Britain will assess public investment projects in the same area together rather than individually, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said, as part of a revamp of government spending rules aimed at helping overlooked parts of the country. The changes to the Green Book, the Treasury framework for judging projects for public spending, will be set out in Chancellor John Healey's Budget on Wednesday 28 October 2026.

What place-based assessment means

Under the reform, local and regional authorities will be able to bundle projects such as housing and transport into a single place-based case, rather than having each project judged separately. Supporters argue the old approach undervalued schemes whose benefits only appear when several investments land together: a new housing estate without the bus route, or a station without the homes around it. Burnham said communities had been let down for years by outdated rules that did not properly look at what was needed to unlock their potential, after meeting English regional mayors.

The wider Budget package

The reforms build on Healey's earlier decision to cut the Green Book's headline discount rate to 3% from 3.5%, which makes long-term infrastructure projects away from London and other more productive regions more likely to pass Treasury appraisal. The Budget will also include a roadmap for fiscal devolution, setting out plans to give regional leaders control over a share of some national taxes. Whether the changes genuinely shift investment, or simply repackage existing plans, will depend on the detail published on Budget day and on how quickly local authorities can assemble credible joint cases.