Member Article

Manchester value measurement system to be adopted by authorities nationwide

A cost-saving methodology devised by a team of analysts based in Manchester has gained Government backing and will be adopted as best practice by local authorities across the UK.

Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) is an economic tool that enables local authorities to expertly measure value for money, economic and social impacts, when evaluating public service proposals.

The framework has been created and developed by a team based at New Economy, Greater Manchester’s economic think-tank and advisor on best policy practice.

The CBA toolkit has been published as supplementary guidance to the HM Treasury Green Book – Government’s central resource for appraisal of investment in the public sector.

The document will be circulated by HM Government, the Public Service Transformation Network and Whitehall partners. It will enable local government and local enterprise partnerships to determine where the benefits of improved service provision arise and to apportion them to local agencies and to central government departments.

The approach outlined in the document has already been applied and tested in the Government’s Whole Place Community Budget Pilots – the UK’s flagship scheme for public service reform.

Mike Emmerich, chief executive of New Economy, said: “The Green Book is the government’s bible of public spending and this project is therefore a fantastic example of how Greater Manchester continues to be at the forefront of economic thought and analysis.

“The city’s strengths in this area are rooted in the industrial revolution when the ‘Manchester School’ in its support of free trade, used a balance of evidence and economic theories to influence government policy. I’m pleased to see that we’re continuing this tradition today.”

Julian Cox, head of research at New Economy, said: “The CBA model has already proved a major success and is being used by partnerships in Greater Manchester.

“With Whitehall backing, it will now help to further support important decisions on UK investment approaches across public, private and third sector agencies.

“In fact, interest has even been shown beyond the borders of the UK with CBA demonstrations having already taken place on behalf of local governments based in both Italy and Spain.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .