More than 200 affordable homes are being built in Sleaford at three new developments after the Partnership Homes division of Westleigh Developments revealed an investment programme worth approximately £18.5m. Work is underway at three sites on Church Street, Boston Road and Lincoln Road in Holdingham and is expected to take until January 2011. Once completed, Westleigh, in partnership with two regional housing associations, will have built 153 new houses and 53 apartments. The development at Church Street – a joint venture with the Gainsborough-based Acis Group – consists of 72 affordable homes built on vacated industrial land. This scheme is expected to be completed by December 2010. The two remaining sites are both in partnership with the Nottingham Community Housing Association. The development at Boston Road consists of 37 affordable homes and was completed late last year. Lincoln Road in Holdingham, meanwhile, will comprise 97 affordable homes and is expected to be finished by January 2011. Ian Jones, business development director at Westleigh Developments, said: “When complete, it is anticipated that some of these houses and apartments will be available on a shared-ownership basis, while others will be available for rent.”

A multipurpose national cycling velodrome is the centrepiece of a report detailing a £50m overhaul of Derby’s leisure facilities to be presented to the Council Cabinet later this month. The proposals being considered include two leisure hubs. One outdoor hub will include a 250m indoor cycling velodrome with a ten- to 12-court sports hall, which could also be used as a 3,000- to 4,000-seat concert venue, and a 2km closed outdoor road cycling circuit and athletics track. A second indoor hub would include a 50m pool for competitive swimming at a regional level and leisure use.

Leicestershire and London dating site Lovestruck.com, which matches city singles who work in close proximity, has raised £285,000 in series A funding from several business angels and the East Midlands Early Growth Fund. “This financing will provide the capital to grow Lovestruck rapidly,” said managing director Brett Harding. “2010 is a pivotal year for our industry, as mobile dating is still uncharted territory. Lovestruck’s USP is proximity to other singles that work close by, so we are uniquely placed to capitalise on the latest location-based features of the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android platform. We are absolutely delighted to have secured such an experienced group of investors.” Connect Midlands, Geldards and Nelsons all worked on the deal.

Land Rover UK has revealed that sales between October and December 2009 were up 93 per cent year on year. Sales of the Discovery 4 and Range Rover Sport, which went on sale at the beginning of September, improved by 115 per cent and 116 per cent, respectively, for the last quarter of 2009. Overall sales for 2009 were strong, particularly in the second half of the year, but down 10.8 per cent year on year due to a record-breaking first quarter in 2008.

Mitchells and Butlers, the Midlands pub owners, have enjoyed a strong Christmas and New Year with a like-for-like sales growth of 3.4 per cent in the six weeks to 2 January. In an interim management statement released this morning, the company also said that like-for-like food and drink sales were up 5.5 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively, over the period. The board, however, insisted that it was still cautious regarding the outlook for consumer spending, especially in the second half of the year.

A further cash boost has been announced to support the University of Lincoln's new School of Engineering. Emda, through the European Regional Development Fund and Lincolnshire County Council, has confirmed an investment of more than £3m in the new facility. This is in addition to the £4.3m grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England announced in July and major investment by Siemens. The School will be the first purpose-built engineering school to be created in the UK for more than 20 years; the additional funding will enable the creation of an engineering hub that will work closely with business.

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Stoke-on-Trent contractor Seddon Property Services has sealed a £2.5m deal to maintain hundreds of homes across North West England. The three-year partnering agreement involves cyclical maintenance to social-housing properties managed by the Regenda Group in North Cheshire, North Manchester and Merseyside. It follows a successful working relationship between the painting and property maintenance company and Bolton-based Regenda.

Midlands developer Cedar House Investments has made a positive start to 2010, with the announcement that it has leased further office space at Charter Point, its five-acre flagship office development in Ashby. The company has leased an additional floor of office accommodation to D Radio Control, which specialises in the design and manufacture of radio-controlled model cars for hobbyists and model-car enthusiasts. The company moved to Charter Point last July after its launch in April. Its decision to take further space within the scheme follows a successful first year of business and forms part of its planned expansion.

A pioneer of the West Midlands IT industry has logged off for the last time. John Dixon, who was born and brought up in Coventry, founded IT firm Computime in 1985, after leaving school at 15 and working for Roots Motors and Massey Ferguson. He took redundancy from the tractor manufacturer when he turned 40 and built Coventry-based Computime up to be one of the most successful IT support and software sales and development companies in the area. He merged the firm with Coleshill-based Acutec last year, and after helping to ensure the transition went well, he has decided to hang up his mouse and keyboard for the last time. “The whole merger has gone very well, and the new group is better placed than ever to succeed, so I feel the time is right for me to step down,” he said.

East Midlands business adviser Cooper Parry has appointed Daniel Haigh as manager within its business recovery and insolvency services team. Haigh previously worked for Hazlewoods in Gloucestershire, where he passed his chartered accountancy and insolvency exams (JIEB). He then went on to BRI UK in Coventry before joining Cooper Parry.

On-site equipment provider ArcGen Hilta, which operates from Four Ashes near Wolverhampton, has appointed Andy Thompson to the newly created role of national key account manager. Chief executive Mark Hodgkins said: “We have been developing our key account programs with major rental companies over the past 18 months. Despite the difficult trading conditions, we now require additional resources to enhance our service and product offering to our important key accounts.”