Building business case capability where it matters
By Bernie Lally, Principal Consultant, 31ten

The Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Hub’s new report on place-based business cases confirms what we are seeing across local government – strategic authorities are being asked to do more with less appraisal capacity. 

In this blog, you’ll read the views on the report from Bernie Lally, our Principal Consultant, along with how we can help.

Published this month by Alice Pugh of City-REDI at the University of Birmingham, and co-developed with MHCLG, Place-based Business Case and Economic Appraisal: Capacity and Capability surveys 88 officers across strategic authorities. Its message is clear – appraisal expectations are “rising faster than capacity and capability are being developed”.

A capability gap

Officers are committed to robust decision-making, but the report finds that 76% have never held a Better Business Case Green Book qualification and 62% report little or no dedicated appraisal expertise in their organisation. Confidence is strongest in the strategic case and weakest in the economic, financial and commercial cases, particularly in valuing non-market benefits, which matter so much for place-based investment. Unsurprisingly, 67% turn to consultants for the economic case.

We agree with the report that this is an institutional challenge, not just a training one. As devolution puts more investment decisions in local hands, authorities need the capacity to produce, scrutinise and assure business cases – and to do so proportionately.

Consultancy that builds capability

The report rightly warns against outsourcing core capability and calls for authorities to become effective “intelligent clients”. That is how we work.

At 31ten, we can write full Green Book business cases – from Strategic Outline to Full Business Case – or individual cases and economic appraisals to complement in-house work. We also review and assure business cases, develop tailored templates and guidance, and run practical training workshops.

Throughout, we work side by side with in-house teams, scale appraisal to the decision and hand over every model and dataset, so knowledge is transferred and as a client, you are more self-sufficient afterwards. Recent examples include:

• Ambition North Wales (ANW) – commercial challenge and assurance across a series of business cases, alongside upskilling ANW’s team.
  Our wider work with ANW includes our role as Commercial Investment Manager for the North Wales Growth Deal. We provided commercial challenge and assurance across Investment Zone and Growth Deal business cases, prioritising the investment pipeline and upskilling ANW’s team, building on our work to develop the business case to establish the £25m Smart Local Energy Fund and Commercial Property Fund. Read about that work here.
• Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) – supporting the in-house team to develop a Programme Business Case, including knowledge transfer to CCR’s team, to support delivery of the £160m Investment Zone. Read about our wider work with CCR here.
• Carmarthenshire County Council – Outline and Full Business Cases for a net zero 60-bed care home, securing Welsh Government capital funding.
• National Film and Television School – a £20m campus business case that secured government funding.
• Westminster City Council – developing business cases across the regeneration programme with knowledge transfer imbedded throughout including training sessions, development of pro-formas and ‘no stupid questions’ drop-in sessions to build confidence and capability within the Council. Read about our wider work with Westminster City Council here.
• Surrey County Council – Business case support to the Council’s Land and Property service. We were a ‘critical friend’ to the council, and provided quality assurance across its strategic developments, including a £22.85m public mortuary developed with partners. We used a coaching approach to build the service’s in-house business case capability.

Working in partnership

We welcome the report’s recommendations – particularly on proportionality, good practice examples and pooled expertise.

If you need a full business case, an individual case or economic appraisal, an independent review, templates and guidance, or training workshops to build your team’s confidence in appraisal, we can help.

Please get in touch using the contact details below, or book a short chat with me using the link.