Liverpool Vision chief Gill not to run super-quango

Jim Gill, who has resigned as chief executive of urban regeneration company Liverpool Vision, will not be taking charge of the city's newest agency.

Gill resigned in October and is on six months' notice ahead of Vision being wound up on March 31, 2008. He has not applied for the chief executive's role in the new agency being formed through the merger of Vision with two other quangos – Business Liverpool and Liverpool Land Development Company – with the new company coming into operation in April.

Gill has been chief executive since 2001, joining from English Partnerships shortly after the creation of Vision as the first URC in the country.

For many months, Gill, 59, was the favourite to take on the role of running the new company, nicknamed Liverpool plc, but has opted to take on consultancy work instead.

He has already accepted a handful of non-executive directorships with Liverpool companies, thought to include at least one major developer.

Gill's departure will leave a large hole in the expertise and experience at the top table of Liverpool's regeneration community. Gill was instrumental in delivering the arena and convention centre at Kings Waterfront following the aborted and politically-motivated Everton stadium plans on the same site.

Kick-starting the Liverpool office market with Rumford's 20 Chapel Street, Teesland's City Square and Beetham's 101 Old Hall Street was also under-pinned by the master-planning and grant support Gill and his team provided.

Next week Gill will help launch a prospectus aimed at driving Liverpool's knowledge economy, built around the universities, a subject he is passionate about.

BNFL chief executive Michael Parker was recently appointed non-executive chairman of the new company. The first chief executive is due to be named by the end of the year.

No one from Vision was available to comment at the time of writing.