A cost benefit analysis compares the full costs of a proposal with the benefits it is expected to deliver, valued in money terms, to show whether it offers good value to the people who pay for it. It sits at the heart of the economic case in any business case, and is increasingly used to support funding applications and investment decisions outside the formal business case process.

Challenges to the cost benefit analysis are one of the main reasons proposals fail to gain approval. A good analysis has to be technically sound, but it also has to be easy to follow and easy to defend when it is questioned by a funder, a regulator or a board.

Dr Benjamin Warner has developed and scrutinised cost benefit analyses for over 20 years, across government and the private sector. This includes the economic case for MetroLink, the business cases for the BusConnects corridors, the Colbert Station redevelopment, and a standalone cost benefit analysis model for the Land Development Agency, so he is highly familiar with the questions and challenges that tend to arise.

What is offered

• Options appraisal: Comparing the realistic alternatives against clear criteria, including the do nothing and do minimum options, so that the preferred option is chosen on evidence rather than assumption.
• Cost benefit analysis: Valuing the costs and benefits of a proposal over its lifetime, in line with the Infrastructure Guidelines and relevant sector guidance, and presenting the results in a way that non-specialists can follow.
• Risk and sensitivity analysis: Testing how the results change if key assumptions turn out to be wrong, so that decision makers can see how robust the case is and where the main uncertainties lie.
• Bespoke models: Where a standard template does not fit, or an organisation needs to put many projects through the same method, a standalone model can be built, as was done for the Land Development Agency, so that analysis is consistent, transparent and easy to update.
• Review and challenge: Scrutinising a cost benefit analysis prepared by someone else, identifying weaknesses before a funder or approving body does, and recommending how to strengthen the case.

Cost benefit analysis is often part of a wider business case, and Dr Warner can provide it as a standalone piece of work or alongside the other elements described under Business Cases and Appraisal. See Services for the ways of working together.