Implications of the new Green Book for the Towns Fund

On 25th November 2020, HM Treasury published The Green Book 2020, an update to the 2018 Government guidance on how to appraise policies, programmes and projects, underpinning business cases for public investment.

This guide provides a review of the Green Book, and how it may impact the Towns Fund, and complements the recently published blog.

TIP Part 2: Your questions answered

On 6 and 11 January 2021, TFDP held two workshops on TIP Part 2. We have collated the key questions asked by Towns during these sessions and provided answers, to aid Towns in the completion of their Town Investment Plans.

Our previous guide on the Top Recommendations for TIP Part 2 can also provide further guidance.

If you require further support in completing your TIP, we can also offer a one-to-one session with any of our experts. In order to request an hour with an expert, please complete the Expert Drop-in Hour request form found on the TFDP website, or discuss with your Town Coordinator.

Introduction to Planning, EIA and HRA

Your Town Investment Plan Heads of Terms refer to securing required planning permissions and undertaking Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and/or Habitat Regulations Assessment (HRA) – what next?

This note provides Towns with a brief introduction to the planning, EIA and HRA requirements that may be relevant to your TIP projects. It provides a high-level guide for Towns of the steps they should go through to ensure that planning, EIA and HRA requirements are understood and are appropriately reflected in the individual business cases including the project programme.

10 Recommendations for TIP Part 2

There are two parts to every TIP, and the Part 2 spreadsheet templates form a very important part of the submission to MHCLG. This is where towns are required to provide details of each proposed project, set out the funding sources and expected outputs/outcomes, and provide some of the key evidence around the work undertaken to date.

This note sets out some pointers for completing Part 2 TIPs which will help towns to ensure that they are using them to make as strong a case as possible for each proposed investment.

National Strategic Brief: Climate Change

The purpose of this document is to support towns in the preparation of their TIP to ensure that there is a consideration of climate change – both its potential impacts and the actions that can be taken to reduce local emissions.

In light of the UK government’s 2050 ‘Net Zero’ commitment in 2019, there are significant regulatory and policy changes in the pipeline which are anticipated to be announced in the coming year.

Towns should develop their TIPs taking due regard of these commitments as they will likely impact upon all areas of local development such as building regulation, local infrastructure requirements e.g. electric vehicle charging and resident behaviour.

Towns should explore each of the documents included in the briefing note, considering how they will impact their TIP vision as well as how they can support the delivery of the UK-wide ambition to be net zero by 2050.

Social value in Construction – the role of procurement

In this blog, Clare Chamberlain, Category Lead – Construction, discusses the importance of social value in your construction projects and gives top tips to how to ensure it’s not missed off the list.

Evidence in your TIP: Health & Wellbeing

This document sets out some key evidence towns can call upon to support links between the built environment and health and wellbeing. The aim is to provide a brief overview and introduction for different environmental factors that influence health to help towns evidence the health benefits of their projects or support the overall approach in their vision and strategy.

This document should be read alongside the blog Boost your TIP: Health & Wellbeing.

Engagement Evidence

A community and stakeholder engagement plan is key to building a strong Business Case and it is critical in demonstrating how you manage stakeholders during project delivery.

It needs to show how you have engaged with people and how you will continue to engage as you work up business cases, and project delivery.

But you only have limited space, so what evidence should you include? This guide gives you some tips on what to include, and how to present it.

Five Points for Growth in a Single Sector/Employer Economy

Shocks to the economy bring the spotlight on economic resilience - from the effect of Covid-19 or the financial crisis - shocks remind us of the risks of places that rely on a single sector or employer. Resilience in the economy might mean having access to a variety of sectors, businesses, and employers that are performing well in their own right or ensuring that the dominant sector’s supply chain can diversify and pivot. Towns up and down the country face this challenge, either through one major infrastructure employer (such as a port or energy facility) or those which have felt the effects of decline in certain manufacturing sectors.

Having a major anchor employer or sectors has its challenges and opportunities. In this short guide, we set out some key considerations and strategies for towns in this position.

Inclusive Growth Guidance

‘Inclusive growth is economic growth that is distributed fairly across society and creates opportunities for all’

This short guide introduces the topic of Inclusive Growth, explaining what it is and how it can be applied to Town Investment Plans. It provides practical advice and case studies on how to account for Inclusive Growth within the Towns Fund context.

Top 10 Fire Design and Specification Concerns

This guidance will provide an opportunity for Towns to learn from the top 10 issues experienced by our fire experts during design and specification stages of building projects.  We hope these slides enable discussion, help you avoid such issues in investments proposed as part of the Towns Fund work, and encourage safe and resilient development in your town.

