Ashford on Track

Hitachi Training Scheme

More than 1,200 jobs have been created in Ashford over the past year, providing a further boost to the market town’s multi-million-pound growth plans.

Opportunities to train in highly-skilled sectors also continue to grow. Hitachi Rail Maintenance, which opened its state-of-the-art train maintenance centre in Ashford in October last year, is one employer giving the town’s school and college leavers the chance to join an apprenticeship scheme.

The company, which maintains the fleet of Hitachi-built trains operating the new high-speed Ashford-to-St Pancras services, will be putting youngsters through a three-year programme of training and development from September. The apprenticeship scheme includes the opportunity to work as part of the team in Ashford as well as the chance to gain nationally recognised qualifications and a career as a maintenance engineering technician.

Judith Armitt, managing director of Ashford’s Future, the organisation tasked with delivering the ambitious growth agenda for the town, said: “The Hitachi apprenticeship scheme is an excellent example of the increasing number of highly-skilled training opportunities available in Ashford.

“This is an exciting time for Ashford. With the arrival of the 37 minute rail service to London next year we are a popular location for new and expanding companies. We can predict many others will soon find Ashford best placed to do business.”

Locate in Kent, the county’s investment promotion agency, assisted companies to create or retain 1,047 jobs in Ashford between April 2007 and April 2008.

Chief executive Paul Wookey said: “Half our successes in Ashford have been in the ICT sector, with other jobs being created in construction and property, financial services, engineering and printing. Furthermore, 97% were knowledge-based jobs indicating the town is attracting a high-quality workforce.”

Thursday, 09 October 2008

Put your rents up

Put Your Rents Up! Citywire reports that average rents are up from £9,665 in January 2007 to £10,334. Regions achieving the highest rents are London (£17,869), the South West (£12,263) and the South East (£10,824). The average price paid by landlords for an investment property is now £169,167 compared with £164,141, an increase of 2.4% on the month but only 3.5% over the past year. ‘Professional landlords with significant portfolios and funding capability are seizing the opportunity to buy,’ said Simon Tyler, managing director of mortgage broker Chase De Vere. ‘They take a long-term view of 15 or 20 years and know that we are not building enough homes to cater for the growing population, which is expected to reach 65 million by 2020.’ Buy-to-let lenders Paragon says that lending completions are over 30% higher than a year ago, and the pipeline of new business is larger than it was in 2006. Latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders shows buy-to-let volumes are 19.4% higher in the second half of 2006 than in the first half. An estimated one in five of all new mortgages is for a buy-to-let property. According to Paragon, activity among residential property investors continues to be strong, with landlords adding to their portfolios, despite the three rises in short-term borrowing costs since last summer.

Wednesday, 25 April 2007