Economic Case: Best Practice Guide
This guide provides Towns with general guidance for producing the Economic Case, from the approach to the Economic Case, to the Value for Money assessment.
This guidance is relevant for assisting Towns in developing compliant and effective Business Cases. The document will provide Towns with general guidance for producing the Economic Case, from the approach to the Economic Case, to the Value for Money assessment.
Accompanying this guidance, TFDP will be issuing separate supplementary annexes on how to quantify benefits by project types. The supplementary guidance will outline the potential benefits to consider, the relevant Green Book or appraisal guidance to comply with, quantification of benefits methodology, data requirements and more.
Links to these annexes will be added to this page, as they are made available.
Maximising Value for Money through Social Value
The purpose of this document is to show practical ways to include social value in your projects and business cases to increase the Value for Money.
The recent publication of the new Green Book and the Government's Social Value in Procurement Policy note signals an increasing focus is on the wider strategic benefits of public investment, and we hope this will be a useful guide to understand how to incorporate it in your business cases.
By looking at your projects through the lens of social value, you will be better able to describe the wider economic and social benefits that they can result in for your communities. Whilst this won’t entirely replace the traditional economic appraisal, it will help to explore and uncover some of the less quantifiable elements of your projects, which are never-the-less important .
The purpose of this document is to show practical ways to include social value in your projects and Business Cases to increase the Value for Money.
Meeting the Public Sector Equality Duty
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is an important part of all decision making for the public sector, and the Towns Fund is no exception. This guide and template provides key information for Towns.
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is an important part of all decision making for the public sector, and the Towns Fund is no exception. All public bodies, including local authorities, have a duty to consider how their policies or decisions affect the nine ‘protected characteristics’ under the Equality Act 2010.
There are no additional or specific Towns Fund requirements for the PSED. However, in order to make it easier to ensure that the PSED is considered and discharged, we have developed an optional assessment format which can be used as a framework for the PSED process and can be tailored to reflect local circumstances. The format includes separate assessments at project level and at the programme level, and it is important that impacts are considered in the round across the suite of projects proposed in your Town Investment Plan. (For example, there may be a more significant cumulative impact on a protected characteristic than when considered simply on a project-by-project basis).
We have included the Family Test in this optional assessment format. Whilst the Family Test only applies to government departments and not local authorities, you may choose to consider it alongside the protected characteristics.
As well as simply discharging the PSED for its own sake, assessing how projects and the wider programme impact on different groups of people is a valuable exercise in making sure that the Towns Fund investment benefits all and is as successful as possible. Following your assessment, there may be a need for further actions, including changing aspects of the projects or even re-prioritising projects. It is therefore doubly important that equalities and the PSED are robustly and proportionately considered.
Please speak to your Town Coordinator if you would like further support on what the PSED means for your Town.
Project Management Good Practice
This guide is intended to introduce the topic, and provide high level advice on the elements of project management. It sets out current best, or good practice that may be appropriate for Towns.
This guide is intended to introduce Towns to the basics of project management, and provide high level advice on the different elements of successful project management.
It sets out current best, or good practice that may be appropriate for Towns.
It can be used in the development of business cases
It can be used to develop the plans and ways of working
It will help you get your projects off to the best start
The guide also includes links to additional resources, such as guides, templates and good practice.
If you would benefit from more detailed support on any of the topics covered within this guidance you can book a one-to-one meeting with Alistair Godbold, our Project and Programme Management expert, using the Expert Drop-in Hour service.
Successfully Partnering for Health and Wellbeing Projects
This guidance document aims to assist Towns in understanding the typical local partners that can be drawn upon to enhance their Business Cases for Health and Wellbeing projects.
To effectively deliver Health and Wellbeing projects many Towns will need to seek out partnerships with others. This guidance document aims to assist Towns in understanding the typical local partners that can be drawn upon to enhance their Business Cases for Health and Wellbeing projects.
The guide provides an overview of the different types of partners, and uses real-life case studies to showcase the benefits of partnering.
If you would like to discuss the contents of this guide further with our Health and Wellbeing Experts, please book in a meeting using the Expert Drop-in Hour service.
Financial Case Good Practice
This webinar will focus on the Financial Case which will offer guidance to Towns on how to demonstrate the affordability and funding of the preferred option for each project.
