing turnover or looking towards exit. Once you have decided your goal you can focus on the areas of business that need that investment. For example, if you are looking towards exit you may need to expand your management team to show potential buyers that the company can run without you.

Profit and growth are both key elements for a sustainable business. It can be a balancing act as you move through your business journey.

www.hwca.com/accountants-esher T: 020 8549 5137 E: esher@hwca.com

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Hybrid working and employer’s duties – the new normal?

The last two years have seen constant change in both the guidance to employers and the legally enforceable restrictions which have limited the attendance of employees at their usual place of work.

By Lee Hills So much so that it has made it difficult to plan more than a few months ahead for a return to work.

Although the recent lifting of restrictions will “hopefully” be the last, what will the future look like?

For many businesses, it is quite likely that hybrid working arrangements for employees will become the new normal.

Although many employers will have taken steps over the course of the pandemic to ensure the welfare and well-being of employees who have been working from

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home, as many of these arrangements are likely to become permanent, now is a good time for employers to be reminded of their duty to take reasonable care for the safety of their employees, whether working from home or not.

And of the statutory duties which are particularly relevant to a home working environment.

Employers are required by law to perform a suitable and sufficient analysis of their employees’ workstations – The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations and to assess health and safety risks.

LEGAL

The duty exists irrespective of who has provided the employee’s workstation but also, even where early assessments have been performed, to review such assessments if there is reason to believe they may no longer be valid or if there has been a significant change.

Where diligent employers have undertaken assessments over the course of the last two years, it may be advisable to review any existing assessments. Because of course, things do change and where they may be apparent in an office environment, changes may be less apparent from a distance!

Recognising that difficulties can exist for employers in carrying out assessments in the homes of their employees, guidance has been issued by the Health and Safety Executive to help both employers and employees to complete remote assessments.

Having completed an assessment, an employer remains under a duty to reduce identified risks to the lowest extent reasonably practicable.

Specific attention is paid to the most used items of office equipment including screens, keyboards, work surfaces and chairs. But also has regard to lighting, heat, humidity, and software.

Separating home from office during the pandemic has proved a challenge for many employees but where

Although the recent lifting ❛❛ of restrictions will “hopefully” be the last, what will the future look like? ❜❜

hybrid working is likely to become more common, it is important and part of an employer’s statutory duty to ensure that regular breaks from the use of display screen equipment are taken, particularly by employees who are more at risk of injury to health.

Adequate training in the use of any workstation and in respect of all aspects of health and safety relating to its use is required by employers, wherever that workstation is situated.

Breach of these statutory duties may well evidence a breach of the employer’s general duty of care towards its employees and apart from any potential harm, may lead to civil claims and calls upon an Employers Liability insurance policy.

Even where employers have undertaken assessments during the pandemic, as we hopefully move towards a period of stability, now would be an opportune moment to review these assessments and where assessments have not been performed, then to do so as part of any new working arrangements.

Lee Hills, Partner E: lhills@mayowynnebaxter.co.uk Tel: 01273 223232 www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk

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EDUCATION

By Amanda Jayne, STEM Leader, Hurst College

Why STEM should be at the root of education It’s exactly 20 years since Sir Gareth Roberts, a respected UK engineer, produced his report for the Chancellor on UK productivity and economic growth. In it he identified a significant shortage in the number of young people pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths – and ‘STEM’ subsequently became part of the educational lexicon.

Initiatives to promote STEM careers have been around ever since, so every time I introduce myself to someone as the ‘STEM Leader’ at Hurst College, the acronym no longer requires laboriously spelling out and explaining; or so you would think. If the European Union had meant that to achieve economic growth and a suitably prepared population, we all had to speak French and learn how to prepare its cuisine, one would expect to find these subjects promoted in all aspects of life.

Infant school children would be conjugating French verbs, and everyone would be adroit at producing a beurre blanc.

Enough flippancy, but it’s borne from a sense of frustration that despite the STEM initiative, economic data shows that all developed countries still have a massive shortfall of technologically trained people to meet predicted workforce demands well into the future.

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The UK is facing a well-documented engineering crisis, hundreds of thousands of skilled technicians and professional engineering roles need filling over the current decade and supply is not keeping up with demand.

What is even more worrisome is the realisation that we still aren’t rearing a population who will be fully prepared for the increasingly technological world they will live in. No matter what our career choice, we will all need suitable skills to be able to cope with the consequences; ever increasing mechanisation, digitisation and artificial intelligence.

A STEM focused education system is designed to address both these issues.

Through well-taught STEM subjects or undertaking a bolt-on school-based STEM activity, students can:

n Develop confidence in experimentation, and risk-taking. Creativity is also fostered. Without this mind-set, technological advancements and new innovations would not be possible. n Discover the power of technology and innovation, so learn to embrace them instead of being fearful. This gives them the upper-hand in the increasingly tech-centred global landscape. n Learn how to examine problems and then create a logical plan to solve them, and in so doing develop critical thinking skills. n Learn to work as part of a team to solve a problem, record data, write reports and make presentations.

The result is a student who better understands the importance of collaboration. n Learn skills that equip them both for life in the modern world and for when they enter the workforce. n Become more motivated to pursue a STEM-based career, which offers highly competitive salaries and rapid career progression opportunities.

So why, after 20 years of government intervention, do we still need to be promoting STEM, when an abundance of career opportunities in these sectors should be tempting enough and the need for a more tech-savvy lifestyle is staring us in the face?

EDUCATION choices. What we say to our ‘followers’ does get heard, and we can help steer the next generation towards making better informed subject and career choices. Pan-curricular teacher training is also required; we can all play a role in promoting awe and wonder in the pivotal roles that science and engineering play in our daily lives but need the skills and resources to best achieve this.

Science, technology and engineering based industries also need to be educated, and encouraged to be more actively forging formal links with local educational institutes, providing work experience, industry placements, tours, speakers, and STEM ambassadors.

Without doubt, the STEM machine itself needs a complete overhaul, streamlining its provision to reduce inefficiency, and promote clearer accessibility to the excellent initiatives it does offer.

Studies cite several key reasons with one of the main still being the poor perception of technical jobs that young people and those who influence them still hold. Careers guidance is also blamed for not putting sufficient emphasis on these subject areas. Additionally, there is still a lack of employer engagement with STEM initiatives. These sectors should be actively helping to promote themselves and drive recruitment.

Finally, there is also the problem of continued low attainment at STEM subjects in schools, further and higher education.

It seems to me that amidst all the STEM chaos, much of what is taking place in schools is insufficient and often has no significant effect on progression in STEM subject areas. Also, without a system of evaluation, who knows what is working best and why.

So, what’s the solution? From my own experience I can state with confidence that teachers are significant role models. We are all ‘influencers’ within the education system whose attitudes and passion for a subject can motivate and drive students to make career

And finally, that acronym needs to be rescued from being ‘the elephant in the room’ to something instantly acknowledged for its status as a respected enterprise designed to secure the economic security of our country and better equip us all for modern life.

For more information: www.hppc.co.uk

A bigger problem, as I see it, is that STEM promotion is everywhere and nowhere. There are now over 600 organisations that are in some way involved in supporting engineering education alone. In promoting STEM at Hurst, I have been involved with the Engineering Development Trust, the Big Bang Fair, CREST, Industrial Cadets and STEMnet. After 15 years I am more than a little frustrated that I cannot quite explain how they link together, what they do differently or why there is a need for so many bodies. It appears to have merely created confusion and led to what could be referred to as ‘STEM fatigue’. It is therefore no real surprise my STEM leader title elicits either the confused half raised eyebrow or nod of indifference.

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CherryBomb Aesthetics Case Study How does one go from being a trainee nurse working 12 hours a day, to founding a successful aesthetics business?

to sit back and enjoy time with her loved ones, making the most out of life. After experiencing burnout while working as an NHS nurse, Ellen decided to set up CherryBomb Aesthetics in 2019.

Ellen Metcalfe, founder of CherryBomb Aesthetics, tells us a story of her entrepreneurial adventure, and how she went from being a trainee nurse to being a 6-figure business owner.

Today, CherryBomb Aesthetics sees over 100 patients per week, and is turning over 6 figures. Ellen’s mother was able to leave her job to work as a patient and clinic coordinator at CherryBomb, while the business has also taken on a dental therapist who works 3 times a week and opened a clinic in the centre of Brighton.