Mitigating the impacts of COVID-19

This short learning burst, presented by Katie Wood our Health & Wellbeing expert, provides key information on how to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. In the video, Katie discusses the impacts that are being felt across the country, and highlights priority areas for towns in mitigating these impacts. Katie provides real world context by using case study examples.

The slides are also available to download, below the video.

---

Engaging Younger Audiences

Every young person is unique with different needs and circumstances. Youth participation in projects is essential - now more than ever, young people are central to the economic recovery and stimulation of towns.

This short guidance note details the benefits of engaging younger people, and provides a variety of methods to undertake this engagement.

Connectivity Investment & Digital Use Cases

This resource provides an overview for towns in regard to connectivity investment options and the digital use cases that can be enabled through connectivity infrastructure.

Digital use cases have been linked to the Digital Blueprint to provide towns with a sense of the ‘art of the possible’. This resource can be used by Towns to inform town projects and investment plans.

Engaging with Businesses

From sole traders to multinationals, businesses are the lifeblood of a community. While some may have a long history in your town, others may be relative newcomers to the area. They can be contributors to the Towns Fund, or beneficiaries, as it seeks to galvanise local economies. Businesses should be at the heart of shaping and delivering Town Investment Plans (TIPs).

This guidance note provides nine practical ideas for Towns on how they can engage better with businesses, whether drafting TIPs, developing business cases or delivering projects and beyond.

Social Value 101

With significant Towns Fund investment planned matched with potentially socio-economic challenges exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis, there is now more than ever a need/opportunity for development and infrastructure projects to create additional social value over their lifecycle and help to rebuild local economies.

This document provides an insight into what social value is in development and infrastructure projects and seeks to answer the following questions:

• What is driving the need to articulate and deliver social value

• How to define social value in the built environment

• How social value links to the Towns Fund’s outcome led approach and the Theory of Change

• How social value can be set out in business cases and embedded in to all stages of a project’s life cycle

• What to consider in social value impact measurement

Health and Wellbeing Dashboard

In developing a robust Town Investment Plan it is important to consider how any intervention will impact and improve the health and wellbeing of the population. An understanding of the existing health and wellbeing performance of a Town and the surrounding area is therefore crucial.

The purpose of this dashboard is to assist in this process. Within this dashboard we have brought together a selection of key health and wellbeing measures. The lack of health and wellbeing data published at a local level makes it challenging to access Town level data on health and wellbeing. For this reason we have included local authority level data alongside the Town level data. In addition we have included a national average which helps to identify any specific challenges (or opportunities).

What opportunities can ports bring to our towns?

The Maritime Sector is larger than other comparable transport industries in the UK, including Rail and Aerospace, and is only marginally smaller than the Road Transport industry. About 20 of the Towns Fund towns have a port, and all have an important part to play in our economy, whether that be supplying jobs or GVA contribution. We would like to form a working group amongst towns that have a port to enable learning, knowledge sharing and to work with our team of experts. In this video, Tom Bridges chats to four of our experts to understand the opportunities that ports can bring to towns, as well as how towns can harness these.

Our speakers include Borbala Trifunovics and Clon Ulrick from Arup’s Maritime Team, Arthur Smart from Arup’s Urban Design Team, and Kieron Hyams from Arup’s Planning Team. Kieron has also written a blog to outline the opportunities that ports can bring to towns.

We hope you enjoy the video and get in touch with your town coordinator if you would like a bespoke session with our experts or if you would like to be part of a working group.

Lighting & Regeneration

Light is vital and fundamental to our daily existence, linking cultural, economic, social and political aspects of our global society. This short learning burst looks at the role of lighting in supporting town centre regeneration and economic recovery, and includes real life examples of how to use lighting to overcome key challenges that towns may face.

The slides for this presentation are also available for you to download.

Taking Account of Net Zero in your TIP

In June 2019, the UK parliament passed legislation requiring the government to reduce the UK’s net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by 2050.

Since 2018, over 280 UK Local Authorities have declared a Climate Emergency, many of which house the 100 Towns of the Towns Fund programme. These Local Authorities, and others, will be in the process of developing plans to deliver net zero (production-based) carbon emissions by 2030 – 2050.

This guidance note seeks to:

• Provide towns with an overview of what ‘net zero’ means in the context of their Town Investment Plans.

• Offer practical guidance on how to incorporate decarbonisation into towns’ investment propositions and TIP as a whole.