This webinar provides an outline of the key elements of the Financial Case, highlighting Green Book guidance and industry good practice. It is aimed at practitioners within the Town who will be preparing or managing your business cases. The webinar seeks to offer guidance to Towns on how to demonstrate the affordability and funding of the preferred option for each project.
Management Case Good Practice
This recording of our webinar focuses on the Management Case. Drawing on published guidance it provides a context for the application to Towns Fund projects with reference to the template and proportionality guide and exploring topics and issues that will support Towns in developing their plans.
This recording of our webinar focuses on the Management Case. Drawing on published guidance it provides a context for the application to Towns Fund projects with reference to the template and proportionality guide and exploring topics and issues that will support Towns in developing their plans for the organisation, governance, planning, control, monitoring, evaluation and assurance of their projects during implementation.
Project Re-Prioritisation Tool
This tool has been developed to help you to re-consider your projects, in light of your Heads of Terms (HOT) offer of funding.
In some cases, Towns have received a lower offer than they had asked for, and as such decisions need to be made around which projects should be taken forward to the Business Case stage. This tool has been developed to help you to re-consider your projects, in light of your Heads of Terms (HOT) offer of funding.
A short tutorial video can be found below, explaining how to use the tool, but if you have any further questions please contact your Town Coordinator.
Update: Version 4 added 13/05/21
Stakeholder Engagement Good Practice
This recorded webinar focuses on Stakeholder Engagement and Communications at Business Case stage. We will walk through a model and steps to take to keep your stakeholders engaged throughout the business case development.
This recorded webinar focuses on Stakeholder Engagement and Communications at Business Case stage. The presenters walk through a model and steps to take to keep your stakeholders engaged throughout the business case development. This webinar aims to equip you with best practice tools to maintain engagement and communication throughout this next phase of the Towns Fund deal.
Commercial Case Good Practice
This webinar focuses on the Commercial Case. Drawing on published guidance, it provides a context for the application to Towns Fund projects with reference to the template and proportionality guide.
This webinar focuses on the Commercial Case. Drawing on published guidance, it provides a context for the application to Towns Fund projects with reference to the template and proportionality guide. The aim is to provide insights into topics and issues that will support Towns in developing proportionate and viable procurements and commercial arrangements.
Economic Case Good Practice
This recording of our webinar explores the economic benefits that we would expect to analyse, including non-monetised benefits, and top tips for estimating them.
The Economic Case assess the costs and benefits of the proposed investments and the resulting value for money. This recording of our webinar explores the economic benefits that we would expect to analyse, including non-monetised benefits, and top tips for estimating them.
Strategic Case Good Practice
This recording of our previous event provides good practice principles for your Strategic Case, providing details of how to pull the relevant information from your TIP into your business case.
This webinar focuses on the Strategic Case and how it can be successfully developed, drawing on recent Government guidance and best practice. One of the key outcomes of the recent HM Treasury Green Book review was a greater focus on the Strategic Case. Ultimately this Case should set out the rationale for change, ensuring alignment of the intervention to the drivers for change (economic, social, environmental), and local and national policy. The Strategic Case should position the type of interventions and options for further assessment in the other four cases.
Development Viability 101
This recorded webinar provides a beginners guide to Development Viability, including what it is and the theory behind it, the different types, how it is done, how it is used by developers, key factors and considerations, and what the outputs mean.
The session includes useful tips on how to commission such work, and how it can be used in business cases including the Economic and Financial Cases.
About the speakers:
Danny Collins – Director of Economics at Savills with over 15 years experience of development consultancy, specialising in property market analysis and economic benefits assessment of major development projects, including new master planned communities, town centre studies, and infrastructure projects. Danny has particular expertise in developing the economic case for public sector investment projects.
Adam Mirley – Development Director at Savills. He is an expert in mixed-use development in the public and private sectors. He is well respected in the public sector and has built a reputation across the north of England for high quality, honest advice on public sector assets and development projects. He regularly advises developers and local authorities alike on development viability matters and has experience of local plan and CIL inquiries across the north of England
Monitoring and Evaluation: Theory of Change and M&E Framework
This document sets out the M&E requirements of both the Towns Deals and Future High Street Fund, by DLUHC. It details their mandatory reporting requirements for the funds, the frequency of when we expect this to be collected and how you should do.
Translating your TIP into the Strategic Case
This Guide will help Towns work out how best to translate their Town Investment Plan into the strategic case of their project business cases.