Moving forward, Ellen looks to take on three more nurses in two more locations, while taking a course so she can train other medical professionals in Aesthetics. In the long run, she hopes to franchise the business and open a training academy.

CherryBomb Aesthetics is a Brighton-based, nurse-led aesthetic clinic that specialises in non-surgical treatments. The idea of CherryBomb Aesthetics was borne out of Ellen’s long-standing interest in Aesthetics – as Ellen tells us, she knew, early on in her degree in Nursing, that this was the specialisation that she wanted to pursue. Ellen’s journey started in 2014, when she moved to Brighton to train to be a nurse.

In a bid to put herself through her studies without racking up debt, she took up a side hustle at a strip club.

Remarkably, Ellen attributes this to the beginning of her entrepreneurial career, which would lead her to set up CherryBomb Aesthetics.

When asked about her motivations for starting a successful new business, Ellen says that she was driven by a desire for financial independence, after witnessing her mother struggling and being financially dependent on her partner. Having worked 12 unpaid hours a day as a trainee nurse, and then gone on to work till 5am at the club, another motivation for Ellen is the prospect of being able

As with any business venture, CherryBomb Aesthetics has faced challenges on its way. Ellen points out that the three lockdowns during the pandemic were difficult because she was unable to work. However, it was ironically during these lockdowns that the business gained the most traction on social media.

Not letting the time to go to waste, Ellen joined the NatWest Accelerator during the lockdown, and focused her attention on what needed to be done behind the scenes to build a successful business.

To entrepreneurs who are just starting out, Ellen’s advice would be to practice a good dose of selfbelief: starting a business can be daunting, but the experience itself

Social Media Website: www.cherrybombaesthetics.com Instagram: @cherrybombaesthetics_ Facebooks: CherryBomb Aesthetics

can be amazing. Says Ellen, seeing the positive impact her business has on her patients has been rewarding – but the most fulfilling aspect of running her business has been witnessing the joy this opportunity has brought to her injector, Christie.

So much so, that she has been inspired to pivot towards training other medical professionals in the field! After all, as Ellen puts it, “You don’t build a business, you build people and people build the business.”

Does your business need a helping hand?

During these unprecedented times, many businesses are struggling so we would like to help. We are offering free general guidance on: • Unpaid invoices & contract disputes • Commercial landlord & tenant issues • Professional Negligence • Commercial insurance claims

• Trading Standards & consumer complaints • Shareholder & Partnership disputes • Employment claims & settlement agreements • Franchise disputes

Call us on 01273 223290

or visit www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk/here-to-help

Offices across Sussex

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BUSINESS

THE SUSTAINABLE ARGUMENT FOR BUSINESS PRINTERS Printers and ink cartridges are the last bastion of environmental accountability That’s according to Tony Harrison, managing director of Surrey-based Printercare. In 2021, Printercare created a business model that eliminates waste to landfill and saves customers money. In so doing it became a fully sustainable printer supply business.

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THREE REASONS WHY Last year, UK customers spent £68 million on printers. Most of them will end up in landfill.

Every year, 65 million printer cartridges are bought in the UK. When empty, 85% of them go to landfill. The polymer they’re made of will take over 1,000 years to decompose.

Demand for paper drives 14% of all deforestation. That’s 4.1 million hectares of forest destroyed annually.

BUSINESS

Astonishing, printer ink is more expensive than gold, imported Russian caviar and pricier than a 1985 vintage Krug champagne per gallon ❜❜

❛❛

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY Printercare take printers destined for landfill and remanufactures them to as new standard. It then supplies them to customers for nothing more than a modest installation fee. This instantly saves the customer the cost of purchasing or leasing the machine.

From then on, the customer simply pays for what they print. And even this is lower than the cost offered by commercially available car tridges. Most cartridge sellers state the number of prints each product will yield, making the cost per print calculable from the price of the item. Printercare customers pay on average 50% of the typical ‘retail’ cost per print.

businesses, the IT team is the go-to resource for fault diagnosis. Printercare relieves this burden on in-house techies by providing all support. Again, all parts and consumables are pre-used where possible and recycled under WEEE regulations. A certification and audit trail of every asset is created with guaranteed 0% waste to landfill.

This can form a strategic part of a company’s CSR. Tony Harrison readily admits that his offering drives a horse and cart through the industry’s traditional business model. “Users know that printers are cheap to purchase, yet expensive to run”, he says. “The only way to cut running costs is to buy cheap compatibles. They’re invariably poor quality, single use cartridges, that cannot be recycled.

“Customers often say it’s cheaper to buy a new printer than to repair a broken one. On the other hand, they want to do their bit for climate change. Companies need to get on board with this so we will make it easy for them. – they just pay for what they print. It’s transparent, there’s no long-term contract and, when they no longer need the printer, we’ll collect it after a notice period and where possible, remanufacture it to as new standard ready for another customer.

This is, we believe, the first printer supply offering of the circular economy.”

Furthermore, through its globally certif i e d refo re s t ati o n p ro g r a m m e , Printercare offsets the environmental impact of each page printed and every KW/h consumed and all CO2 emitted by the device.

Printercare Ltd Terminal House, Station Approach Shepperton, TW17 8AS

The machines are also backed up by Printercare’s on -site warranty – included in the per print cost. At most

D: 020 3287 8511 M: 07834 084120 T: 020 3126 4878

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BUSINESS PROFILE

Simon Shinerock, Chairman of The Choices Group

PLENTY OF CHOICE The Choices Group is an award winning, multidisciplinary high-street agency based in London and the South East, covering all aspects of sales, lettings and management from its 14 highly-rated branches, as well as operating a nationwide service.

Founded in 1989 by Chairman Simon Shinerock, with whom innovation has become synonymous; the business’

primary area of focus in 2022 is to continue improving upon the success of the Advanced Rent Option (ARO™), which is the flagship of the company’s unique proprietary Primary Tenancy™ business model. ARO™ quite simply affords landlords the option of taking a year’s worth of guaranteed rent upfront, included within the service, at no extra cost.

❛❛ As well as being innovators, Choices has always taken property beyond a transaction ❜❜

OVERCOMING INITIAL HURDLES AND A MOMENT THAT SHAPED THE FUTURE With the start of the business having coincided with the worst housing market recession since the war, the initial six years were inevitably a fight for survival. In 1995 however, which marked the start of the buy-to-letboom, a pivotal moment took place in the form of a simple special offer, which not only opened a floodgate of landlord leads but resulted in spectacular growth across the following years.

THE BIRTH OF THE PRIMARY TENANCY ™ AND HOW IT LED TO ARO™ 2008 marked the beginning of the next crash, and competition was inevitably beginning to catch up. Once again, the founder’s entrepreneurial instincts came into force. What could Choices offer that other agencies couldn’t’?

Whilst his initial thoughts were forming in relation to offering a no-strings-attached rent guarantee (minus the need for complicated insurance), the idea then occurred to him, that if Choices were to become the tenant, then that kind of guarantee could be offered. This then led to the birth of The Primary Tenancy.

The Primary Tenancy™ turned out (and continues to be) a much better business model for everyone. Tenants get a professional landlord and a rent guarantee of their own, giving them up to a year’s rent free if they go off sick or have an accident. Landlords are relieved of their regulatory obligations (as well as maintaining anonymity) – and as an agency, if anything goes wrong; things can get sorted out more quickly and more efficiently.

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BUSINESS PROFILE Despite the clear advantages of the Primary Tenancy™ however - it was felt that more needed to be put in place in relation to strategic thinking around the model and its marketing potential.

Hence the birth of ARO™ (The Advanced Rent Option).

THE ADVANCED RENT OPTION (ARO™) “I remember talking to another agent about what we could offer landlords as a real incentive to choose us over other agents, when the idea of upfront rent came up. Interestingly, this other agent thought it was a great idea to offer upfront rent. But there was a big hurdle: An agent couldn’t pay out rent unless they were the tenant even if they had the cash to do it; a regular agent would have to start by changing their entire business model.

It suddenly struck me that the Primary Tenancy (which had taken years to develop and refine) would be perfect for this concept: a classic, simple, attractive idea that’s much harder to copy than it seems. But despite the perfect fit (and the simplicity of the proposition); it took over three years to get the formula right and come up with the most effective ways to get the message across and attract enquiries.”

