It is clear from cuts being made across the public sector ( in particular in cuts being made through the welfare reform bill  to housing and other benefits  and from the change from a capital to a revenue based approach to funding of new developments)  that there is a pressing need to look for  better value ways  to manage properties and deliver services - including  those such as addressing financial exclusion; employment , training and health which are facing challenging cuts in resources from partner agencies.

Organisations need to sharpen their focus on Value for Money to enable them to deliver more for less   - but  the traditional  'best value' approach is outdated and no longer relevant. As the TSA stated in the preamble to the regulatory standards: “We recognise that there are many routes to improvement and it is important that providers are able to choose approaches that match their culture and values - we will encourage effective forms of independent validation, audit and benchmarking of performance to encourage providers to improve continually and free the best from unnecessary red tape.”