Sacha Lord has taken to Twitter this morning vowing to “join the dots” and help connect local businesses hit hardest by Tier 3 restrictions in Greater Manchester.
Mr Lord – Night Time Economy Advisor for Greater Manchester, and co-founder of Parklife Festival and Warehouse Project – has reached out by way of social media to the thousands of pubs across the region that have been required to shut doors today after not deemed to sell “substantial meals” as part of Tier 3 rules under the government’s new three tier coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions scheme.
He has offered to put these pubs in touch with his extensive contact list of independent festival food traders who are also out of work.
This is in the hopes that they can “join the dots” and “help each other out”.
Businesses interested in being connected are asked to email: [email protected]
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This gesture follows word of numerous businesses across England joining forces to remain open and afloat during what are some of the most turbulent times the hospitality industry has ever faced, and also comes after Mr Lord publicly announced that he had begun the process of taking legal action against the government.
Announcing the Judicial Review in a tweet on Wednesday, Mr Lord said: “Last night we started the Judicial Review into the legality of implementing emergency restrictions on Greater Manchester’s hospitality sector, without scientific evidence.
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A pre-action letter has been filed and we await the Health Secretary’s response.
“The fight goes on.”
Tier 3 restrictions officially came into effect in the Greater Manchester region at 0.01am today.
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Under Tier 3 regulations and guidance, several businesses must shut including:
Pubs and bars – according to the government, these venues “can only remain open where they operate as if they were a restaurant” eg: serving “substantial meals” like a main lunchtime or evening meal. They may only serve alcohol as part of such a meal.
For the latest information, guidance and support during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the UK, please do refer to official sources at gov.uk/coronavirus.
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The impressive plan to transform Manchester’s landmark Pall Mall building
Daisy Jackson
Work is now well underway to completely revamp one of Manchester’s most recognisable buildings, Pall Mall.
The Grade II-listed building on the beautiful King Street will be totally transformed into a new city centre innovation hub by Bruntwood SciTech.
You’ve probably walked past it hundreds of times, but soon there’ll be a chance for freelancers, start-ups, and established businesses to step inside and call it home.
For those self-employed of you out there, there are no scary commitments to worry about when Pall Mall reopens – you can just walk in and book a pay-as-you-go-desk, work at the cafe, sign up for a coworking membership, or go all the way to serviced offices or sign up for the sort of office space you can put your own stamp on – all with flexible payment options.
Once completed, there’ll be 12 floors of work spaces for between one and 70 people across three interconnected towers.
If you spend your 9-5 in one of the office spaces at Pall Mall, you’ll have access to a free state-of-the-art gym, a contemplation room, a lounge and library space, and a roof terrace with panoramic views across Manchester city centre.
There’ll also be secure EV charging points and a large cycle hub, plus plenty of greenery added through an outdoor piazza and revitalised entrance space. And every communal space will operate at net zero carbon. Snazzy.
Pall Mall is a 90,000 sq ft giant in the heart of Manchester, with a rich cultural and historical significance and is an example of a high-quality post-war site.
CGIs released as part of the plans show bright and open work spaces with lots of fully fitted offices ready to move straight into, plus a totally overhauled outdoor space to make use of an often-overlooked external space in the city centre.
The ambitious £30m project comes from Bruntwood SciTech, the UK’s largest dedicated property platform dedicated to growing the science, tech and innovation sectors, which is a joint venture between Bruntwood, Legal & General and Greater Manchester Pension Fund, who last October announced that they would be investing a further £500m into building or refurbing work-class spaces for these types of businesses, and Pall Mall was one of these first commitments.
Principal contractor Dragonfly has been appointed to build the Sheppard Robson-designed development and local teams also working on the development include Ramboll as sustainability consultants, Deloitte as planning consultants, heritage consultant Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture and structural engineers DWLLP.
Businesses will be able to move into adaptable and flexible workspaces, with different lease lengths available to cater for businesses as they grow.
Those moving into Pall Mall will be part of a culture that prioritises sustainable growth, from the net-zero communal spaces to the net-zero construction, with the building’s original structure being maintained to save 7,900 tonnes of additional carbon (the equivalent of one passenger making 26,000 flights from London to New York).
There’ll be an all-electric heating and cooling system, a smart building management system, and new mechanical ventilation heat recovery units to maximise energy efficiency and provide fresh air control to businesses.
Pall Mall will have a gym. Credit: Bruntwood SciTechCGIs show how Pall Mall will look when the work is complete. Credit: Bruntwood SciTech
Once complete, Pall Mall is targeting a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating and EPC A rating – a significant achievement for a Grade II listed, 1960s building.
