Public Private Partnering

Cumbria County Council

Cumbria County CouncilCumbria County Council

Value: £140m over 7 years

Services Provided: Architecture, Building Services, Building Surveying, Civil & Structural Engineering, Cost Management, Facilities Management, Highways & Infrastructure, Landscape Design

Start Date: February 2001

The Capita Group Plc has established a strategic partnership agreement with Cumbria County Council to manage, run and develop its Design & Business Services Directorate (DBS).

DBS is a successful trading unit within the authority providing specialist services back to the Council and to over 500 public and private sector clients. The partnership saw 600 staff (over 300 property and infrastructure professionals) transferred to Capita across various professional disciplines including HR and personnel, payroll and pensions and ICT. Those from the property arm of DBS have subsequently formed Capita Symonds' northern operation encompassing a multidisciplinary set of services.

Capita Symonds in Cumbria operates from a network of strategically placed local offices in the North West of England and the East Midlands with a base in Carlisle, enabling it to provide consultancy services to a wide geographical area serving a large and diverse portfolio of clients within both the public and private sectors. It is anticipated that up to 1,000 additional new jobs will be created by the partnership within 5 years, in addition to maintaining the existing 600 posts.

As part of the agreement Capita pledged to establish a landmark business centre in the region to house its new staff and to act as a focus for its operations in the area.

This promise has now become a reality with the official opening in June 2003 of the striking 'Capita Building' at Carlisle's Kingmoor Business Park by Capita Executive Chairman Rod Aldridge OBE and Cumbria County Council Leader Rex Toft.

Council Leader Rex Toft described the building as "a glowing tribute to how the public and private sector can work together to make real change."