Transport for London Economic Impact Report

TfL invests billions of pounds every year in improving, maintaining and enhancing its transport network.

Providing robust economic impact estimates, based on our established input-output modelling methodology.

Putting the economic impact estimates into context, including by using case studies to bring the numbers to life.

Nurturing our long-term relationship with the client through partnership working at each stage of the study.

Challenges

Transport for London (TfL) aimed to assess its economic influence and illustrate the extensive scope and nationwide distribution of its annual expenditures on suppliers in the UK
The study needed to provide robust economic impact estimates that would enable TfL to make its case for funding from the UK Government more effectively.
To trace the geographic reach of TfL’s supply chain more accurately, the study set out to enrich the invoice address information available from the TfL procurement database with primary research on the expenditure sites of large suppliers.

Solutions

Hatch worked collaboratively with TfL to explore the available sources of data and design the survey framework.
We used the survey outputs carried out by TfL and additional information provided by them to enrich the core database, which was fed into our in-house input-output model.
Case studies on selected suppliers were included in the study to bring the economic impact estimates to life by tangibly highlighting the reach of TfL’s supply chain footprint outside London.

Highlights

Evidencing the scale of the economic footprint of TfL’s supply chain expenditure and its reach across UK regions by integrating primary research and secondary data.
Providing robust economic impact estimates, based on our established input-output modelling methodology.
Putting the economic impact estimates into context, including by using case studies to bring the numbers to life.
Nurturing our long-term relationship with the client through partnership working at each stage of the study.

“This independent research outlines the benefit that TfL provides to the wider economy and is vital to helping make the case for a long-term funding deal for our capital investment programme. By showcasing the importance of our supply chain across the UK, we can demonstrate how investment in London’s public transport system benefits the wider UK economy. Hatch grasped the importance of this work early on with their discussions with us which led to this clear and easily accessible report being produced.”

Rachel McLean | Chief Finance Officer, Transport for London

Project Numbers

£6.5bn spend in the UK with 2,072 suppliers, of which about half (49%) were SMEs (Small Medium Enterprise)
£5.9bn in Gross Value Added (GVA) and 104,230 jobs supported UK wide
Every £1m of TfL supplier spend supported around 16 jobs
Two thirds (66%) of TfL suppliers were based outside of London