News: £27.8 billion fund to support next wave of South Yorkshire growth projects

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) has agreed to enter into a strategic partnership with the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA).

The £27.8 billion fund was created by the Government to back regional growth and clean energy.

Four new partnerships have been annpunced that will give more areas direct access to the National Wealth Fund’s investment knowledge, expertise and capital, to help develop and grow project pipelines, attract public and private finance and deliver key infrastructure to support growth and create jobs.

Previous work between the NWF and partners has been to identify and develop investment opportunities in priority areas, including place-based regeneration, transport and clean energy infrastructure. Projects already receiving advisory guidance and support through these partnerships include Clyde Metro in Glasgow City Region, The Sports Quarter in the West Midlands, a new zero-emission bus fleet in Greater Manchester and Mass Transit in West Yorkshire.

The Strategic Partnerships model, provided through the NWF’s Regional Project Accelerator programme, demonstrates the value of deeper, longer-term partnerships with local leaders, bringing the Fund’s expertise together with local knowledge to support projects that can improve local infrastructure, open up development opportunities and help places attract investment. The Fund will continue to explore further opportunities to extend the Strategic Partnerships model to other Mayoral Strategic Authorities and City Regions over time, while continuing to focus support where it can make the greatest impact.

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Oliver Holbourn, CEO of the National Wealth Fund, said: “To unlock the UK’s future we need to grow regional economies. This announcement signals our continued commitment to expanding our partnerships with leaders across the UK, providing tailored support based on local needs and opportunities, creating jobs and spreading the lasting benefits of investment to the local communities they serve.”

South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard said: “South Yorkshire has always shaped, made and created the things Britain needs to grow and succeed. Today, from the UK’s first Investment Zone and our Don Valley Corridor plan, to being named one of the country’s tech ecosystem’s rising stars, we’re once again putting South Yorkshire at the forefront of Britain’s industrial future.

“With world-leading assets like the AMRC, Boeing and McLaren rooted here, our partnership with the National Wealth Fund will help us go further, faster - backing brilliant businesses, bringing in investment, and creating the industries, technologies and opportunities that will power growth here in South Yorkshire and across the whole country.”

The NWF is not new, because it has taken over many of the functions of the UK Infrastructure Bank. Investments so far have already mobilised over £16bn in private sector financing at the point of investment, leveraging £2.50 for every £1 deployed.

The Regional Project Accelerator also offers project advisory support, focused on a number of regionally significant projects across the UK, and lending - low cost, flexible lending, directly to local government at gilts +40bps, to support regionally significant projects.

National Wealth Fund website

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News: AMRC marks 25 years with ambition to quadruple industrial impact

Engineers and researchers are used to focusing on precious substances like titanium and carbon fibre, but now the focus for University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) is silver, as it celebrates 25 years of supporting UK manufacturers.

Founded in 2001 by the University of Sheffield and Boeing on the site of the former Orgreave Colliery in Rotherham, the AMRC is a model for collaborative research and is part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult supporting hundreds of private sector partners.

Marking the silver anniversary of its opening, the centre has refocused its strategy, prioritising the high-growth aerospace, defence and nuclear energy sectors and setting a bold ambition to quadruple its economic impact over the next decade.

It all started when Professor Keith Ridgway of the University of Sheffield worked with businessman Adrian Allen from Technicut on a project with Boeing. It became the first tenant of the now world-renowned Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham.

The AMRC was set up to build a bridge between the research happening in university labs and the practical needs of production lines. It has since become a global model for how research-led innovation can regenerate communities and use advanced manufacturing as an economic engine to create wealth and jobs.

Having created new centres in Rotherham, including the start-of-the-art AMRC Training Centre, the AMRC expanded over the Parkway onto the site of the former Sheffield airport, developing its own "Innovation District" with buildings such as Factory 2050, which opened in 2015.

Having started with just a team of eight, the centre now has more than 570 highly qualified researchers and engineers working on the manufacturing needs of the future, from composites to castings, additive manufacturing to machining.