Simon Shinerock EMBRACING THE NEED TO BE DIFFERENT As well as being innovators, Choices has always taken property beyond a transaction, understanding that moving home is inextricably connected to pivotal events in a person’s life. The goal of the group has always been to create a more inclusive, seamless experience and to provide clients, partners and employees with something both different to and better than the established competition.

❛❛ The Advanced Rent Option continues to attract huge levels of attention from agents and landlords alike ❜❜ The Group also operates Angels Media, publishers of the ‘Today’ range of wellknow industry magazines, as well operating the ValPal lead generation and nurturing network, which serves over 4000 offices and generates more valuations for agents than Rightmove or Zoopla. The ValPal network also offers selected estate agents a license to offer ARO™ as a means of building their businesses.

FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH The Advanced Rent Option continues to attract huge levels of attention from agents and landlords alike – and continues to go from strength to strength, as does the business. Choices believes that in order for true success to be achieved, there is a range of key factors that need to be in place, such as

listening to the needs of employees, ensuring everyone’s key strengths are used and acknowledged, formulating long-standing relationships with key stakeholders, continually leveraging the use of technology, honing the sales process, being adaptable, never becoming complacent, ensuring that positive and productive communication remains in place across departments, creating effective marketing campaigns – and ensuring that any errors, of any nature are simply taken as an opportunity to learn.

Having won the prestigious Allagents ‘Best Agent Award’ three years consecutively, Choices is also a member of the Property Ombudsman Scheme and Safeagent, the UK’s leading accreditation scheme for lettings and management agents. Choices also proudly ranks in the Zoopla Property Power 100 – and the Simply Business Property 100: the top influencers in the UK property world, letting and managing over 2500 properties on behalf of landlords and arrange millions of pounds of property sales every week and has long since chosen and trusted NatWest to deal with their range of financial requirements.

www.choices.co.uk

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INNOVATION

A new year is upon us, and Sussex Innovation is heading into 2022 with the launch of a series of new programmes to facilitate growing East Sussex businesses

MASTER INNOVATION IN YOUR BUSINESS THIS YEAR! With the support of East Sussex County Council and funding from the UK Community Renewal Fund, each have been purpose-built to respond to the needs of more than 700 local SMEs at different stages of their journey.

The are five different streams which will offer free resources and expert innovation consultancy to micro-businesses, start-ups and scale-ups from across the county: INNOVATION HIT SQUAD Find your next challenge, discover how to scale it An exclusive consultancy programme for five high-growth businesses. Over five days of intensive sessions alongside your teams, hand-picked innovation specialists will offer a comprehensive health check and highlight new opportunities for innovation and growth.

Address your biggest organisational challenges, incubate new ideas, and design, prototype and launch new products to help you scale.

An Innovation Hit Squad could be perfect for you if: n You are an established business with more than 50 employees, and want to explore ways to start doing things differently n You’re open to new perspectives and innovative ways of working, and have an appetite to develop new products and services n You’re looking for your roadmap to respond to external challenges including Brexit, the pandemic and Net Zero carbon.

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INNOVATION MASTERCLASS Uncover the insights to inspire your business The Innovation Masterclass is a series of facilitated peer group sessions designed to inspire SME owners who want to think bigger and create new opportunities for their business. You’ll be challenged with ideas to develop and implement new ways of working, and offered expert advice and mentoring to help you find the most effective route forward for your company.

Join the Innovation Masterclass if: n You are an established SME planning to develop a disruptive product or pivot to a new business model n You’re tired of doing the same thing as everyone else and want to find a way to differentiate n You want support from specialist mentors who’ll take the time to understand your industry and give you tailored advice.

My confidence as a business owner has increased ❛❛ as I realised week by week how far I have come and how much I actually know. The Sussex Innovation team have so much wisdom and valuable experience between them which also enhanced our sessions ❜❜ Antoinette Daniel, Founder and CEO, Just Helpers

INNOVATION

INVESTMENT BOOTCAMP Helping you secure your first raise, from plan to pitch The Investment Bootcamp is a series of facilitated peer group sessions designed to help start-up founders prepare for their first raise. You’ll be shown how to develop an investment-ready business plan and pitch, attend Q&A sessions with the investor community, and have the chance to be selected for a live pitching event for seed capital.

An extremely useful sounding board. I was able ❛❛ to network with other business leaders in a cross section of industries, at different stages in their ‘business life cycle’, but all experiencing similar challenges. The whole process was well facilitated, with good structure and a balanced approach to all participants ❜❜ Bob Emms, CEO, Bedlam Brewery PRODUCTIVITY MASTERCLASS A trusted partner to help you achieve more The Productivity Masterclass is a series of facilitated peer group sessions designed to help successful founders manage rapid periods of growth. You’ll be armed with strategies to develop and implement new ways of working, and leave equipped with leadership tools to cope with the stress and uncertainty of organisational change and handle the challenges that come with scaling up.

Join the Productivity Masterclass if: n You’ve recently received significant investment or grant funding to take on new staff and grow the business n You’re struggling with delegating responsibility and oversight after growing your business from start-up n You’re embedding new systems and processes, or undergoing digital transformation.

Sign up for the Investment Bootcamp if: n You need seed or angel investment to grow your business, but have never pitched in front of investors before n You’ve got a successful start-up led by talented people, and need help to communicate what makes it stand out n You want an impartial expert to review your materials, from business plan to pitch deck.

LEAN INNOVATION SERIES Everything you need to make your ideas happen The Lean Innovation Series offers a full course of digital training resources for busy innovators. Whether you’re a founder who’s just launched their star t-up, a budding entrepreneur wanting to test and develop a new idea, or simply want to build core innovation skills to apply within your company, it offers a simple first step - supplemented with practical exercises, an online peer collaboration forum with hundreds of other founders, and two hours of face-to-face mentoring with Sussex Innovation’s expert business advisors.

Try the Lean Innovation Series if: n You’re looking for an accessible toolkit to coach yourself in the fundamentals of innovation in your own time and at your own pace n You want to find a community of innovators to support each other with motivation and accountability.

Visit sussexinnovation.co.uk/ training-programmes for more information and to register your interest in any of these programmes.

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INFLUENCERS FORUM Welcome to the Influencer Forum. I’d like to introduce our panel today Andrew Griggs, Senior Partner Kreston Reeves, Nigel Lambe, CEO of the Sussex Innovation Centre.

John Yates, Partner of DMH Stallard. Scott Nursten, CEO of ITHQ, and Richard Spofforth, Psartner at Kreston Reeves, thank you very much for joining us.

We’re discussing the broad subject of shaping and aligning technology and human resources. Ensuring you have employees with the right skill sets to help run a business efficiently and effectively is a challenge. However, beyond profit reports and spreadsheets, a company is made up of its employees. So human resources remain one of the most important departments that should never be underestimated.

A good HR department bridges the communication gap between management and employees, provides insight into what employees need, and develop long term strategies to boost satisfaction and loyalty. With the help of technology, it can achieve much more in considerably less time.

The pandemic has created fundamental changes in how we live and work, and it seems that those changes will not be temporary. We’re at that inflection point where we need to start thinking about what our world might look like in the coming decades.

MAARTEN HOFFMANN The Platinum Publisher

Maarten Hoffmann is the facilitator for the Platinum Influencer Forums

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INFLUENCERS FORUM

ANDREW GRIGGS

JOHN YATES

NIGEL LAMBE

Senior Partner and Head of International Kreston Reeves

Partner and Group Head of Commercial DMH Stallard

CEO Sussex Innovation Centre

Andrew is Senior Partner at Kreston Reeves and is a member of their management board. He enjoys working with international clients and leads the firm’s international team using his significant experience working with large and high growth entrepreneurial companies in a strategic and advisory capacity.

John specialises in technology and intellectual property law. He plays a pivotal role in many of the IT projects implemented within DMH Stallard.

Nigel Lambe is Chief Executive of Sussex Innovation, a business incubator owned by the University of Sussex.

Nigel’s role involves advising a community of nearly 200 ambitious start-ups and scale-ups from idea to exit.

Andrew is a Non-Executive Director of Locate in Kent and a Board member of Kreston Global.

