Response to the UK Government review of discounting in the Green Book

Stefania Cerruti

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In 2025, the UK Government published a review of HM Treasury’s ‘Green Book’, the policy appraisal handbook used by UK public organisations in appraising, evaluating and making decisions about spending proposals to ensure value-for-money (HM Treasury, 2025a). That review highlighted several issues that required further investigation and to be addressed in the new version of the Green Book. One of these was the use of the discount rate, which needed to be reconsidered "...to make sure that the government is taking a fair view of the long-term benefits that arise from transformational investments" (ibid.). The Treasury appointed Professors Mark Freeman and Ben Groom to carry out a further review and present recommendations to the Government on the use of discount rates (HM Treasury, 2025b). Part of this review involved surveying the academic community on their views on different aspects of discount rates. CETEx submitted a response on 26 February 2026, which is presented below.

JEL-codes: E6 J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 8 pages
Date: 2026-03-30
References: Add references at CitEc
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