Spending Review Framework

There’s a UK government spending review going on before the new coalition’s upcoming emergency budget. The figures are mind-boggling, so for sanity I thought I’d note the nine tests now newly applied to all spend.

Slightly edited for their corporate use, it’s spooky how applicable they would be to credit crunch slammed buying constraints that solution sellers are likely to encounter for some time to come:

1. Is it essential to meet (stated) priorities?
2. Do (we) need to fund it?
3. Does it provide “substantial economic value”?
4. Can it be targeted at (areas) most in need?
5. Can it be provided at lower cost?
6. Can it be provided more effectively?
7. Can it be provided by (someone else)?
8. Can (other) providers be paid by results?
9. Can (we internally) provide the activity instead?

I wonder how helpful it’d be to place any mooted new spend within this framework?

My hunch is that a cheeky page in a Prop, over the next month or so that this remains topical, may well show you as more worthy than any adversary’s pitch, hidden or visible.