Norse Highways

Norse Highways is part of Norse Group, the UK’s leading local authority trading company. Wholly owned by Norfolk County Council, Norse combines commercial knowhow with a public service ethos, working in partnership with local authorities to deliver a wide range of services, including highways. The group has almost thirty joint venture companies, co-owned with councils across the UK, delivering financial and social benefits, and giving our partners a high degree of control. Like most local authority departments, in Highways the demand on services is increasing, as are public expectations. It comes as no surprise then that councils are looking for innovative solutions to deliver more effective highways services, using a similar level of resources whilst retaining a high standard of customer service. Norse Highways manages almost 10,000km of Norfolk’s highways in its partnership with Norfolk County Council. Our experienced team helps to maintain, improve and manage the use of the county’s public roads. A comprehensive range of services includes pothole repairs, routine maintenance, carriageway surfacing and repair, private works, emergency response and winter gritting. Supporting these services, we have two important in-house operations, both of which enhance performance and efficiency, and provide external revenue streams – an important feature of our partnerships: Norfolk Partnership Laboratory, an innovative one stop shop for testing and consultancy services to the construction industry. As a UKAS Testing Laboratory we are able to carry out a comprehensive range of tests both on site and laboratory based. Our mobile consultancy and testing services include: • Geotechnical and geo-environmental specialisms • Pavement and structures engineering • Ground penetrating radar • Pavement and ground investigations • Fast Lane Training Services (FLTS), over 30 years of experience providing both static and mobile training and assessment for a wide range of customers delivering a flexible, high quality specialist service approved by City & Guilds, Lantra, CITB Construction Skills and JAUPT. Justin Galliford, Norse Group CEO, feels that the time is right to roll out its ground-breaking partnership model to the wider Local Authority market. “In 2019 Norse Group formed a partnership with Norfolk County Council - Norse Highways - to deliver highways maintenance services. Since then, the company has delivered significant cost savings, improved services and developed external revenue streams, sharing profits with the council. “With this success, we believe that the Norse partnership model provides the opportunity for other local authorities to benefit from our unique blend of ethical commercialism and public service ethos to achieve the same benefits. And we believe that Highways would derive particular benefits – because of the flexibility of the model, and the direct control held by our partner councils, the ability to re-deploy resources quickly enables us to meet changing needs, without the need for contract re-negotiation. “In our joint venture model, our partner council owns shares in the JV company, and enjoys board representation, giving them a direct say in service delivery. This is also popular with local residents, who show an increasing preference for insourcing of key services, rather than traditional outsourcing to the private sector. “Our council partners acknowledge that the model provides comprehensive, cost-effective and flexible delivery of a wide range of highways services, whilst ensuring that the council’s strategic objectives are met.” he says. “Norse Group has a strong financial pedigree, a proven track record of providing high-quality, effective services, underpinned with valuable efficiencies that don’t compromise performance levels. These provide local authorities the assured continuity for long-term service delivery. It’s that trust which is central to our business model.” Learn more about the Norse joint venture at www.norsepartnerships.co.uk