Before law, John had a successful career in the music industry, where he developed first hand commercial expertise.

John.Yates@dmhstallard.com www.dmhstallard.com

nigel.lambe@sinc.co.uk www.sinc.co.uk sussventures.sinc.co.uk

andrew.griggs@krestonreeves.com www.krestonreeves.com

SCOTT NURSTEN

Since stepping into his current role with Sussex Innovation in 2019 he has driven the launch of Suss Ventures, the organisation’s investment matching arm.

CEO ITHQ

Partner, Head of Accounts and Outsourcing Kreston Reeves

RICHARD SPOFFORTH

LESLEY ALCOCK

Scott launched ITHQ in 2019 to support businesses with their cyber resilience, hybrid cloud infrastructure and data analytics journeys. In response to customer needs during lockdown, ITHQ developed new strategy-led solutions, which helped them beat growth targets and win their first awards. With 25 years of cyber experience, Scott has been running tech businesses in the UK for 21 years. As well as acting as an investor and non-executive director in several companies, he formerly owned Cisco partner s2s before it was sold to NG Bailey in 2008.

Richard is a member of Kreston Reeves management board, leading the Sussex region, and heads up the Accounts and Outsourcing service. He has considerable experience in innovating and leveraging technology to transform and differentiate businesses.

Lesley is a marketing professional, having spent many years with Capital Radio in London and the Observer Newspaper, and was instrumental in the launch of the Observer Magazine.

transform@ithq.pro www.ithq.pro

Richard works with businesses looking to boost or refocus their growth plans helping them build a focussed and actionable growth plan which achieves their vision of the future. richard.spofforth@krestonreeves.com www.krestonreeves.com

Commercial Director Platinum Media Group

The Platinum Media Group is the largest circulation business publishing group in the UK, reaching up to 720,000 readers each month across three titles.

T: 07767 613707 lesley@platinummediagroup.co.uk www.platinummediagroup.co.uk

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If I may, I’ll come to you first, Andrew.

Has Kreston Reeves grasped this nettle?

How steep is the learning curve?

AG: The answer is yes, I think we have. Do we have all the answers and solutions? Probably not.

Before we went into the pandemic, hybrid style working was quite a topical area in organisations; people wanting to have flexible working. Clearly on March 23rd 2020, when we all compulsorily had to work from home, it was a kind of monumental change in our lives.

And what organisations prove to themselves, where you suddenly have 520 people working from home permanently; will the IT cope? But actually, there was a forced change, and that led people to continue thinking of flexible working, and what was right for them. So with the choices people are making, we’re trying to be as flexible as we can recognising the business needs, but also the people’s needs.

20% of our people are in training. And some of those people have said to me, “my career’s on hold. I don’t feel I can get the same training and development, working from home as I can just having that coffee conversation around the photocopier.”

MH: John, in terms of working from home, the fact that it does look to be a permanent move, how involved is DMH in the technology required to efficiently have a workforce that is hybrid at best?

JY: We’ve been through a similar thing as Andrew, though we haven’t had the same uptake. We probably see a handful of people going in each day, and the reason for that is technology. We have been running an IT project prior to March 23rd 2020, and that project has meant it’s far easier to do meetings with clients from home, usually via Zoom.

For us the key thing is delivery to clients. We have delivered successfully. We have managed to complete a number of corporate projects over the past 18 months. Technology such as DocuSign has helped with completions. So it’s been a seamless process as far as the clients are concerned.

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Nigel, within SINC, you’re surrounded by a wealth of new young technology companies.

How much is tech is getting involved in HR within Sussex Innovation Centre?

NL: Quite a lot, because it is very much a people-first thing. We then get the technology to follow that.

So the one thing that the pandemic has done is get a lot of companies talking about hybrid working and remote working. However, it was always a question of trust in their staff which is what the bosses were afraid of.

But guess what? Everyone’s not sitting at home watching Richard & Judy. So the whole focus was actually on an issue that wasn’t an issue. And it’s because of technology, all the things we’re used to using – Office 365, SharePoint, Zoom – and the advent of asynchronous working, where it’s much less about online, and discussions or face-to-face meetings, and much more about getting the job done. All the tools are there.

One place where technology is unresolved is around the true hybrid working pattern. This is when you have some people in the office and some people at home, and you’re trying to have a discussion with all of them. What we’re finding for our key management meetings, is that we either have to do it fully remote or fully in the office.

INFLUENCERS FORUM

A recent survey said that more than half of UK workers (56%) reported an increase in productivity when working from home. Are you finding a problem with hybrid working? Or are you finding a level playing field to do it?

RS: I can be super-efficient working from home, I can get up, start when I want to crack on; get stuff done. But I don’t find this as effective. There’s a difference between productivity and actually delivering the outputs.

In a business like ours, whilst it is quite technical, a lot of it’s about advising clients and bringing people together.

Being in an office with people where you can catch them, not waiting for them to stop being on Teams, or they’ve gone into another virtual meeting, is preferable given the immediate social interaction and being physically together.

So I think collaboration, which is a big part of our business, is quite hard. However, you can get a lot done at home without the distractions. So it’s a balance between effectiveness and efficiency. And that then flows into people planning a lot more with the people they work with and about how they’ll do their work.

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I think we have all learned the problems with this. It’s a case of ‘how can we fix the problems?’ You’re on the front line with this Scott with ITHQ. Where are we going?

Will technology allow our workforce to be as competent and as effective sitting at home than they would be in any office?

SN: Well, the obvious answer is what Mark Zuckerberg is trying to create, which is this Metaverse concept. But I find that a lot of people will buck that quite heavily. Wearing VR headsets to a meeting would mean that even if you’re in the same room, you’re all in essence cut off and have to meet in the metaverse. But it does level the playing field.

What I find interesting is that everyone has been hearing this as a technology issue. And that’s been great for my business, but it’s not a technology issue. There’s a flywheel of issues here, in my opinion.

Most businesses I’ve spoken to have not changed their processes at all; it’s still the same office-driven process.

If you used to carry this piece of paper from your office to the finance office, they have replaced that with a DocuSign. But the process has stayed very much the same, just using technology to bridge those gaps.

So I would encourage businesses to look at how you change the process.

Now that you’ve got this new, hybrid, working environment, with two thirds of businesses saying it’s here to stay.

Businesses were already putting in agile working practices, pre-pandemic.

This is just accelerating something that was going to happen. So if you’ve got flexible start and end times, and people can work from home or work from the office, how do you then re-engineer the process to be as efficient because individual productivity is higher?

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The end-to-end process is less efficient, because changing swimlanes is where you lose all of the momentum. And because of Zoom, etc, we’re having to change swimlanes all the time.

It’s different to productivity. And I think people are measuring the wrong thing in terms of individual hours and individual productivity versus end-to-end output.

But then you’ve got that social aspect.

And I really like Jordan B Peterson’s line that it takes a village to organise a mind. That concept of social interaction; that you need constant communication to organise your thoughts, and to stay on track and to be rationally minded, and to engage in a reasonable thought is really important. Because people being isolated while being über-productive isn’t good overall. It isn’t good for people’s mental state. It isn’t good for us as a society.

JY: My team is six lawyers. What we’ve found is we have a 30-minute meeting every morning, and it gives us a touch point. So everyone sees each other in the team. It also gives an opportunity to talk through what work we’ve got on and what needs to happen. We’ve done this for 18 months.

When we had a return to the office last year, people were saying, ‘can we carry on doing the daily meetings?’, because they felt more part of the team than they had done from when we were in offices.

SN: We’ve done the same. So there’s three of us working in the office today, the rest are all remote. But we always have our daily stand up on Zoom that everyone participates, no matter what.

Regarding hybrid working, we are all still dragging some of the old systems with us, that effectively might be able to be replaced. If we come on to recruitment, that’s having to be done remotely. We’ve many tech systems coming in that do employee selection and background checks without a single human hand touching it. What is your view on the problem of recruitment in a non-human touch way?

RS: We interviewed our marketing and business development director who was in Singapore at the time and her camera was broken. But she got through the first and second stage interviews to appointment. She’d been with us six months before I physically met her and we actually sat in a room for 20 minutes before we realised that was the first time we’d ever met in person. So I think it’s eminently possible.

