Just recently, I attended a meeting with 4 of our Members who all operate Teckal companies.
In brief, a Teckal company refers to a type of in-house company that is wholly owned by a public authority and is legal entity in its own right. Specifically, it is a public sector organisation that operates in the realm of commercial activities, such as providing services or goods, to the authority that established it.
These entities are named after the European Court of Justice’s ruling in 1999, which established that public authorities don’t have to advertise their services if an in-house company meets specific criteria. The main advantage of Teckal companies is that it allows our local authorities to maintain control over core services while enjoying the benefits of a more commercial and entrepreneurial approach to service delivery.
The 4 highway Teckal companies all have a considerable workforce and cover a range of services from capital projects to traditional highway maintenance. This of course means they need to engage directly with tier 2/3/4 contractors and they all have established supply chains that support service delivery. The companies include NY Highways (represented by Jamie Crumlish Managing Director and myself as Chairman), Norse Highways (represented by Jason Glasspoole Operations Director and Grahame Bygrave of Norfolk CC Director of Highways, Transport and Waste), Cormac (represented by Dominic Bostock Managing Director) and Via EM (represented by Dan Maher Managing Director and Matthew Lugg as Chairman).
The group has been established to share best practice on day-to-day activities, innovative processes and materials and to look at cross trading opportunities between the companies.
Of great significance is their ability to benchmark costs and productivity across a range of activities from defect rectification to gulley cleansing, plus a lot more. Norse Highways hosted our first meeting which was a huge success, and it was great that it included a visit to their laboratory led by Simon Shearwood who demonstrated their capability and capacity which I have to say is impressive as one of only 11 local authority owned laboratories in the country. The group will meet 4 times per year to ensure they remain abreast of the latest practices in a fast-changing world.
A Teckal company is not for every local authority, but it certainly has its place as part of a mixed economy, which I believe is very healthy for our sector.