The innovation-led impact has already helped attract £350m inward investment and more than 2,500 manufacturing jobs into the South Yorkshire manufacturing cluster. Further recent investments include McLaren Automotive’s announcement of a £40m expansion of its composites technology centre, creating 300 jobs, and a £19m investment by Rolls-Royce into its Advanced Blade Casting Facility, both located on the AMP in Rotherham.

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Professor Ben Morgan is chief executive officer at the AMRC and is leading the centre in its refreshed strategy, which is aligned to national priorities set out in the government’s industrial strategy.

He said: “For 25 years, our mission has been to take high-risk R&D off industry’s shoulders so manufacturers can start, scale, and stay in the UK.

“As industrial and national priorities shift, we are putting our technical capabilities squarely behind aerospace, defence, and nuclear and clean energy.

“Our goal for the next decade is to quadruple our historical impact. We aren't just doing research - we are driving up shop-floor production rates, shortening technology adoption cycles and ensuring critical supply chains remain firmly anchored in the UK.”

Katherine Bennett CBE, chief executive officer of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, added: “Throughout my career in aerospace, I have seen first-hand the reputation the AMRC has built for turning world-class research into real-world impact through close collaboration between industry, academia and government, from South Yorkshire to the North West and Wales.”

Looking ahead, the AMRC is leading a groundbeaking research programme Composites at Speed and SCale (COMPASS) with a new innovation facility in Sheffield that is home to Boeing’s largest research and development projects in the world. AMRC experts are also working on small modular reactor (SMR) development supporting Rolls-Royce SMR.

Lane Ballard, chief technology officer for Boeing, said: “Twenty-five years ago Boeing jointly established the AMRC alongside the University of Sheffield. We have never looked back.

"This year, we began the latest chapter of our partnership with the opening of the COMPASS facility, home to Boeing’s largest global R&D project, IHSS. The foundation of advanced manufacturing lies in fusing quality research, skills and supply chains.

"We are proud of what our teams continue to create in partnership in South Yorkshire.”

Alan Pardoe, senior manager for manufacturing capability delivery at Rolls-Royce SMR, said: “The AMRC has played a leading role in advancing UK manufacturing over the past 25 years.

“Through its unique and collaborative approach with British industry, it has helped turn ambition into reality - developing the skills, technologies and expertise required for long-term, sustainable success.”

AMRC website

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News: £50m Leger MBO completes

The Rotherham-based Leger Shearings Group, the UK’s largest escorted coach touring holidays operator, has passed into the sole ownership of chief executive Liam Race and chief financial officer Andrew Oldfield, following a management buy-out (MBO) that sees the pair acquire the remaining shares in the business.

The deal, valued in excess of £50m completes a journey the pair began in 2019, when Race, Oldfield and colleague Chris Plummer acquired an initial 30% stake in escorted coach tours company Leger Holidays from Ian Henry who had led the company for over 35 years.

2020 saw the company acquire the assets of iconic coach holiday brand Shearings, following the collapse of former owner Specialist Leisure Group and the Leger Shearings Group was formed.

Race, Oldfield and Plummer increased their holding to a majority stake in 2024, at which point Ian Henry moved to non-executive chairman. The latest transaction sees Race and Oldfield acquire the remaining interests held by the Henry family, taking the two executives to full ownership of the group. The MBO is funded by NatWest, which continues its long-standing relationship with the business.

Ian Henry, exits the business and chief product officer Chris Plummer, a fellow participant in the 2019 buy-out, who has just celebrated 20 years with the business, retires from the group as part of the transaction. Race and Oldfield paid warm tribute to both, crediting them with a central role in the group’s growth and transformation.

Since the initial MBO in 2019, the Canklow company has more than doubled in size. The acquisition of former competitor Shearings is credited with driving that growth and the 2022 acquisition of Arena Travel broadened the product range further, adding its specialist-interest brands.

The buy-out follows a sustained period of growth for the group, which has now delivered 20 consecutive months of growth, with sales and forward bookings both ahead of any previous year at this stage.

