Business Cases

 A business case is a process that is used to propose the implementation of, in our case, a transport scheme in order to release funding.

The Transport Planning team does not initiate or promote projects, but we do help project sponsors develop their business cases. All business case development, and our support is in a framework of internal processes that in turn follows external guidance too.

This external guidance on business case development starts with the HM Treasury ‘Green Book’ which looks at the overall business case in terms of five component cases. Our work supporting sponsors on business case development focuses on three of the cases in this five-case model:

Strategic Case rationale and objectives

• Objective setting
• Making the case for change

Economic Case Value for Money 

• Testing Value for Money
• Calculating costs
• Forecasting demand, and benefits—modelling
• Key economic metrics follow, discounted, typically over 60 years

Management Case - Magenta Book 

• Covers deliverability and risk
• But also Monitoring and Evaluation
• Approval processes require a monitoring and evaluation plan (MEP)

The Transport Planning Team specialise in the three cases of the Business Case described above—the development of the commercial/financial cases is done by others in TfWM and the wider Combined Authority.