Rupert Douglas

After a year of stop-start opening and restrictions on trade, the first step in a full re-opening of the economy has taken place on Monday 12th April. England has moved into step 2 of the ‘cautious but irreversible’ easing of lockdown, meaning that hospitality can open outdoors alongside non-essential retail, gyms, zoos and beauty services.

The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has announced that frontline health workers and their dependents will be granted free visa extensions. The extensions will be automatically granted to elligble workrs whose visas were set to expire by 1st October 2021.

The Transport Secretary, Grant Schapps, has released a framework that sets out how international travel can return in a safe way. Utilising a traffic light system that will place countries into risk categories in an effort to protect the public & vaccination programme from new variants of Covid-19.

British National (Overseas) families resettling in the UK via the Hong Kong BN(O) route will be given support to help them settle in the country. The support will be a dedicated package backed by over £43 million.

Writing for the Mail on Sunday, Leaders Council chairman Lord Blunkett, wants to see a measured response to the allegations of child sexual assault in schools made by the contributors to the ‘Everyone’s Invited’ website.

Russell Finex is a global leader in the manufacture of high-quality sieving and filtration solutions. Established in 1934, they have shown continuous innovation to remain a market leader and an example of best practise. Over the past month they have successfully improved plastic recycling, helped a chocolate manufacturer maintain product quality and launched a health and safety compliance package.

In a pioneering effort to make the ocean wildlife and diverse eco-systems of the oceans surrounding UK overseas Terrirtories (UKOTs) more visible. A major network of underwater cameras are to be deployed to collect data and map habitats.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss, will be sitting down with her counterparts across the G7 and the WTO’s Director General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to look at a reform of global trade.

GK Training Services are a small, friendly and focused independent training provider that works with young people on a variety of courses. The learners recently contributed to the Leigh Neighbours Butterfly Project.

While hospitality and live shows are still closed, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre have continued to provide excellent entertainment through other means by launching a new vodast. Adrian Jackson, CEO & Creative Director, has also been nominated for a West Midlands Leadership Award for the work he has done lighting the way through a very difficult year.

In today's leadership round-up we see that Techna International have a taken a step towards a greener future and that Colin Low, founder of Kingsfleet Wealth, continues to shine a spotlight on the businesses, leaders and charities across Suffolk.

Ed Balls, former Shadow Chancellor, was part of a session with members of The Leaders Council talking about the rise of populism across Europe.

Evtec Automotive rescued the Arlington car parts manufacturer back in May 2020. The rescue deal saw more than 60 jobs saved for disabled workers at the plant after it went into administration as a result of Covid-19 and a drop in car sales.

Sport4Kids (S4K) have announced that they have joined the UK governments Kickstart Programme

New report suggests that the cyber risk to organisations has been heightened because of the pandemic, with an increase in home working leading to less security measures being in place.