Green Book reforms could unlock investment in historically overlooked communities
The way the UK Government decides which projects get funded is changing – and it could mean fairer investment into places that have historically struggled to secure funding, including rural and coastal communities. The Treasury’s updated Green Book now recognises that while evidence and data remain important for showing value for money, they’re no longer treated as simple pass/fail tests. In future, when developing and assessing business cases for new projects, decision-makers will have to consider a wider range of social and economic impacts that contribute to genuine public value and long-term benefits for communities. This shift aims to ensure decision-makers look at the full picture – including social value, who benefits from the investment, and regional growth potential – rather than just picking projects with the best traditional benefit-cost ratios.
The new guidance has been developed with input from partners, including local councils, to support more balanced investment decisions across the whole of the United Kingdom. The changes broadly align with representations we have made into government over the last few years.
In our 2025 Comprehensive Spending Review submission, we called for social value to play a bigger role in how projects are assessed, alongside long-term funding agreements that let local authorities properly plan and deliver transport infrastructure. We highlighted the need for investment that genuinely improves people’s daily journeys, unlocks new housing development and boosts productivity, as well as funding to prepare the next wave of essential infrastructure projects.
Our Rural Connections report made similar points, highlighting that appraisal methods need to properly capture the wider social and economic benefits of transport investment in rural and underserved areas. We’ve argued that business cases should build in social value from the start, backed up by clear monitoring and evaluation, and developed in partnership with regional transport bodies.
The updated Green Book provides welcome changes to the framework which should result in a more balanced and place-sensitive approach to investment across the country. We will work with partners to see how the East can benefit and will be keeping an eye out to see how decisions now shift.