One of the issues faced by accessibility related schemes in transport is the lack of investment.
Indeed, the previous ncat research Working together for accessible transport published in November 2024 found that accessibility improvements are seen to be too expensive, and it can be difficult to justify the investment.
This project set out to identify the barriers to funding accessibility improvements and to provide recommendations for strengthening the economic case for accessible transport.
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To ensure a robust and evidence-based understanding of the economic benefits of accessible transport, the project adopted a two-stage research approach:
Stage 1: Discovery Phase
This phase combined desk-based research with direct stakeholder engagement to identify barriers and opportunities in appraising accessibility improvements.
Stage 2: Recommendation Phase
Building on the discovery findings, this phase focused on developing actionable recommendations.
This involved:
- Comprehensive review of guidance: We analysed key documents such as HM Treasury’s Green Book, the Department for Transport’s Transport Analysis Guidance, and related policy papers to assess how current funding and appraisal processes address accessibility.
- Stakeholder engagement: We conducted interviews and a workshop with public sector transport organisations, national government agencies, transport bodies, and a disabled people’s charity to gather practical insights and experiences.
Findings from both streams were combined to highlight the main challenges in developing strong business cases for accessibility-related schemes and to capture examples of solutions currently being applied.
Building on the discovery findings, the second phase focused on developing actionable recommendations.
- Draft recommendations: We created recommendations grouped by theme and ownership based on identified barriers and stakeholder input.
- Validation workshop: We presented draft recommendations to stakeholders for feedback and refinement.
- Final reporting: We incorporated feedback to finalise recommendations and produce the report.
The top three findings from the desktop review:Â
- There aren’t any current dedicated funds for accessibility-related improvements, resulting in conflicting priorities between transport schemes and objectives.
- Elements of the Treasury’s Five Case Model create challenges for accessibility schemes seeking funding.
- Existing appraisal methods typically undervalue accessibility benefits.
The top three findings from the stakeholder engagement:
- There isn’t enough expertise and dedicated resource in organisations to develop accessibility-related business cases.
- Lack of leadership commitment and dedicated policies often holds back the prioritisation of accessibility-related schemes.
- Limited and outdated evidence and data on the economic and social benefits of accessibility-related improvements make it difficult to justify investment.
For further information on our findings, see the Full Report (below) or one of the Highlights versions (above).
Coming out of this research, we have the following recommendations:
1: Embed accessibility in organisational culture through leadership, team diversity, general disability awareness training, and targeted business case development training
2: Strengthen policies, strategies, action plans and create funding mechanisms that prioritise transport accessibility.
3: Increase collection and sharing of data regarding accessible transport
4: Strengthen appraisal of accessibility in business cases through consideration of lived experiences and better assessment of accessibility benefits
5: Ensure updated Green Book and other guidance documents support authorities and transport organisations develop strong accessibility related business cases and facilitate their access to funding
For more detailed guidance on how to implement these recommendations specifically tailored insights for Public Sector Transport Organisations and the Department for Transport are available in our reports.
Insight Report
We’ve produced a Key Insights Report to be a more visual representation of the key findings in the report, and this is available as an Accessible PDF.
Insight Report
Full Report
Our Full Report here contains all the report findings, including appendices and references. Browse the options and access the version that works best for you.