Balfour Beatty appointed as preferred bidder in regeneration project

NORTH East Lincolnshire Council is delighted to announce the appointment of Balfour Beatty as preferred bidder for its multi-million pound physical regeneration, property and technical services partnership.

Following a closed meeting of the full council on Thursday, March 25, members gave full cross-party support to the decision and the council will now enter into a 10 year relationship with Balfour Beatty. The meeting was not held in public as the discussions included commercially sensitive information about the prospective partners, making this public may have prevented the council from getting the best value for money for residents.

Leader of North East Lincolnshire Council, Councillor Andrew DeFreitas, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to speed up progress on the regeneration of the borough. Our new partner, Balfour Beatty, will work with us to:
• create 4,200 new jobs for the area;
• generate 250 training, work placement / apprenticeship placements and 150 work placements for school children;
• deliver 3,500 new and improved homes;
• reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads by 33 per cent and 50 per cent respectively;
• identify and secure a minimum of £570m public and private sector investment into the borough, and
• deliver key regeneration projects such as in Grimsby Town Centre, Cleethorpes, Immingham, Freeman Street and the South Humber Bank.

“The negotiations with Balfour Beatty have resulted in a partnership that will see significant improvement in service delivery at a lower cost to the taxpayer. I am proud of what our staff involved in the relevant service areas have achieved and 317 people will be moving across to Balfour Beatty. This ground-breaking partnership is set to add pace, expertise and skills to enhance what we could have achieved alone, especially in the difficult market conditions we are experiencing.”

Following the full council meeting, Councillor Keith Brookes, Leader of the Conservative Group stated: “Since 1996 when NELC was formed, many attempts have been made to re-engineer departments and working practices to improve performance. This partnership will deliver the improvements to services our residents deserve, including urban regeneration, highways and transport, with value for money being a top priority.

“I am pleased that the administration and the officers have worked with my Group over many months of tough negotiations to look after the interests of staff and agree the performance targets set for Balfour Beatty. This will result in the delivery of a better quality of life for our residents, new jobs, improved housing and most importantly the regeneration of North East Lincolnshire.”

The Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Chris Shaw concluded: “This is the most important decision taken by this authority since it was formed and the Labour Group has agreed to support this new way forward. Officers of the authority and the administration have listened to our Group’s concerns and have done a sound job in making sure that people will not be disadvantaged by this move. We believe that this is a positive move for residents, staff and visitors and it has our full support.”

Commenting today, Balfour Beatty Chief Executive, Ian Tyler, said: “We are delighted to have been named as a strategic delivery partner by North East Lincolnshire Council. This partnership will make a major contribution to the regeneration of the region. We will deploy the capabilities of the Balfour Beatty group and develop and build on the strengths of transferring staff to deliver a programme focused on job creation, inward investment and substantial service improvement.”

Balfour Beatty is firmly committed to the project and so confident that they can deliver the key services and outcomes set out in the contract, that they have offered to put a significant proportion of their profit at risk if they fail to achieve the agreed service levels.

Current service levels will be maintained from the start of the partnership with a commitment from Balfour Beatty to put the council amongst the best within three years. This will be achieved by delivering ‘more for less’, meaning that savings will be made and a positive impact on services achieved.