Focus Consultants helps secure £2.46m Heritage Lottery Fund grant for Peterborough Cathedral

Heritage and funding experts at Focus Consultants are celebrating the news that Peterborough Cathedral has been awarded a £2.46m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Nottingham-based Focus Consultants was appointed to assist the management of the second-round bid to the HLF. News of its success means that Focus has now helped to secure more than £925m of grant assistance for a range of projects and businesses across the UK since 1994.

“It is great news that the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded a £2.46m grant for the ‘Peterborough 900: Letting it speak for itself' project, which is introducing ambitious improvements to Peterborough Cathedral to mark the 900th anniversary of its founding,” said Steven Fletcher, partner at Focus Consultants.

“Focus worked with a number of specialists to develop the scheme design for the planned new Heritage, Visitor and Education Centre at Peterborough Cathedral, which is the first phase in a multi-million pound project. Other developments being planned for the future include a new Cathedral and Community Music School and improvements to the cathedral, its furnishings and its precincts.”

Focus Consultants specialises in creative approaches to securing funding packages, and has worked to help a number of significant heritage, ecclesiastical, arts, culture and leisure schemes gain grants from a range of funding sources.

It is part of the team that earlier this year secured a £3.55m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for work on England’s second oldest cathedral, Rochester Cathedral. Focus is project manager and quantity surveyor on a project at the cathedral which is introducing new visitor displays in the crypt and library, while improving access to the atmospheric spaces and showcasing the cathedral's centrepiece manuscript: the Textus Roffensis.

Focus has also been successful in helping clients with Regional Growth Fund (RGF) bids. Engineering firm Bifrangi secured up to £4.8m of growth funding from the RGF to develop a research and development centre in Lincoln after working closely with Focus to develop the bid.

The Very Reverend Charles Taylor, Dean of Peterborough said: “This award is very good news both for Peterborough Cathedral, for the city and the wider region. It affirms our plans to make our cathedral more accessible to new visitors, not only physically but also intellectually and culturally. This can only be good for the regional life and economy. We are enormously grateful to HLF for recognising what the cathedral can offer to the community, and also to all who have supported the bid.”

Focus Consultants is based at Phoenix Business Park in Nottingham with offices in London, Leicester, Boston and Aubourn, near Lincoln.

For more information visit www.focus-consultants.co.uk

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Focus Consultants wins Pro5 framework appointment

Focus Consultants has been appointed to one of the largest local government frameworks in the country for two years, with the option of a two-year extension.

Steven Fletcher, Focus Consultants

The Nottingham-based firm has won a position on the Pro5 national framework, a public sector buying consortia comprising the Central Buying Consortium, Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation, North East Purchasing Organisation and the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation.

Following a competitive tendering process, Focus was successful in being appointed to provide consultancy advice on leisure, culture and heritage services, regeneration and regional development and asset management and delivery.

Focus Consultants has also been appointed to provide consultancy support in the community research and engagement sector for local authorities and the wider public sector nationwide following the firm’s appointment to the Pro5 framework.

“This is excellent news for the business,” said Focus partner Steven Fletcher.

“We are delighted to have been appointed to the framework. It is a great opportunity for Focus and public sector clients to work in partnership and build beneficial lasting relationships.

“We were appointed following a competitive tendering process, and it effectively means that any local authority in the country and its associated services such as the police and the fire service can effectively pick up the phone and ask Focus to carry out the required work.

“To be appointed to this framework, Focus went through a rigorous vetting process. Future clients can benefit from this – reducing the time taken to procure consultants and realising major cost savings and improved efficiency.”

Focus, with its headquarters at Phoenix Business Park, Nottingham, and branches in Leicester, Boston, Aubourn in Lincolnshire and Holborn in London, specialises in funding, research and economic development, project and programme management, construction and property services and energy carbon sustainability services.

The firm has worked with both the public and private sector to secure more than £900 million of grant assistance and delivered more than £1 billion of projects and programmes since 1994.

Focus has secured a number of high-profile projects recently including being appointed project manager for a multi-million pound redevelopment at the National Army Museum in Chelsea.

Focus has also recently been appointed to the Victoria & Albert Museum framework to develop and deliver temporary exhibitions at the prestigious London museum, and is working with both Rochester and Peterborough Cathedrals on major redevelopments.

For more information about Focus Consultants visit www.focus-consultants.co.uk

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Focus Consultants partner completes the London Marathon for charity

Sporting Steven Fletcher, a partner at Nottingham-based Focus Consultants, has raised more than £2,500 for charity after taking part in the London Marathon.

Steven, who lives at Ravenshead, completed the 26 miles and 385 yards, in three hours 41 minutes.

It was the fourth marathon he’d undertaken in the last four years, having previously run the London, New York and Edinburgh marathons.

Steven, 43, ran in aid of Get Kids Going - a national charity that gives children and young people with disabilities the specialist support to participate in sport.

“My mother used to work at Fountaindale School in Mansfield which is a specialised school for disabled children, plus I am absolutely passionate about sport of any kind and I am lucky enough to have two fit and healthy children who have every opportunity to take part in sport, so for me it is important that others are given the same access to opportunities,” said Steven.

Among those who donated were Steven’s colleagues at Focus offices at Phoenix Business Park, Nottingham, Endeavour Park, Boston, Princess Road East, Leicester, Aubourn, Lincoln, and Holborn, London.

Focus Consultants specialises in creative approaches to securing funding packages and delivering high quality projects across the UK. Since its creation in 1994, Focus has secured over £800 million of grant assistance, and delivered more than £1 billion of projects and programmes - including enterprise support, innovation, culture, health, regeneration, affordable homes and energy carbon sustainability projects.

Anyone wishing to add to the total raised, which stands at more than £2,500, can visit Steven’s fundraising webpage at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/StevenFletcher1

www.focus-consultants.co.uk

Issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk