Interview: Bob Gallienne, chief executive, NJUG

“We have to find better, smarter, more effective ways of delivering streetworks.”

Let’s face it: streetworks aren’t sexy. But they are unavoidable, time consuming, expensive – and one of one the main touchpoints with an increasingly irritable general public. Bob Gallienne, the chief executive of NJUG (the National Joint Utilities Group), is the man charged with sorting them out. In post for a year, Gallienne has already achieved structural reform internally, and now he’s looking to raise the profile of streetworks on the national stage.

He meets Utility Week on a summer morning at NJUG’s London headquarters, located in the Westminster office of Political Intelligence, the body’s lobbying consultants. It’s a good indicator of the central role lobbying plays in NJUG’s work. A water-man by trade, with an impressive CV of far-flung appointments, he is a natural diplomat who focuses on building relationships to effect change. Today, he provides a sneak preview of the message that will be going out to politicians over the next few months: streetworks need consistency, professionalism and equal representation for utilities and local authorities to minimise time spent in the road and cost to consumers. Could this mean a streetworks commissioner, as already exists in Scotland? Watch this space.

As Gallienne is quick to point out, streetworks are going to have a bigger and bigger impact on the nation’s roads and, by extension, everyone who uses them. “We’re looking at a very, very significant infrastructure programme being delivered by utilities. Meanwhile, we’re looking at a massive population increase – 73 million people by 2035 according to the Armitt report, which when you think about it, is not that far away in planning terms. We’re told by the Department for Transport that we’re going to have a 43 per cent increase in traffic volumes by 2040; we have significant pressures from increased housing build, increased economic growth, and all of these things are placing pressure on the road and streetworks. So there’s going to be an increased amount of streetworks activity, but there’s also going to be increased population and road usage.”

The potential for disruption is huge, which is why, for Gallienne, minimising road occupation is the name of the game. “We have to find better, smarter, more effective ways of delivering streetworks – innovation is fundamental. The other fundamental is collaboration and co-operation between highway authorities and utilities.”

A common joke in streetworks is that Heineken got it right with their tongue-in-cheek television advert depicting contractors of all types sharing one hole in the road. It’s not quite that simple – but Gallienne’s vision isn’t far away. “We want to be in a situation as far as possible (and it’s not always possible), that we’re carrying out major works at the same time, or at least going in sequentially, with only one set of reinstatement done.”

This, he believes, will find a far more sympathetic public. “If you explain why and for how long, in terms of streetworks, people will understand it and get it. There is a point at which things become unacceptable and there needs to be more effective co-ordination providing greater opportunity to reduce road occupation.”

There’s the rub. The interaction with the planning authorities is often fraught, with frustrations on both sides. This is just about to get more complicated, when a government move to further devolve certain powers to local authorities takes effect this autumn. Permit schemes for streetworks currently pass through the Department for Transport, where they are “rigorously examined and approved”, and NJUG has the right to comment, which it has done more than 20 times in the past few months. This all changes in October when these powers devolve to local authorities. Gallienne fears this could destroy consistency, creating confusion and costing utilities – and ­ultimately customers – time and money. “One of the things that concerns us is that if the guidelines and conditions that have been set down are not complied with or are misinterpreted, what opportunity do we have as utilities to appeal? We’re lobbying hard into government at the moment to say there needs to be the ability for utilities to have somewhere to go and say that a particular scheme is being incorrectly applied, it doesn’t comply with the regulations or codes of practice conditions, and we believe there should be a referee who can rule on that.”

Gallienne cites the Scottish model: “They have a Roads Works Commissioner and she has responsibility looking across roads authorities and utilities, on an equal basis. Where they’re not working together effectively, she can put pressure to bring everyone up to the correct level.”

Does Gallienne believe there should be a similar commissioner in England? “That’s a difficult call because people would see it as another quango. But once we’ve extracted the data showing the rising administration cost of permit schemes as just one example, it could become clear that the cost of having a small office, which would monitor and provide checks and balances, would pay significant dividends.”

This data-gathering is the next phase for NJUG. It is collecting numbers to quantify the cost of streetworks, and specifically the potential cost of the changes to permit schemes.

“We’re looking at the future cost risk to utilities if permit schemes and lane rental are rolled out across the whole of the country, and other potential aspects of legislation which are out there, because then we can start to put a scale and number on that. It won’t be insignificant and there’s only one place it goes to, which is the public, and we need to question the benefit of it.”

With this information, says Gallienne, NJUG will be “fully armed to move forward”. It’s already made changes below the radar. First, Gallienne, who took the helm at NJUG in August last year, tightened up the organisation’s structure. A diverse membership organisation, it represents utilities of all kinds, as well as contractors and other members of the supply chain. “We have 53 members in total and a number of companies affiliated to NJUG. One of the things I wanted to change when I joined was to provide board-level ­representation of contractors – because it’s the ­contractors who are actually ­carrying out a great deal of the work. We have resolved this and Dan Holland, the managing director of Amey ­utilities and defence division, has just joined the board.

“I’ve restructured NJUG to have a strategic board that’s looking forward and really understanding where we should be adding value, and what actions we have to take. In addition, we have a management team, which we didn’t have before, which is the engine room of NJUG, which is now responsible for ensuring that the strategy agreed by the board is delivered.”

With its own house in order, NJUG can concentrate on the serious business of influencing policy. “We are now very focused on representing our members in our interface with government and stakeholders, particularly in the run-up to the election and beyond. I’ve spent quite a large proportion of my time visiting all our members and stakeholders, and had close to 100 visits in the first 12 months.

“I’ve been explaining the way in which NJUG is changing, and setting our key areas of focus in terms of driving up standards of work and minimising road occupation where safe and practical to do so, as well as understanding the true costs of undertaking streetworks. I think we have clarity on that now.”

For Gallienne, success means avoiding the kind of political interference that has become standard in the energy supply sector. “It’s about being trusted to self-regulate; an acceptance that we are able to demonstrate we are responsible and delivering to the standards required. Success is a period of stability where we’re able to concentrate on delivering further excellence rather than implementing new legislative requirements with no clear benefits to the community as a whole.”

With a background running international operations for water companies, including stints in Bulgaria and Manila, Gallienne is well versed in the importance of diplomacy and relationships. When the call came about the NJUG job, he saw “something I could get my teeth into and make a difference”. After a year in the job, he’s well on the way.