Government praise Urban Vision

Government inspectors have praised Urban Vision Partnership Ltd, a joint venture company with Salford City Council, Capita Symonds and Morrison, for the innovative way it manages its heavy planning workload.

The Audit Commission has held it up as a case study, highlighting it as the only joint venture in the country to provide a comprehensive development control function through the private sector.

Urban Vision provides the council and its users with services in engineering, highways, planning, building control and architectural and landscape design. It also processes all planning applications on behalf of the Council and deals with enforcement issues and appeals and manages the council’s land and property assets.

As a result of the partnership, Salford residents will see £22m worth of road and pavement improvements over the next five years.

The report 'The Planning System: Matching Expectations and Delivery' said that:

"The company's early performance is encouraging. The users of the service reported that they receive a good service from development control staff and noticed no impact on service...the company has continued to reduce the timetaken to deal with all categories of planning application."

For example, the percentage of major planning applications dealt within 13-weeks exceeds the national target for processing times. 64% were completed in a 13-week period between April and September 2005, compared with 61% in 2004/5 The national target is currently 60%.

Urban Vision has also secured work outside Salford which helps manage its peaks and troughs in workload. It is providing planning services for the Isle of Wight and has contributed to bids for work related to the 2012 London Olympics bid. This varied work is seen as key to retaining staff.

Bill Taylor, MD of Urban Vision says:

“In creating Urban Vision our aim, first and foremost, is to deliver tangible improvements for residents and for people who work and invest here.

“We have made encouraging progress in our first year and it's fantastic that that has been recognised on a national level.”

13 February 2006

This page was last updated on 13 May 2011