Project G Enhanced Appraisal Tools

Project G is exploring the issue of appraisal as a barrier to the implementation of sustainable land use and transport policies and has the aim of developing improvements in appraisal methods to overcome these barriers.

It was clear from the results of the initial Project A survey and earlier consultations, that there were some technical aspects of appraisal which concerned local authorities (the dominance of travel time savings was the main one) as well as concerns about their ability to appraise some types of policy (including small schemes and behavioural and attitudinal measures) and to assess the distributional effects of proposals.

The following barriers were identified from the first and second Project A surveys and other stakeholder inputs:

1. Some impacts are not well represented in appraisal
2. We don’t know what the impacts of certain policy instruments are
3. Appraisal/assessment methods for some policy instruments are not well developed
4. Appraisal can be time consuming, onerous and expensive
5. What should the relationship be between appraisal, VfM, and the choice of schemes to deliver policy?
6. The distributional impacts of projects are not easy to represent in appraisal

1 and 2 were felt to be important issues, but of more general concern and with much wider implications, it was therefore decided not to pursue these further. There are also a couple of more technical issues:

• A concern about the accuracy of valuations
• Philosophical concerns about the valuation of impacts

Again, these are important (and the subject of considerable academic interest), but of less immediate concern to Local Authorities and therefore not a priority for the project.

This leaves four research issues:

A. Is it possible to develop an initial/outline appraisal method for use earlier in the proposal development process? (from barrier 4 above)
B. Can we develop a simple assessment method for small schemes? (from 3)
C. How could we represent distributional issues in appraisal (from 6)
D. What should be the role of appraisal be in decision making (from 5)

These form the four products initially identified for Project G (Products G1 to G4 respectively).

Following internal project discussion it was decided to concentrate on products G2 to G4 and curtail work on G1 (research issue A above).

Project Manager: Matthew Page, ITS

Email: M.Page@its.leeds.ac.uk

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