Dave Lawrence, a Partner of CAG, was part of an expert team working with Transport for London to develop business cases for some of the capital’s major new infrastructure schemes. The largest of these is Crossrail 2, which is the proposed new high-frequency, high-capacity rail line running through London from south west to north east joining up with the existing Network Rail system.

It is estimated that Crossrail 2 would support up to 200,000 jobs and accelerate and enable the development of 200,000 new homes across the wider South East. It is also estimated that the productivity benefits could be worth up to £102bn to the UK economy.

The Business Case for Crossrail 2 developed innovative approaches to assessing the impact of transport on the economy, building on the paper prepared for the Department for Transport on Transport Investment and Economic Performance.

In particular it looked to develop the strategic case for investment focusing on the role of cities in general and London in particular as economic engines of growth due to the agglomeration effects on higher productivity.

We also helped to set out a very clear narrative of how the Crossrail 2 and the other infrastructure investments will deliver economic benefits. The purpose was to demonstrate how businesses, property markets and labour markets would respond to the change in transport conditions.

This involved assessing private sector investment responses and calculating additionality of impacts after allowing for displacement and leakage.

The importance of Crossrail 2 to the national economy has been recognised by the government and TfL were given funding by the Chancellor in his last budget to further develop the project.