See better
Competing priorities and a siloed approach to economic recovery challenge our ability to tackle the long-term issues facing society. An approach employing ‘big data’ and data science could transform our ability to see where public spending will achieve the greatest good.
The effects of COVID-19 have brought into focus acute social challenges – gaping disparities in wealth, fitness, health and access to employment and services, across racial, regional and postcode lines. At the same time, the economy is contracting and public finances are under exceptional pressure.
Decisions made now have consequences that will stretch out far into the future. For society, as well as the economy, it matters what money is, or is not, spent on. Investment should be targeted where it will have the biggest impact in terms of both social outcomes and economic stimulation.
However, maximising value for money is hampered by poor visibility of the challenges faced, difficulty in seeing and understanding the correlations between those challenges, institutionally siloed thinking, and a propensity to spend in areas that will deliver visible near-term results, or where there is strong precedence – for example transport projects or repairs to leaking school roofs. Although better roads, railways and school buildings can be expected to bring economic and social benefits, are those benefits the greatest possible. Are the right priorities being set?