Their green credentials have been noticed – Pall Mall is a finalist in the 2024 edie Awards for Green Building Project of the Year, and also won Best Commercial Unbuilt Project at the 2024 Manchester Society of Architects Awards.
Start-ups, scale-ups and global businesses alike will gain access to a UK-wide network of 1100 like-minded businesses across Bruntwood SciTech’s community, which spans 31 city centre hubs and nine science and technology campuses in six cities, and in Manchester includes the likes of Circle Square, Manchester Science Park, Bond, Bloc, 111 Piccadilly and Blackfriars in Manchester.
There are big names who already operate from Bruntwood Scitech’s Manchester innovation hubs including – to name but a few – Roku, Deliveroo, AO, Social Chain, Mills & Reeve, and tonnes of freelancers.
They can access Bruntwood SciTech’s growth support, including direct access to funding and investors, highly skilled talent, new markets, and an extensive clinical, academic and public partner network.
Ciara Keeling, Chief Operating Officer for Bruntwood SciTech said: “Bruntwood SciTech has a strong blueprint for creating innovation ecosystems, having undertaken significant projects across many of the UK’s cities and regions.
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CGIs show how Pall Mall will look when the work is complete. Credit: Bruntwood SciTech
“We believe that these hubs are not only essential to the development, growth and success of many exciting innovation-focused businesses, but can play a significant role in transforming our regional economies and putting the UK on a path to achieving its ambitions of being an innovation powerhouse.
“Work commencing on our redevelopment of Pall Mall marks an important step in our mission to power economies through innovation, supporting Manchester to continue growing its support for the knowledge economy, and becoming a more environmentally sustainable city.
“Core to our vision for the building is to develop a workspace that caters specifically to the needs of disruptors and innovators, whilst also remaining acutely conscious of our responsibility to champion the building’s heritage and inherent character.”
Pall Mall’s redevelopment is targeted to complete in 2025, and is supported by Savills and CBRE.
Want to call Pall Mall home for your business? Enquire today.
New study reveals the UK’s top 10 ‘most stressful’ jobs
Emily Sergeant
A top 10 list of the most stressful jobs in the UK has been compiled and shared following an interesting new study.
Every job role comes with its fair share of stresses, that we can all agree on.
You could ask pretty much any working person across the country to tell you what makes their job so stressful on a daily basis, and they’d probably be able to reel you off a couple without even having to think too hard about it – but which jobs ask more of their employees than others?
Some jobs certainly come with more than their fair share of challenges compared to others, but what roles and which industries are considered to be the UK’s most stressful? Well, in a bid to find out this answer out once and for all, personal injury injury experts, Claims.co.uk, analysed health and safety executive data from the UK Government.
Researchers looked at the prevalence and rates of self-reported stress, depression, or anxiety that were either caused, or made worse by, their current or most recent job.
And it’s police officers who take the top spot.
A new study has revealed the UK’s top 10 ‘most stressful’ jobs / Credit: gov.uk | GMP
With a rate of 6,500 per 100,000 current or former police officers reporting that their job had negatively impacted their mental health, this rate is alarmingly almost two and a half times (242%) higher than the national average.
Approximately 11,000 out of an estimated total of 169,231 police officers reported that their jobs had caused mental health issues or made them even worse, which works out to an estimated 6.5% of the total employees in this role.
Social workers rank second, with a rate of 6,100 per 100,000 social workers currently or formerly employed in social work roles reporting mental health issues caused by their jobs, while third place goes to welfare and housing associate professionals, who have a rate of 5,810 per 100,000 reporting mental health issues from their jobs.
Top 10 most stressful jobs in the UK
Police officers (sergeant and below)
Social workers
Welfare and housing associate professionals
Community nurses
Other nursing professionals
Higher education teaching professionals
Primary education teaching professionals
Secondary education teaching professionals
Human resource managers and directors
National government administrative occupations
Community nurses and other nursing professionals, higher and primary education teachers, and HR managers were just a few of the other stressful jobs making up the top 10.
“The findings bring to light job roles throughout the UK that detrimentally affect the mental health of employees,” a spokesperson for Claims.co.uk commented.
“Police officers, social workers, and welfare and housing associate professionals are notably associated with higher stress levels. Factors such as long hours, high responsibilities, and public-facing roles appear to contribute significantly to an employee’s mental health being negatively impacted.”
The spokesperson added that employers should encourage regular breaks, offer mental health resources, and promote open communication to employees manage their mental health more effectively.