Value for Money [2]

An Economic Sustainability Indicator.

Brief Description: This is a subjective judgement on the benefits offered by a service in relation to the costs (actual and perceived) that are required to deliver the service.

Relevance to sustainability: Consumers, communities and stakeholders will all have an opinion on what they consider is value for money. Providers will often use various efficiency ratios on which to judge services. The money aspect is usually objective; however, the value aspect is very subjective and difficult to quantify and qualify because it depends on a human judgement. Within the public sector, services with low VFM ratings would be more liable to changes, as well as possible closure. VFM might be used to provide a general indication of desires, with decisions being made from objective indicators which are used to explore these desires.

Unit of Measure:
Rating scale (1 - 10)