SN: In general, it’s a sort of inverted pyramid concept that probably the more senior the role, the less likely that you would hire that person on purely a digital platform. If you’re hiring someone to pack shelves you can get away with that very easily on the digital platforms alone.

I think once it’s more senior people, there’s elements of non-verbal communication, and getting to know the person and getting a sense of what they’re like in the room, to appoint them.

But we also had to make two senior appointments through the pandemic.

That only happened remotely and both have been very successful anyway.

So it’s not to say that you can’t, but that you would probably want people in the room for the more senior positions.

NL: I’ve a slightly tangential point, but it’s a really important one for us.

Because we have moved much more to online recruitments, and much more to blind recruitment, one of our big agenda items is trying to increase the diversity of our group. There’s no doubt, whether we like to admit it or not, you do increase diversity, you get a broader range of candidates that can be geographic, but also in terms of background. And that’s a very positive thing.

AG: I think you can be more efficient with your time in terms of some of the screening. We’re seeing a lot more candidates coming through.

JY: From the senior recruitment point of view, it’s somewhat easier doing it virtually. I’ve recruited two senior associates. We recruited partners into the firm over the past 18 months, and that process has been quite straightforward. You’ve got a proven track record you can look at. You’ve got a CV to look at. We do typically senior appointments of two to three interviews with different people, so you can get a feel for somebody over the course of a set of interviews.

Meanwhile, at the junior level, we’ve got increased numbers of people applying for roles. And that’s great. And there are huge numbers of people who are applying because it’s a lot easier to apply.

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I sense there is a de-humanising factor coming in here that maybe we just have to adapt to. There’s an awful lot of AI – or as one of Scott’s best headlines in the magazine put it, ‘Is AI more A than I?’ There’s a bot to basically interview candidates. For example, if, when I was 18, and I said something that made complete sense to me when I was 18, but would be ill-advised now, should I be penalised by a computer when I’m 35 and looking for a secure job with DMH or Kreston Reeves or SINC? SN: As we all know, these are just algorithms. So if the algorithm is well written, if that was when you were 18, if it was that far in the past, and there’s no recurrence of that, you would imagine it would have a very low weight.

So you ought to have some sort of weighting algorithm on there. If it was well written, it probably wouldn’t impact you negatively at all. If it was badly written, and just looked for any hate speech and then automatically excluded you based on that, even if it was 40 or so years ago, then that wouldn’t make any sense. And that’s the problem with algorithmic-based AI; it’s very often a one and a zero, it doesn’t have any grey areas.

AG: Recently we received 700 applications for six graduate trainee places in our London office for this coming September. We would then need to decide whether we would be using a bot that would be some sort of early screening to help sift through those applicants, rather than just doing it on the traditional gradings or some other way.

RS: It is only as good as the algorithm and there is quite a lot of stuff around population bias. So the issue I think for you, Maarten, was whether you said something inappropriate when you were 18. Is that applied against everybody else of your age group in the population who’ve applied for the job to see if you’re an outlier?

Or is it just that the views were different a long time ago, and actually, you might get filtered out by changes in people’s perceptions and behaviours over a period of time. So population bias in AI is really critical.

SN: Imagine if the first gate, Maarten, was ‘if hate speech, then exclude’, then you wouldn’t get to any of the nuance that we were talking about, regardless of population bias, how long ago it was, or whether it was a joke or not.

How would AI even know that?

One place where technology is unresolved is around the true hybrid working pattern ❜❜

❛❛

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MH: Unfortunately, the youth of today are posting everything they do. One of my daughters cleaned the fridge out last night which in itself nearly gave me a heart attack.

She posted what she was doing just so as she can share with her friends the fact she was cleaning the fridge! My concern is, in 10 years from now, when they want to enter the workforce in something more than a starter job, this will be trawled up. A human might not use it against them but a bot, dependent on how the algorithm is designed, won’t know the algorithm is based won’t know the difference between humour and a rabid view on something. And we’re in danger of alienating a huge number of people who could be very good for our workforce.

SN: What you guys need to do is jump on to a good search engine, not necessarily Google. Not that I’m opposed to Google, although their spyware and destructive approach to internet advertising should be curtailed. Actually, I’ll stop that rant right there.

But responsible AI is what you need to just put into a search engine. And you’ll find institutes have been set up around the globe. How you address it long term and make sure that you’re not systematically coding bias into platforms is a challenge; it’s a real challenge that everyone’s aware of, and that we’re actively working on.

AG: There is that bias programming into algorithms that I was going to raise. Professional firms have historically recruited from academia, with qualifications as one of its criteria. Now there’s a great tendency for professional firms to look beyond that and encourage people to recruit from underprivileged backgrounds. Depending on what your practice systems and processes are for doing that, it’s actually seen as a negative if you don’t do that. But can you programme that into an algorithm? And if you did, would that be positive discrimination?

RS: What people have done is probably going to have more prominence going forward, because we will probably feel a bit nervous about differentiating people on their A-grades or their 1st or 2:1 degrees. I don’t think we as a business have really thought about this yet. But I do think that is a challenge employers will have coming through probably over the next three or four years.

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It’s been pretty much established, that it now tends to be the candidates choosing the employer and not the other way around. Candidates are looking for who the company is and what the company does, outside of what they do as an accountant, a law firm or whatever.

That’s going to become more of a problem as we get into recruitment being put into the hands of technology. Perhaps the new candidates coming in will judge the company on the standard of their recruitment before they go any further.

Scott, is this our future?

SN: Certainly employees are more picky. I think that’s a good thing; the Great Resignation in the States, this changing mindset. There’s a whole anti-work movement online at the moment where people are refusing to just be another number, the next McDonald’s employee, the next Walmart employee, etc.

NL: The interesting thing about the candidates choosing the company is that we, at SINC, recruit about 10 graduates a year. There has been a big shift in what really drives the people that we’re seeing coming to us.

Previously, there would have been very business-driven and career-driven attitudes. But now, there’s two common themes coming out all the time with everyone I’ve recruited in the past 18 months.

One is a hatred of the consolidation of wealth. And that’s both amongst a small handful of people that control the vast majority of money in the world, and also against the big companies; the Facebooks and the companies that consolidate all that knowledge and wealth. The other one is environmental issues; they genuinely care about the planet. They won’t work for a company that simply doesn’t care. Companies have to think about where they position themselves on those two issues. That’s really what’s driving the next generation as far as I can see.

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Have you experienced the same thing at DMH John, with the candidates interviewing you?

JY: At the senior level – yes, they are making the decision as to whether they want to come and join us as much as we are making the decision if we want to take them forward.

At the junior level, it’s a slightly different dynamic, and that’s probably driven by the nature of the law and the steps that one needs to go through to qualify as a solicitor. So with young people who’ve come out of law school, done a law degree, their primary objective is to become a qualified solicitor. What’s driving them is getting the practising certificate.

The challenge that we’ve got when we train them, is retaining them once they get to that end point. It’s then the things that you do – e.g. CSR, environment – that will make a difference. Your position around flexible working, those factors will come into play.

AG: Whilst I agree on the CSR, and the environmental issues, which are all key things people look at, for an employer now, it’s also how you’re seen in the community, how you treat your customers, how you treat your suppliers. I just think there’s a completely different emphasis.

And I would say to people at all levels in our organisation, look at us on that basis. I send out a monthly update about the firm. In terms of where I prioritise things, people are more interested in what we’re giving, and what we’re doing for people and the community than they are about business-related issues.

And I really like Jordan B Peterson’s line that it takes a village to organise a mind ❜❜

❛❛

When does that worm turn; that we spend so much time trying to look like a great company for the protection of employees, that we’ve lost the focus of what our company is supposed to be doing in the first place?

SN: It’s not about trying to look a certain way to potential employees, it’s about being a certain way. It’s about being a business that is behaving responsibly, thinking about more than just how many dollars we can accumulate, unlike Jeff Bezos.

Obviously, profits are important and l am not saying we shouldn’t be thinking about that but that should only be part of the picture. How you used to perceive job success was wealth and title. Now it’s your home life, your mental stability. Your job and your title are only parts of those.

Do you find you’re putting a lot more focus into how your actions are perceived in this area?

RS: Andrew has someone in his office who absolutely is driving some of the things we’re doing around net zero, and he’s probably as commercial an auditor as you’ll ever get. The two can go hand-in-hand, it’s not ‘one at the cost of the other’.

