Last year, Labour councillors were livid when former Salford Mayor, Ian Stewart, secretly sneaked through a three year contract extension for Urban Vision, until 2020, and 'worth up to £90million'*.
Urban Vision handles all the city's property development, planning, highways and project management, and is Salford Council's joint venture company in which it holds a 19.9% stake, with Galliford Try Infrastructure holding 30% and Capita Property and Infrastructure holding a 50.1% stake.
Set up in 2005, Urban Vision has been racked with controversy ever since. Research carried out by the Salford Star last year shows that Urban Vision costings can be double those of other councils.*
Residents and ex-employees have alleged that the contract prices are sky high because the company, which has exclusivity on many projects, gets a percentage of the total fee; so the bigger the contract price, the bigger its fee.**
Urban Vision made a profit of £1.045million last year, despite Salford Council cuts to expenditure. The Council bought £23.412million of services from Urban Vision during 2016/17, which included a management fee of £10million. This year, as part of the contract extension, Urban Vision's budget includes a 'saving' of £2.552million "to be delivered with no reduction in services", while a dividend to the Council will finally be paid for the first time.
The Council now appears set to ditch Urban Vision completely in 2020 at the end of its contract. It is currently tendering for a company to "engage in a Soft Market Testing exercise...to assist the Council with reviewing its options for innovative and robust delivery models" for the service currently provide by Urban Vision.
"The Council is currently engaged in a Joint Venture with Urban Vision Partnership Limited to provide highways, planning, property and asset management services on behalf on the Council" states the tender document "This contract comes to an end in January 2020. The purpose of this Soft Market Testing exercise is to gain intelligence from the supply market for delivery models and other strategic considerations, for the provision of these services."
Interested companies "are invited to respond to the attached Market Engagement Questionnaire in writing along with providing details of their solution and organisation", and then to attend a Council Soft Market Testing Workshop on 2nd, 3rd and 4th August at the AJ Bell Stadium.
The days of Urban Vision could well be numbered...
*For a full background see previous Salford Star article: Secret £90million Deal Extends Urban Vision Contract – click here
** Late last year, Salford City Council received a total of £278,200 from the Incentive Fund and the Pothole Action Fund, for which Urban Vision was automatically awarded the contract...
Of the £278,200, the actual works cost £196,667. The rest went to Urban Vision in overheads and profits...Depot Cost (13.5%) £26,550; Overhead and Profit (15.4%) £34,376; Design and Supervision (8%) £20,608...
"It is usual for highways works to be undertaken by Urban Vision Partnership Ltd in accordance with the exclusivity terms in the Development Services Partnering Agreement" stated the Salford Council report.
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