Recommendation 10

Government has also made changes to its Green Book guidance on evaluating investment proposals, such as reducing the dominance of benefit-cost ratios (BCRs) in project appraisal and introducing a new public value framework.15 The IPA stated that being fixated on the BCR in the past has tended to lead to investment concentrating in London and the South of England at the expense of other areas, and that if one wishes 6 HM Treasury, Spending Review 2020, November 2020, para 2 7 HM Treasury, National Infrastructure Strategy, November 2020 8 Qq 8–9 9 Qq 12–13 10 National Infrastructure Commission submission, page 2 11 National Infrastructure Commission submission, page 1 12 National Infrastructure Commission, Rail Needs Assessment for the Midlands and the North, December 2020 13 Q 72; HM Treasury, National Infrastructure Strategy, November 2020, p 78–79 14 Q 72 15 Q 82; HM Treasury, National Infrastructure Strategy, November 2020, p 44 10 Lessons from major projects and programmes to achieve levelling up across the country then a broader lens is needed. It stated that the public value framework will be published by government in December, and that this will give clarity and metrics to Departments which they and the IPA can use to test if they are on track against their strategies and targets.16 However, were the published framework to be vague about the expected outcomes and measures of performance, then the IPA would share the Committee’s concerns about the potential for investment decisions to be made without sufficient demonstration of their value.17 Cost and schedule