In recent years, Leger Shearings Group has been at the forefront of reinventing coach touring, redefining it as a premium experience, often combining luxury, convenience and sustainability while offering travellers an increasingly attractive alternative to flying. Race and Oldfield take ownership with a clear agenda for the next phase, centred on the premiumisation of the Leger brand. This includes Lumina, the group’s new flagship touring experience, which departs for its first tour in April 2027.

Leger Shearings Group carries holidaymakers across the UK, Europe and beyond, combining large-scale escorted coach touring with a growing portfolio of specialist-interest travel. Its brands include the well-known Leger Holidays and Shearings names, alongside crafting-holidays specialist Stitchtopia and bridge-holidays specialist First for Bridge. The group employs around 170 people and carries approximately 100,000 passengers each year.

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Liam Race, chief executive, said: “This is a hugely proud moment for Andy and me, and the natural next step in a journey we started in 2019. Ian built something remarkable over more than 30 years and taking full ownership of Leger Shearings Group is both a privilege and a responsibility we don’t take lightly.

“The business is in the strongest shape it has ever been. We’ve delivered 20 consecutive months of growth, forward bookings are ahead of where we have ever been at this point, and we have ambitious plans to build on that. We’re premiumising the Leger brand, and our new flagship experience, Lumina, sets off on its first departures this April, with more exciting developments still to come. Through all of it our focus stays exactly where it has always been — on the customer, and on the repeat business that great service earns us.”

Race added a personal tribute to his outgoing colleagues: “Ian and Chris have been instrumental in everything we have achieved. Ian leaves an extraordinary legacy, and we wish Chris a long and happy retirement. We are proud to carry the business they helped build into its next chapter.”

Andrew Oldfield, chief financial officer, said: “Completing this buy-out puts the business on the firmest footing it has ever had, and we’re doing it from a position of real strength — record forward bookings, sustained growth and the continued backing of NatWest, who have been alongside us every step of the way. It gives Liam and me the platform to keep investing in our product, our brand and our people, and to pursue the growth opportunities we can clearly see ahead.”

Chris Plummer, who retires from the business, said: “It has been one of the great privileges of my career to help build Leger Shearings Group alongside Liam, Andy and the team. I retire immensely proud of what we have achieved together and completely confident in the future of the business. I’ll be cheering them on.”

Ian Henry said: “Liam and Andy have been at the heart of this company’s growth and transformation. They led the business through the challenges of the Covid era and on through recovery and impressive growth, and they have built a great team of talent around them. It has been the privilege of my career to build this business, and I leave it in excellent hands. I wish them every success.”

Relationship director Andy Croasdell of NatWest, said: “We've worked alongside Leger Shearings Group through several significant milestones in its journey and have seen first-hand the ambition and capability of Liam, Andy and the wider team.

"This latest transaction is the culmination of a long-term succession plan and reflects the confidence we have in the business, its leadership and its future growth prospects. We are delighted to continue supporting the company as it enters this exciting new chapter.”

Shakespeare Martineau (legal) and KPMG (tax) advised the company, and Browne Jacobson advised the Henry family and Chris Plummer with NatWest providing the debt facility to support the transaction.

Leger Shearings website

Images: Leger Shearings

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News: Rotherham is the blueprint for a new age of industrialisation

The successful regeneration of the former Orgreave site in Rotherham and the creation of the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) has been highlighted as a blueprint for a new age of industrialisation by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

John Healey is the government’s chief financial minister and MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough. In his speech at the Labour Party Conference, he said that the site's transformation is "how Britain's industrial past is being remade now for the modern world."

Healey said: "My politics have been shaped by the industrial heartlands of South Yorkshire.

"And the most brutal day of that bitter miner's strike was at Orgreave. Today on the site of the Orgreave pit is Rotherham's Advanced Manufacturing Park, one of the most concentrated areas of innovation anywhere in Britain. It's where South Yorkshire's young people are now working with high-tech systems, making things their grandparents could never have dreamt of.