AG: I think its got to become a differentiator because no disrespect to automation, you still need organisational behaviour here. You need that in all aspects now, whether it’s sales, purchases, people, finance – the whole caboodle.

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Within this technological shift, there are certain sectors that it works with.

Within all sectors though, we’re going to have the problem with things like CPD – continuing professional development.

Is that all going to now be done online?

And are you doing such things online?

JY: To a certain extent, CPD has been online for the past five years. We do a number of courses online and they’re all fixed things that each and every person within the firm has got to do. Anti-money laundering training, data protection etc. is delivered online. There’s a test, you get a scorecard and you’re not allowed to progress until you’ve passed the test. That is all recorded and you sign a certificate at the end of every practice year. And that’s worked quite well.

It came about when the legal profession abolished the concept of 16 CPD hours each year. What people used to do under the fixed hours process was wait until the practice year was ending, and then they’d all sign up and do a twoday course, which was completely irrelevant. They would just do it to get the hours. And that was it.

SN: We’re in a different world now. With delivering training, it’s one of the easiest things to solve. It depends on the type of training, but certainly for technology for cybersecurity, you can deliver it in bite-sized chunks. People can engage with it when they want.

So I actually think digital training is one of the major positives to come out of this. And it actually drives the concepts that you see, and the inevitable is that people want stuff that’s easy to discover, easy to access and that they can take with them on mobiles, tablets, computers, etc. Training was one of those things that was always classroom-based.

RS: Mass online courses are really easy to deliver. But I’m not sure it’s really that engaging. People sitting in front of a pre-recorded three-hour session on some accounting updates, is pretty dull and dry.

So we’ve moved to having our whole team with a lecturer we know. It’s a Zoom thing with interaction, which definitely does work because we get specific examples and questions, and it’s much more interactive than a mass online course.

And then we have quite a lot of content on stream.

It’s consumable in the office, it can get streamed on their phone or their tablet, watch it when they like, and watch it as many times as they want.

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If we take one of the things that we’re coming on to, that Scott got to, about ‘is this something that we think we are going to move into further down the road of technological advancement?’ Or do you think at some point we’re going to put our hand up and say ‘stop’?

JY: I think we are going to carry on adopting technology as it delivers many things. I can only talk about our business and the things that I see in practice. So if I think about the main areas where technology is key. The first one is around Virtual Data rooms; document repositories, which have made corporate transactions a lot easier.

For lawyers, it means it’s not taking work away from them, it just means they can do things quicker, they still need to do the checking, and still need to look at things. It’s just how you rationalise a process where you’ve got an awful lot of documents, how you can quickly work out what really does need to be looked at and what doesn’t.

Cybersecurity is the one that presents the most challenges because law firms and accountants are a great target for those who want to take money off people. Ransomware is probably the biggest challenge that we all face. And we now have law firms that have suffered ransomware attacks, and just dealing with that kind of attack is so time consuming to fix. The cost is huge, and there’s the reputational damage.

SN: Adoption of technology is only going to increase and something like the metaverse is guaranteed to happen. We’ve always had a generation looking down at the technology of the next generation. We literally had the parents of the 80s shaking their heads at Walkmans. And so it keeps going on.

AG: I was just going to pick up on one of John’s points about the document review software on contracts.

They can do a lot of the basic work, but one of the interesting things for me, is do people then become lazy because they rely on technology and miss things?

JY: Certainly the technology doesn’t take away the legal input that’s required. Thinking about what might be needed next maybe doesn’t sit well with someone who’s reviewing a contract. The process will involve people of a senior level, the IT team, and thinking about where we look to next, and what areas of the business need to be addressed. But technology does help within the workplace.

There is the generational difference, and that is a key challenge for businesses. And it doesn’t matter where you look, there is a generational difference between those who see technology as helpful, and those who don’t like it.

INFLUENCERS FORUM

I guess the difference here is that Scott’s analogy of the Walkman is sound but the next one after the Walkman was probably 10 years later. At the moment where technology is moving so fast, that from a Monday to a Friday, the whole landscape kind of shifted. I remember moaning for probably 10 years that I’d bought a Betamax, and they all ended up being VHS. It took me 10 years to moan. Today, I’d moan on Monday, and on Tuesday, there be another 53 systems in there.

RS: If you think about the metaverse and virtual reality headsets, think about the 15 to 18 year-olds today or younger. The cost of these things comes down from £500 to £100, they’re going to have virtual reality headsets for gaming.

Put them forward 10 years into the workplace. Now I’m very fortunate working from home today. I’m sitting in a large spare bedroom, I’ve got a large desk, I’ve got a wide screen. For a new trainee coming in, who might be sharing a flat with two other people, I would, if I could, interact with VR in a nice environment. I think it’s the logical way forward, and that’s where we are going to be.

SN: My kids are 15, 17 and 19. They all kill zombies, play golf, chase each other around with machine guns on Fortnite and Call of Duty and their VR headsets are ready. I go home and have to move towards them very carefully and tap them on the shoulder to say hello to them, so I don’t get a black eye when they are swinging around. It’s already happened!

RS: And in the workplace when they start working, a Zoom meeting is going to be a degraded experience from what they’re used to?

SN: And they’ll moan ‘why isn’t it done on a VR headset?’

RS: And how they interact with their friends. And then you’ll have exactly what we’ve got effectively in terms of people running their business on WhatsApp, effectively outside the approved systems. People will move off from that and they’ll go ‘let’s not Zoom, let’s VR’. They’ll have IT running outside their IT system, which will have to be embraced by the IT departments.

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INFLUENCERS FORUM

For a final comment, if I start with you, Andrew. What do you feel the future of technology – in all areas, including the recruitment area – is over the next decade for Kreston Reeves?

AG: Technology, as we’ve all been saying, will be a great enabler. We’re already seeing it replace some of our systems and processes, but it’s doing some of the work that our people have traditionally done.

So our role increasingly becomes one of interpreters rather than processors. That won’t abate, that will just continue. I do think that the technology or the algorithms can only be as good as the people that actually develop them, so that we need to continue to create a learning and development environment for people to thrive to create the new technologies going forward.

And the one thing I’ve taken away from this conversation; it’s something that was said in the first 20 minutes, is that – are we adapting our systems and processes to be less office-based than perhaps we did in the past? And I think that there will be an increase in that over the next 10 years quite significantly.

JY: We will. It’s inevitable, and there are pluses for the people working within the firm. If we can be efficient, and if we can get the technology right, so people can collaborate effectively, can learn effectively, it can become a great place to work. A hybrid world can be a real positive place to work, because there are many upsides as we recognise.

For instance, what working from home offers in terms of saving commuting time and we just need to find a way forwards on those collaborative pieces to get those to be as effective as they were in the real world. And I think technology will deliver on those.

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INFLUENCERS FORUM

Nigel, do you think the next decade is going to embrace this with the gusto we’re all feeling?

NL: It’s inevitable. The challenge is making sure that we remain a peoplefirst organisation, and that we use technology to enable our people to work better, as opposed to the technology tail wagging the dog.

But we now need to review how we operate the process to make sure that we’re making the best use of technology. But at all times remain ‘people-first’.

RS: Three key things, for me.

The rapid change of the last two years has dramatically changed people’s propensity to change.

And that’s a great opportunity. People are prepared to try to do new things that they might have been reluctant to do. So they’re much more open to changing processes and systems, because they’ve seen that forced on them. And it’s worked well. It’s worked well and it’s worked quite rapidly.

Mass online courses are really easy to deliver but l am not sure they are very engaging ❜❜

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As a profession, we have great opportunities to automate. And as a business from an HR and leadership development point of view, how do we train people to do the high level stuff if they’ve never done the low level stuff that we’ve automated? So we’re going to have to change our learning development structures around that.

I’m not sure we’re 100% ready for that teaching people to be experts on something they’ve never done the basics on it is probably quite challenging.

MH: Gentlemen, thank you very much. I think I do feel like we could probably go on for another couple of hours. But sadly, we’re not allowed to.

Thank you very much for your input.

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PEST CONTROL

Many New Year’s resolutions revolve around diet and exercise – fitness. Equally, pest control should be seen as a central part of fitness for your property. By Paul Bates

TIPS FOR A PEST FREE 2022 Your five pest-prevention resolutions for 2022

1

DECLUTTER Pests such as mice and cockroaches love clutter because it gives them a place to hide and nest. Clutter often also means food, especially in kitchens.

