Robyn and Jennifer discuss funding for a regeneration scheme, predicted growth for a drug and alcohol testing company, and a Michelin-level experienced head chef appointed at a historic peak district hotel.
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00:00Funding for a regeneration scheme, a historic Peak District venue, and growth for a drugs
00:05and alcohol testing company are featured in today's business briefing.
00:15Good morning Robin. Good morning Jen. I believe you have some news for us today from the Peak
00:19District. Yeah so a really nice story today from the Peak District about a lovely venue over there
00:25in Grindleford getting a Michelin-starred chef. So it's a historic venue in Grindleford called
00:30The Maynard. It's a wedding venue, bar, restaurant and hotel and they've just recruited Todd Vickers
00:37as the new head chef. So Vickers is trained under Michelin-awarded chefs such as Adam Smith
00:42and also worked at prestigious venues including The Man Behind the Curtain and The York Arms.
00:47So yeah it looks like a really nice venue. I've not actually been myself but I do love the Peak
00:51District. Have you ever been? I've not been but I've heard it's absolutely beautiful. Yeah you have
00:55to go. We're so close to Manchester. I do indeed. Well moving over then to Oxfordshire. The developer
01:01Dorchester Living has received over £99 million in funding from Chain Capital for the regeneration
01:07of Hayford Park. So Hayford Park is on the site of a former US and RAF airbase and has been
01:13transformed into a new commercial and residential community. So Dorchester Living has overseen the
01:18site since 2009 delivering 1200 homes along with community facilities and employment space.
01:25The area is already home to Hayford Park School, tennis courts, a hotel, restaurants and so on.
01:30A new planning application is now being prepared for between 6,000 and 8,000 further homes which
01:36includes 30% affordable housing, assisting living and accommodation and designated homes for key workers.
01:42The wider master plan then includes a new secondary school, three primary schools, a health hub,
01:47sports facilities and more and the development is expected to create more than 7,000 jobs.
01:53Fantastic. Yes so great news there. Absolutely. And over to the North West now where there's some
01:58exciting news for manufacturers. So Made Smarter has announced that they have a million pound
02:04funding pot to deploy to SME manufacturers across the region. So Made Smarter is a government-backed
02:10digital adoption program and they have launched this new funding round to support SMEs in particular.
02:15So the initiative is going to offer match funded grants of up to £20,000 to help SMEs adopt different
02:21technologies. So it could be robotics, AI, additive manufacturing, things like that. So as well as the
02:28funding the SMEs will also be able to gain access to kind of skills training and kind of wider support
02:35around that. So really exciting for manufacturers in the region. Great. Well finishing off today's briefing then
02:42in Wales. The drug and alcohol testing company Cansford Laboratories which is based in Cardiff is looking
02:48to grow after winning work from competitors and meeting growing demand for workplace drug testing.
02:54So Cansford generates about £7 million per year testing for drugs like cannabis and psychoactive
03:00substances. The lab can also identify the presence of steroids and alcohol which can be a factor in
03:06domestic abuse cases. Much of transfer testing is also used in child protection cases to verify
03:13or disprove claims made by parents and carers. Its managing director Kim Bagley spoke to Insider
03:20and said that she expected more workplace drug testing and greater use of hair testing in workplace
03:25situations. She said that people are starting to go more down the hair route and the oral fluid
03:30route and oral fluid covers about a 48 hour window and hair shows up anywhere from seven days to
03:38several months which could be used for pre-employment testing. Wow, that's really an interesting company
03:44over there then. No, for sure. So if you want to hear more on that and all the other stories that we
03:48covered in today's briefing you can head on over to insidermedia.com where you can also hear about
03:53our upcoming events and subscribe to our newsletter. Thank you!