Making Street Works UK the industry voice

The National Joint Utilities Group (NJUG) – the trade association for utilities companies and their contractor partners – had a low external profile and its members were facing significant external challenges.

Its membership, comprising organisations such as Thames Water, Openreach, Cadent and Balfour Beatty, were facing significant cost pressures as a result of government policy decisions. As a result, there was a clear need to increases NJUG’s profile, build a network of supporters and raise awareness of the challenges the sector was facing.

We relaunched NJUG as Street Works UK with new branding and materials, clearly communicating the purpose of the organisation and its value to members.

We stepped up the organisation’s external engagement with a focused programme of stakeholder engagement highlighting the role of street works for major infrastructure projects and expanding its political contacts.

WA’s engagement led to greater recognition across government of the role of street works and a more joined up approach to policymaking. It resulted in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport launching a taskforce on barriers to infrastructure delivery.

Street Works UK’s refreshed brand led to it becoming the clear industry spokesperson on street works issues and the ‘go to’ contact for media and helped grow the membership through clear demonstration of its value, particularly in the telecommunications sector.