This Guide will help Towns work out how best to translate their Town Investment Plan into the strategic case of their project business cases.
The aim of the strategic case is to demonstrate the rationale for investment and outline options for investment. It has become an even more important part of the business case in the latest Government Green Book review.
The Town Investment Plan already sets out the strategic case and vision for the town which is directly relevant to project business cases. However, there is only one TIP and multiple business cases, so how can the former support the latter?
Addressing your Planning, EIA and HRA needs in your business case
This document provides an overview of some of the key actions associated with planning, EIA and HRA processes and outcomes that you should consider when preparing your business case.
The purpose of this document is to provide additional guidance in relation to addressing planning, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) needs within your Towns Fund business case. This document supplements the Introduction to Business Cases provided by the TFDP (here).
This document provides an overview of some of the key actions associated with planning, EIA and HRA processes and outcomes that you should consider when preparing your business case.
Re:Imagining Retail
Re:Imagining Retail is a cross-sector collaboration of insights from Savills and peers from across the landlord, developer, planning and design space.
The accelerated evolution of retail is extraordinary. In 2020 we saw a shift in consumer behaviour like never before. These trends were already advancing, but too often ignored.
Re:Imagining Retail is a cross-sector collaboration of insights from Savills and peers from across the landlord, developer, planning and design space. In this publication, Savills have examined thought leadership and case studies through the lens of sustainable uses, sustainable repurposing, sustainable masterplanning, and sustainable funding and policy.
We are currently curating a series of blogs which explain the research paper in more detail, links for which can be found below:
How to account for COVID-19 in your baseline
In developing a robust Business Case it is important to consider how COVID-19 has impacted your Town and how best to capture this in your baseline. The purpose of this resource is to assist in this process.
In developing a robust Business Case it is important to consider how COVID-19 has impacted your Town and how best to capture this in your baseline. The purpose of this resource is to assist in this process.
Within this spreadsheet we have brought together a selection of key COVID-19 datasets that can be used to understand the impact of COVID-19 on your area. Please note that in most cases this data relates to the local authority level. There will of course be a number of other datasets that will need to form the baseline for your business case. These datasets have not been included here as timing means that will not yet reflect the impact of COVID-19 on your town.
How to use
The 'COVID-19 data resources' spreadsheet provides links to the data source along with supporting information on the data and suggestions on how it could be used in the Business Case. Information provided includes:
Theme: Overarching theme relating to Social, Economic, or Other
Source: Name of data source
Data: Type of data/indicators provided by this source
Publisher: Publisher of the data source
Frequency: How often the data is published
Spatial level: Lowest spatial level that the data is available at
Use: How the data can be used
Application to business case: Why the data is relevant to your Business Case and suggestions on how it could be used
Link: Hyperlink to the source of data
Notes: Any additional instructions on how to access from the data from the link
Monitoring & Evaluation Framework
Description:
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a key aspect of the delivery phase of the fund to ensure we can track the progress of the fund and the projects it is delivering. It also provides the opportunity to start learning about the impacts of interventions being delivered in places.
This recorded session provides a high-level introduction to the planned M&E work, covering the approach that will be taken, as well as scale and frequency.
About the speakers:
Rob Turner led on monitoring and evaluation for the Towns Fund Delivery Partner. Rob has been involved and led on a broad range of evaluations from major regeneration and economic development programmes, to evaluations in the health, education and energy sectors. Rob managed the evaluation of the 2012 Olympic Games Legacy on behalf of the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), one of the largest evaluations of its type undertaken.
Ben Millinchip is Head of Project Management for Integrity, a consultancy specialising in the design and implementation of research, monitoring and evaluation projects both in the UK and overseas. Ben and a small team have worked with MHCLG and the TFDP to design this M&E Framework.
Road to Delivery: Planning & EIA requirements
This guide sets out some of the planning and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) considerations that you might face during development of your business case and whilst progressing your projects.
The purpose of this Briefing Pack is to set out some of the planning and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) considerations that you might face during development of your business case and whilst progressing your projects. Projects may interface with the planning system and EIA requirements in different ways, and it will be important to understand what might be required to deliver such projects.
The Briefing Pack is intended to provide an introduction to these issues to Town Deal Board members and local authority officers who do not have a background in planning and EIA. Please speak to your Town Coordinator if you believe you require further support, including bespoke advice on planning and EIA strategies. Advice can also be sought from your local planning authority.