A LOCAL councillor has teamed up with two of the North West's leading young entrepreneurs to launch a research company to give a voice to the socially excluded.

Darwen councillor Simon Danczuk has joined forces with Anne McNamara and Ruth Turner, joint owners of the homeless magazine The Big Issue, to offer a new approach to the way organisations carry out research.

Mr Danczuk said: "The aim of our company is to give the socially excluded a voice, and where other reseach companies struggle to reach the homeless, drug users and other socially excluded people, we have no trouble at all.

"We are currently doing work for the national homelessness charity Crisis, and we have offered drug users incentives such as a free £5 phone card to become involved in our surveys.

"Other clients include local government, charities and voluntary organisations."

The Manchester-based firm, Vision 21, uses a wide range of techniques including focus groups, citizen's juries, community consultation, service-user panels, opinion polling and data analysis in its research.

Ruth Turher said: "We are really trying to be innovative in the way research is carried out. "

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