Declutter your kitchen, cellar, attic, storage areas, etc. Remove and recycle unused and unnecessary items and make sure edible items are stored in airtight plastic boxes.

2

CLEAN This applies to the whole property, but especially any kitchen areas. Pests love kitchens because there is often food – on the floor, on worktops, in cupboards, under the toaster, etc. There are also plenty of places to hide – behind kickboards, under fridges, etc. Kitchens also have easy access points – around pipes etc. (see our recent rodent control video.)

Regularly clean and vacuum your kitchen. If there are crumbs on the floor or fat on your work surface, clean it up.

The same goes for sitting rooms and office desks.

3

DEAL WITH YOUR RUBBISH The smell of rotting food is like nectar to a pest – think of it as a dinner invitation.

Make sure your bin lids fit tightly to ensure the smell stays inside the bin.

Also, don’t let rubbish and recycling build up. Instead, make the effort to remove it every day to sealed outside bins.

4

TIDY GARDEN AREAS It’s winter and while you are not spending much time in your garden pests are!

Make sure you tidy compost heaps, piles of leave, wood piles, etc. and ensure they are kept well away from your property. Try to see it from the perspective of a rat. Think about what they want – food, water, harbourage – and, if you remove this, they will move elsewhere.

5

STOP ACCESS Our buildings are full of holes – doorways, under eaves, around pipes, badly fitting windows, etc. If a pest is attracted to your property, they will try to find a way in.

Look for access points and then seal them.

This might mean door sweeps for gaps under doors, cement or wire wool around window frames and pipes, and interceptors in drainpipes.

A sensible solution is to get a professional to survey your home or business premises.

They will know where to look and what is the best method to keep the pests out.

Have a happy, pest free 2022!

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Award-winning Cleankill Pest Control deals with ‘distress’ pests such as wasps, fleas and bedbugs as well as preventative maintenance against public health pests such as mice, rats, cockroaches and pest birds such as pigeons and seagulls. The company prides itself on a fast and efficient service and aims to be recognised as a market leader for innovation, ‘green’ and new pest control techniques.

Launched in 1995, Cleankill Pest Control has grown year on year and now has several thousand clients throughout London, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, the South East and across the UK. Cleankill is the only pest control company in England to achieve a Gold Investors in People accreditation.

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For more information go to www.cleankill.co.uk or email info@cleankill.co.uk to a free survey or price comparison.

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TRAVEL

SAFARI IN LIMPOPO

I’m absolutely delighted to be writing about my home province for this issue – or as I like to say to people who ask where I’m from in South Africa – proper Africa!

Proper Africa in all its wild glory. No trendy Cape Town cafes here I’m afraid. By Tess de Klerk

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TRAVEL

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l Polokwane

l Pretoria Johannesburg l

NAMIBIA

M OZ A

BOTSWANA

LIMPOPO

M B IQ U

E

TRAVEL

SWAZILAND

SOUTH AFRICA

l Cape Town

In Limpopo, the most northernly province of South Africa, my family have deep roots in a basket of fruit – Tzaneen (my home town) meaning ‘basket of fruit’ in the rich local Northern Sotho dialect, named so in honour of the area’s very fertile soil – drop a seed and it will grow!

Tzaneen is a green, incredibly lush subtropical valley nestled at the foot of the majestic Drakensberg mountains, at the foot of the Iron Crown peaks to be exact, which is home to the secondlargest indigenous forest in South Africa. A winding journey through this dragon’s mountain will have you passing cascading waterfalls and ancient all-wise yellowoods while spotting rare birds such as the Green Twinspot and Bat Hawk. Eventually the road straightens and you’ll find yourself in the lowlands.

Choose to head northwards from the foot of the mountain, travel a few miles

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over verdant hills and spectacular pine plantations and you’ll find the horizon changing to shapes of giant aloes and age-old baobab trees... now you’re in Queen Modjadji’s realm, the revered Rain Queen of the Bolobedu people. This hereditary queen who carries the hefty burden of controlling the clouds and rain! Her position is respected by many communities and conflict has, historically, been avoided in this area in deference thereto. Presidents, even

We found ourselves amongst a tower of 24 giraffes, two families meeting up on a lazy, hazy Sunday morning ❜❜

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those during apartheid years, have visited the Rain Queens. Their mystical rainmaking powers are believed to be reflected in the breathtaking gardens which surround her royal compound and is home to a unique natural cycad forest in its pre-historic state! Thanks to the strict protection by succeeding generations of Modjadji.

Turn right at the foot of our mountains and the heady, sweet aroma of frangipani soon starts to fill the air. The little town surrounded by rivers and dams, mango and lychee groves and endless banana plantations radiates a sense of adventure. Growing up, the days felt endless, swimming in rock pools, picking lunch from trees, searching for snakes to mess with and hiding in the banana plantations from long-suffering Petrus who was tasked with keeping an eye on us untamed children. As a child I recall only one fear – the fear of shoes!

The idea of wearing shoes sent shivers down my spine. Fortunately we were only required to wear them from age 12, upon starting secondary school, and by that time most of us had accepted our fate.

TRAVEL But I digress! This is a safari piece after all. Drive eastward through Tzaneen and the flora morphs into pristine citrus groves and gushing, croc-infested rivers, continue on still. The air changes; it becomes drier, the scent earthier, woodier. Nature sheds her vivid tropical greens for deeper shades, khaki creeps in. The bright blue skies still bright blue but softened somehow.

This is the Lowveld, the Bushveld – Safari region. I was lucky enough to spend two weeks over Christmas in my beloved bushveld and let me tell you, I may as well have been on another planet! Warm weather, verdant nature, laid back humans and happy animals.

❛❛ My partner thought me ridiculous when I told him that even the snakes were happy but really, I could tell ❜❜

My partner thought me ridiculous when I told him that even the snakes were happy but really, I could tell. As a species they were a hell of a lot less cantankerous than usual! I guess you have to grow up knowing them to enable you to sense their moods.

All this exceptional contentment amongst the majority of living things was down to the fantastic rains that had

blessed the area in preceding weeks ensuring more foliage and fodder than any deer could wish for, and that, just in time for baby season too! We had a fantastic time – all the animals had their young, from baby bushpigs to teeny rhino and spotting them was easy – we found ourselves amongst a tower of 24 giraffes (yes, tower is the correct collective!), two families meeting up on a lazy, hazy Sunday morning.

We spent our time on a game farm belonging to family, at the basic lodge built many moons ago by my grandfather and not accepting paying punters. I cannot suggest this specific game lodge to our readers but having done first-hand research I feel confident in suggesting the following fantastic Big Five game lodges in Limpopo.

Firstly we head to the world-acclaimed Kruger National Park. The wildlife within this region has survived undisturbed without negative impact from mankind, encouraged to thrive. I don’t suggest booking overnight stays in the camps run by the Parks Department, unfortunately and by all accounts those have gone backwards and aren’t what they used to be. The Kruger itself is spectacular though with passionate conservationists and rangers taking care of an array of wildlife-rich ecosystems. Booking a stay at either of these private lodges is sure to fulfil all those safari fantasies.

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TRAVEL KRUGER NATIONAL PARK KRUGER KINGS CAMP

The intimate and luxurious Kings Camp Private Game Reserve is situated in the flourishing Timbavati Reserve, part of the Kruger National Park.

Guests have access to over 100 square kilometres of traversing rights. The camp is perfectly situated near a popular waterhole and offers beautiful

views of the surrounding bushveld.

Kings Camp boasts just seven sumptuously appointed, colonial-inspired suites and two romantic honeymoon suites, each featuring a lovely ensuite bathroom with a Victorian ball-andclaw bath, indoor and outdoor double shower. The suites also boast a personal bar and a private veranda.

Kings Camp is perfectly positioned to offer access to a range of nearby adventures such as golf, helicopter tours, hot air ballooning and community excursions. Kings Camp also offer birdwatching safaris, yoga safaris, art safaris and vegan-friendly safaris, amongst others.

Luxury Suite (max 2 ppl): from £9200 per week Approximately 6-hour drive from Johannesburg International Airport.

