Business

Top risks to trade businesses in 2026

The year ahead brings opportunities, but it also carries challenges that, if ignored, can disrupt your work and damage your reputation. Trade professionals operate in an environment where costs rise quickly, regulations tighten and clients expect more for less. When you understand the risks and...

The great Foot Anstey bike ride smashes fundraising for Ukraine

A team of riders from national law firm, Foot Anstey LLP, completed a two-day bike ride in support of the Disasters Emergency Committee's (DEC) Ukraine Appeal. The fundraisers have now raised over £5,000.

The two-day bike ride started on 5 May from Foot Anstey's Truro office and saw the team cycle to Foot Anstey's offices in Plymouth, Exeter, and Taunton before finishing at the firm's...

North Devon Link Road contractor Griffiths reduces carbon emissions using HVO fuel

Contractors working on the £60 million North Devon Link Road upgrade are using a more environmentally friendly fuel as part of a series of measures to cut carbon emissions. Griffiths is one of the first companies in the country to use Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel which is a "green diesel" made from waste vegetable oil or fats and hydrogen rather than methanol. Although it can be used...

Have your say on business development proposals on land near Exeter Airport

A consultation is now underway by East Devon District Council on a planning document known as a Local Development Order (LDO) for a site off Long Lane, opposite the Future Skills Centre near Exeter Airport.

The LDO makes the planning process simpler and therefore quicker, easier and cheaper for developers to bring forward high quality schemes and buildings that will provide new...

Foot Anstey works with Empire Fighting Chance to donate 70 laptops to charities across the South and South West

Foot Anstey LLP has partnered with Bristol-based charity Empire Fighting Chance to donate 70 laptops to five charities based near its offices across the South and South West.

The laptops will help reduce the digital divide that impacts many communities. In 2021, Ofcom reported that one in five children who had been home-schooling did not have access to an appropriate device for their...

Greg Parsons, Susy Atkins, Ian Cameron and Howard Davies (outside the Met Office)

Food Drink Devon Launches Sustainability Pioneer Award

A major new Devon-based award designed to celebrate and promote sustainability has been launched by Food Drink Devon, the county’s leading food and drink organisation which has over 350 members, at the Met Office headquarters in Exeter. Food Drink Devon’s Sustainability Pioneer Award will shine a light on businesses that go the extra mile in their endeavours to be environmentally friendly....

Opening a UK dental practice? Here's how to do it!

Finding the right Dental Practice can be an exercise in frustration and extremely long waiting lists (sometimes exceeding more than three years for NHS patients). Seeing a new practice open in the local area can be a welcome sight.

Getting started requires planning, an understanding of the area, the needs of your potential patients, and abiding by the regulations and legal...

Devon and Cornwall receive £1.8m funding boost to support thousands of people into skilled jobs

Devon County Council and Cornwall Council have been awarded £1.8 million funding from the Department for Education’s National Skills Fund to run a third year of Skills Bootcamps .

The Train4Tomorrow Skills Bootcamps are flexible courses lasting up to 16 weeks, that offer adults the opportunity to retrain into in-demand job roles in emerging and growth sectors. The bootcamps are...

Devon grant scheme receives half a million funding boost to support local businesses

The Heart of the South West LEP ’s Devon and Somerset inward investment grant scheme has received an additional £450,000 funding boost to support business growth.

The funding comes from the European Regional Development Fund, part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020, and invites foreign-owned companies to invest in the area to boost the region’s...

'Shock' predicted for South West rural economy from changes to farming payment scheme

New research published today identifies £883 million is predicted to be lost from the rural economy up to 2027 across Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset and Somerset.

Farmers and other land managers are coming to terms with the move away from Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) support, but the transition is proving difficult, and the replacement Sustainable Farming Initiative...

Devon couple singled out for national Visit England ROSE Award

Brett Bates and Susan Juggins from Bampton own and run the multi award winning beach hut Holi Moli at Dunster Beach on the Exmoor coast. They were recognised last Thursday at a champagne reception hosted by the Chair of the British Tourism Association Dame Judith Macgregor at the sumptuous Luton Hoo Hotel in Bedfordshire for their service excellence, by being awarded The ROSE Award (...

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