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"One of those young people is Shaun. Shaun's dad was a local miner, but there were no pit jobs for Shaun. So, he joined the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. He joined as an apprentice. And so, while his dad mined the coal that kept Britain's lights on, above that same coal seem, Shaun is now working on high-tech research for the future of nuclear power.

"Our coal mines are not coming back. But this is how Britain's industrial past is being remade now for the modern world. It's how people are starting to tell each other stories of the future and not the past. And this is a story we can tell across the country.

"This is the new age of industrialisation. This is the new confidence in Britain, lit by this government, driven forward by business. So don't tell me it's not possible to create a new age of British industry. Don't tell me it's not possible to have good growth in every postcode. And don't tell me that people can't hope again."

Healey also confirmed a £300m investment in sites across the country from Rolls-Royce which includes the £21.3m expansion project at its Advanced Blade Casting Facility (ABCF) on the AMP in Rotherham.

In June, Rothbiz reported on the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) analysis of the AMP and Rotherham which showed that real gross value added (GVA) grew in the AMP area from £111.6m in 2004 to £369.8m in 2022, a 231% increase in real terms, the strongest of any area in the borough by a substantial margin.

Healey's speech started with banter with the Prime Minister watching on: "I know Manchester is a great city, just like Liverpool is a great city, but give me Rotherham any day of the week."

Images: Labour Party / YouTube

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News: Rotherham tour operator on the road to a record year

Rotherham-based Leger Shearings Group, the UK's largest escorted coach tour operator, has posted impressive financial results for 2025 and has carried on performing well this year too.

Coach tours are in demand despite consumers having less discretionary spending available for holidays.

The Canklow company, which has over 200 employees, offers self-drive breaks, holidays to the UK and Europe, specialist Battlefield Tours, and educational experiences across four different brands.

Since an initial management buy out (MBO) in 2019 and the acquisition of Shearings in July 2020, the group's presence in the UK has increased significantly. A 2024 injection of funding from NatWest followed.

For the year ended December 31 2025, Leger Holidays Ltd posted its strongest trading EBITDA (earnings before taxes) to date, totalling £6.1m, a 21.29% increase compared to 2024. Consolidated turnover for the year amounted to £79.8m, reflecting a 3.1% increase from the previous year.

The board said that the company had maintained a strong focus on product innovation, continually developing and refreshing its holiday portfolio across both brands with new itineraries, destinations and experiences designed around evolving customer preferences. The ongoing investment in the product range and customer proposition helped sustain demand and underpins the Group's growth strategy.

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Customer satisfaction remains high, with the Group's two principal brands independently rated 'Excellent' on Trustpilot as at June 2026, with Leger Holidays scoring 4.5 out of 5 and Shearings 4.3 out of 5, reflecting continued strong approval from clients.

Forward bookings were described as strong with Leger and Shearings each tracking double-digit growth for both the 2026 and 2027 seasons, building at record levels.

Into 2026 and the company recorded the highest sales day in the company’s history, exceeding the previous record by more than 25%. It went on to post 15 consecutive months of sales growth and a record-breaking May. July saw Simon Bingley join the group's board as Commercial Director.

In addition to competition in the market and the impact of geo-political events and natural disasters, the company picked out how demand for holidays is affected by local economic conditions. The accounts add that: "During 2025, rising costs across the economy have affected the cost of holiday arrangements and resulted in consumers having less discretionary spending available for travel. However, this has been compensated by the high level of consumer demand for coach tours in the UK and Europe."

Looking ahead, the company is set to launch Lumina in 2027, a brand-new flagship coach offering, and the first launch since 2015's Luxuria.

Liam Race, CEO at Leger Shearings Group, explained that people "love the stress-free, ultra-comfortable side of coach travel – no flying, no airport drama, no hanging around wondering what's gone wrong. It's a kinder way to see Europe, and a more sustainable one. Lumina takes everything people already love about that experience and pushes it a step further. After more than a decade in the making, we can't wait to welcome you on board."

Leger Shearings Group website

Images: Leger Shearings Group

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