How we've helped W J New Plumbing and Heating

Following two decades working under somebody else, William and Helen New thought 2020 provided the chance to take the leap and be their own boss.

With William’s vast experience working within the plumbing and heating industry, W J New Plumbing and Heating was born in the early part of 2020. Yes, the early part of 2020; just as COVID was starting to take hold the world over.

“We registered the business in December 2019 and started things officially in April 2020. It wasn’t an ideal time to establish a new business, as Will had given up his previous job, but we just had to go with it,” said Helen.

Despite a few bumps along the way the business is now thriving, and while the team still remains small the New’s have high hopes for what lies ahead.

“We’d like to increase the number of staff over time, but we want to have that stability there first so we can offer staff a full-time job with a decent wage. We’re not interested in offering zero-hour contracts,” Helen said.

In order to spur on that development, Helen approached the Skills Hub for assistance with acquiring training to help them work more in the field of sustainability.

With so much Government focus now on reducing emissions, and equipping homes to be fit for an eco-friendly future, Helen believes that this is where their future focus work-wise will lie.

“Your business is only as good as the skills you have got. On the engineering and tech side we want to embrace the push towards more environmentally friendly options so this can become something that we can offer to the Cornish community.

“With new Government policy coming in to play around sustainability and the environment as a whole we see this as being an area in which we need to be doing work in,” she said.

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Skills Hub from October 2017 - June 2023 was part funded by the European Social Fund and match funded by Cornwall Council and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership. The project  received £2,885,993 of funding from the European Social Fund as part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England.