The National Joint Utilities Group has promised improvements in performance so that street works in the UK are ‘world class’.
A new NJUG ‘vision’ containing high-level aspirations to ‘strive for continuous improvement and high quality’, and ‘to ensure all utilities minimise disruption’, would be followed by more detailed performance indicators, NJUG’s new chief executive Richard Wakelen said.
While individual member companies had ‘a good understanding of their performance’ on issues such as minimising overruns and safety at works, ‘there is a need for a better picture across the piece’, he said. Benchmarking with other countries would play a key part, and this would be possible by considering the operations of the companies operating in several countries, such as EDF in France, Germany and Italy, and National Grid in the United States. The exercise would enable utilities ‘to understand just how good we are’,
Wakelen said, after the launch of the document, which was praised by the Department for Transport. Changes in performance over time would be monitored by NJUG’s new director of performance, Jennifer Gilbert. NJUG will also encourage further partnerships along the lines of that signed by EDF and East Sussex County Council, where both parties committed their sub-contractors to better communication and better work quality.
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