Alternatively a one-hour, 30 minute scheduled flight from Johannesburg to Kings Camp’s private runway. www.kingscamp.com

JOCK SAFARI LODGE KRUGER PARK

Fitzpatrick’s at Jock welcomes children of all ages which is complemented with a curated Kids on Safari programme.

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Welgevonden Game Reserve is a 37,000ha private game reserve in the Waterberg District. The Reserve is nestled within the internationally recognised UNESCO Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, flagged for the sustainable conservation of biodiversity. Welgevonden is one of the most accessible premier, malaria-free reserves in the country and offers an exclusive, intimate bushveld safari experience, with only a limited number of guests having access to the reserve at any one time. This reserve is not open to day visitors. Choose from 20 unique lodges nestled in this exceptional reserve.

Welgevonden Reserve is an approximate 3-hour drive from JHB International Airport.

Alternatively, there is a 45-minute flight from Johannesburg into one of the airstrips.

Jock Safari Lodge offers the timeless style and elegance of a classic safari lodge, paying homage to its rich history and heritage with the addition of modern comforts expected by today’s discerning traveller. The main Jock Lodge comprises of 12 individual thatched rooms, while nearby the private and intimate camp, Fitzpatrick’s at Jock caters for small parties and families.

Steeped in history, Jock Safari Lodge was the first private concession granted within the Kruger National Park and is named after local legend, Jock of the Bushveld, the canine hero of Sir Percy FitzPatrick’s famous story of courage and loyalty that is set during South Africa’s first gold rush era. Relive one of South Africa’s cultural heritages through this wonderful story and view the original mementoes on display at the Main Lodge.

WELGEVONDEN GAME RESERVE

In addition, activities include daily game drives, wilderness walks, bird watching and nearby golf at Leopard Creek Golf Course, while the Relaxation Retreat Spa will ensure guests truly unwind.

Main Jock Lodge suite (max 2ppl): from £1200 per night (all-inclusive) Approximately 6-hour drive from Johannesburg International Airport Alternatively, a 1-hour scheduled flight from Johannesburg to Skukuza Airport.

Jock Safari Lodge offers road transfers from Skukuza to the lodge (approx 1-hour) https://jocksafarilodge.com

TAAIBOS RIVER LODGE

Enjoy exclusive use for up to 10 guests at this lodge beautifully situated above the Taaibos river. All activities are tailor-made – no need to fit in with the lodge’s fixed routine, or other guests’ demands! Indulge in meals by a private chef who caters for anything from casual to cosy buffet-style occasions to full-service, fine-dining settings, all whilst relaxing on a large veranda perched over the river, overseeing a dramatic cliffside and a beautiful plain, often filled with wildlife.

Entire lodge from £450 pppn Minimum stay: 2 nights Minimum guests: 4 www.taaibosriverlodge.co.za

CLIFFTOP SAFARI HIDEAWAY

Perched regally amidst the bush willows on the tip of a magnificent gorge overlooking the Sterkstroom River, Clifftop Safari Hideaway is an idyllic sanctuary. A romantic, secluded hideaway from the world’s worries. The seclusion and romance throughout makes it an incredible wedding and honeymoon destination.

Clifftop suite: from £650 pppn sharing (all-inclusive) https://clifftoplodge.co.za

NEDILE LODGE

Nedile Lodge accommodates only 10 guests in five exclusive, luxury rooms. With a dramatic view over the bush and mountains, each room has a private deck, fireplace plus indoor and outdoor showers. The main complex with a bar, dining and comfortable lounge invites one to sit back, relax and take in the tranquillity of the natural surroundings. Fantastic massages can be booked or pop to the gym overlooking the dramatic landscape.

Luxury suite: from £630 pppn sharing (all-inclusive) https://nedile.co.za South Africa offers visitors once in a lifetime experiences, not only in its breathtaking nature but also in the warmth and genuine enthusiasm of its people who proudly delight in sharing the spirit of Mother Africa. The last two years have taken their toll on the tourism industry but it is now once again waiting with open arms for visitors. Now is the time to book that long awaited African adventure.

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MOTORING

MASERATI GHIBLI TROFEO

By Maarten Hoffmann, Senior Motoring Editor The Maserati marque has been around since 1914 when bothers Alfieri, Ettore and Ernesto Maserati founded the company in Bologna, Italy. The war came hard on its heels and and it wasn’t until 1926 that they came up with their first creation, the Tipo 26 which carried the now well-known logo of the Maserati Trident for the first time.

The company is now owned by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles who also own Ferrari. The marque has a proud history of motor racing success such as when Juan Manuel Fangio won the German GP in 1957 at the wheel of a 250F. 1966 saw the first model with the Ghibli name attached and in 1993, Ferrari and Maserati joined forces to create the 3200 GT.

Back to the Ghibli, that was re-launched on 2013, and here on my driveway sits the latest incarnation - the Ghibli Trofeo, meaning trophy, as they have gone full bore and put the Ferrari 3.8-litre, 580hp V8 into the car, making it the fastest production Maserati ever.

Not very well known, the Ghibli could be regarded as a stylish rival to the BMW M5 with the advantage of being far rarer, prettier with a huge extra dollop of Italian cool. Then there’s the rip-roaring Ferrari engine with an exhaust note to die for, paired with an ZF 8- speed auto box and rear-wheel drive. The 4,616lb Ghibli will hit 60mph in 4.3 seconds and for a fourseater salon car, that ain’t ‘alf bad. Use the new launch control and you get every ounce of that power regardless of

Overall, the Ghibli Trofeo has a pretty raw, unhinged on-road character ❜❜

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whether you are a rubbish driver or not.

Prepare to meet your maker.

Despite the electronic limited-slip diff managing torque distribution, pop it into Corsa (race) mode, blip the throttle mid corner and watch the back slide out - it’s addictive. With the 21-inch wheels, you will be feeling the bumps in the road but nothing too dramatic and well worth it for the power under your right foot.

Overall, the Ghibli Trofeo has a pretty raw, unhinged on-road character.

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TECH STUFF

MODEL TESTED: Maserati Ghibli Trofeo ENGINE: 3.8-litre, V8 POWER: 580 bhp SPEED: 0-60 - 4.3 seconds TOP: 202 mph ECONOMY: 16 mpg PRICE FROM: £104,200 AS TESTED: £120,885

The steering has lots of feedback but lacks instant response, so you have to work a little harder to quickly dive into corners. There’s definitely a lack of overall finesse and composure compared with sedans like the BMW M5 and Mercedes-AMG E63, but I suppose that’s also what makes the Ghibli entertaining and different to every other car in the car park. Also, bravo to Maserati for using large, steering column-mounted paddles in the Ghibli Trofeo. This is exactly how paddle shifters should be done - if you have no interest in fuel efficiency of course.

It comes with all the driver aids expected such as full-speed adaptive cruise control, traffic-sign recognition, blind-spot monitoring, lane-keeping assist, and automatic emergency braking. It even gets Maserati’s new Active Driving Assist, which combines adaptive cruise and lane-hold

technologies, and can be used on any well-maintained road at speeds of up to 90 mph. The 10.1-inch frameless display works really well and is simple to use and it comes with Apple CarPlay and Google assistant.

The cabin is stylishly done but it is a tad cramped. Anyone over 5’.9” will have trouble in the back and there is a bit of cheap switchgear going on but it is comfortable. Everything is at hand and the seats brace you well for that accelerating push back. I love the

actual clock and that large Trident in the centre of the wheel.

The Ghibli Trofeo price-wise would go up against the likes of the BMW M5 Competition and the Mercedes AMG E63, with the Audi RS7 and Porsche Panamera 4S sticking their nose in there too, so quite some competition, but if you are looking for something different, something truly visceral, something with Italian style and, let’s not forget that Ferrari engine, take a look at the Maserati.

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Sandown Mercedes-Benz At Sandown, we pride ourselves on excellent customer service. Our dedication to customer care and quality stretches beyond the forecourt, with specialists always on-hand to help you at our Sandown Mercedes-Benz Retailers.

Please be assured that we have always prioritised the safety of both our customers and staff. We have taken all the necessary steps to enable you to deal with our sales, service and parts teams safely and in full compliance with the latest government’s guidance.

Our Sales, Service and Parts departments are all COVID-19 compliant.

Appointments booked in advance over the phone or online.

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