Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effects of changes to the Green Book on the viability of proposed railway enhancement schemes; and whether there will be a greater emphasis on benefits related to regeneration and access to employment for people living in economically deprived areas.

Transport business cases (including those for proposed railway enhancement schemes) follow the HM Treasury five case business case model. Decisions are informed by the assessment of the scheme in relation to strategic fit, value for money, deliverability, commercial and financial considerations. The appraisal framework set out in the department’s Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG) is intended to support scheme promoters capture the full range of impacts associated with transport investment (economic, social and environmental) as part of the economic case. These impacts include agglomeration, labour supply and land use change impacts, as set out in TAG unit A2.1

The department is planning to publish an initial response to the Green Book Review this Spring as part of wider update to business case guidance. This will set out work already in progress to support the appraisal of schemes which meet Government’s strategic priorities and how we plan to implement other changes required by the Review. The department is considering what improvements may be required across business cases to support the Government in delivering on its strategic priorities. This includes ensuring that existing tools and flexibilities in current strategic and economic case guidance are being fully used to support scheme promoters in making the case for investment which supports levelling up. The department’s Rebalancing Toolkit provides guidance to describe how a transport investment scheme fits with the objective of spreading growth across the UK. This tool can be used to assess the impact and identify the benefits that a transport scheme may have on local and regional economic performance. We plan to highlight these flexibilities alongside reviewing existing guidance and ensuring that relevant analysis is presented to decision makers.

The Green Book Review found that existing appraisal practice may lead to a focus on boosting benefit-cost ratios at the expense of analysis which illuminates the impacts of a proposed investment. The department plan to review the existing culture and processes associated with the development of transport business cases to understand and address behaviour and incentives which may be obstacles to supporting the delivery of Government’s objectives.