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Floodlighting of buildings and areas for security reduces crimes of violence and losses by theft. Floodlighting for sport enables more fixtures to be played and increases income. Floodlighting for effect brings publicity to commercial organisations and provides tourist attractions. Decorative lighting and advertising signs bring trade to towns and shopping districts. Special lighting in conservation areas, seaside resorts and tourist districts enhances atmosphere whilst modest exterior domestic lighting creates a friendly environment. Street lighting has been shown to reduce accidents and crime. Ease and safety of movement of vehicles and pedestrians can be set against the cost of lighting whilst prestige lighting can also be justified.

Some of the limits of rationality in health planning are illustrated in contemporary England. The English penchant for "muddling through," often considered to be the antithesis of rational planning, may in fact suggest that in certain stable political environments a model of comprehensive rationality in decision-making not only is not, but also cannot and should not, be followed. Development of policies in regard to physician manpower, hospital beds, and health centers reflects a complex mixture of advocacy and evidence in the decision process. Although the English style of health planning illustrates the limits of a rational model, the National Health Service appears to have provided extraordinary value for money over the past two decades.

IN LAST MONTH'S article under the sub‐title ‘The Framework of Efficiency’, three main ideas were put forward

There is a section entitled ‘Too much vs Too Little’ in Robert Townsend's book Up the Organisation (London: Michael Joseph, 1970) which has a direct bearing on the subject of this paper: ‘A tight budget brings out the best creative instincts in man. Give him unlimited funds and he won't come up with the best way to a result. Man is a complicating animal. He only simplifies under pressure. Put him under some financial pressure … then he'll come up with a plan which, to his own private amazement, is not only less expensive, but also faster and better than his original proposal which you sent back’!

England and Wales, the United States, and Sweden are all healthy, affluent, industrial countries; but the development of their health services has led to striking differences in the provision of medical care and the use made of it. A review of published data on health, expenditure, staffing, and use of services by the patient highlights some of these differences and indicates that in certain instances there are insufficient facts available for decisions on the best use of necessarily inadequate resources to be made. Mortality in the three countries is essentially similar. In the United States expenditure on the health services as a percentage of the gross national product is rising, as it is in Sweden; but in England and Wales relative expenditure on the National Health Service has been stable. The three countries are widely different in their attitudes to the concept of the personal (family) doctor, but the consequences of this are not known. The same is true for differences in frequency of patient-doctor contacts. Details of personal and disease characteristics of inpatients are available so far for England and Wales only. In England and Wales admission-rates are lower but length of stay longer than in Sweden or the United States. Details for the input of the health services (expenditure, numbers of beds, staff, buildings) are readily available: more information is required for morbidity-rates and patient-demand, and some information on the outcome, before the true effects of the different systems for producing medical care can be understood.

Stone P. A. (1967) Urban Form and Resources, Reg. Studies 1, 93–100. Little is known about the value for money offered by different urban forms or the demand they make on resources. Since some factors are presently imponderable, it is necessary to restrict the study to the costs of constructing and operating settlements. Relevant to the study are the impact of size, density, land-use pattern, and settlement shape. The communications system and the phasing of construction need to be considered. These factors will be analysed in more detail in a study taking place at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research under the author's direction.

The primary objective of this assessment is to determine the value for money (VfM) of IUCN's contribution to Guatemala’s forest landscape restoration (FLR) policy formulation processes during the period 2012-2016. The process and findings described in this VfM assessment are intended to stimulate discussion within IUCN and beyond on how to systematically reflect on experiences and capture lessons about what works in delivering value, and share that learning about value delivery to influence policy, investment, decisions and actions.

The Nineteen Sixties witnessed a silent yet dramatic revolution, almost unheralded whilst in progress and only chronicled when it had passed its climax. This revolution was the growth of a form of promotional expenditure which came to be known as ‘below‐the‐line’. It was below‐the‐line in the sense that it was not expenditure on promotion in the conventional and time‐honoured form, i.e. advertising through the media of the press, cinema, television and poster. It was, in fact, expenditure on sales promotions; promotions designed to have an impact, albeit short term, on sales volume. These promotions typically have taken the form of offering either extra value for money in the form of money‐off, coupons, or free samples, or have attempted to generate excitement in the product through the vehicles of competitions, games and give‐aways.

Everyone agrees that the noise from aircraft has become an unreasonable nuisance to people living around airports. Because of it aviation is now extremely unpopular in some quarters and there is energetic public resistance both to the extension of existing airports and to the creation of new ones. The restriction on night take-off of jet aircraft from London airport is another illustration of the problem. This public attitude is understandable and it is tending to obscure the fact that transport aviation has made a great contribution to improving the quality of life. Taking one small example, without aviation the package tour holiday, which represents good value for money, would hardly be possible.The purpose of this paper is to take the advantages of aviation for granted and to explain that it is technically feasible to build a subsonic aircraft and engine combination quiet enough not to annoy the public.

Lighting may be considered as fulfilling two purposes: to enable an activity to be pursued and to provide amenity or enjoyment. If the activity is part of a productive process then the value of lighting should be capable of objective financial appraisal; amenity is a matter of value judgement. The paper describes 'cost-in-use' and 'present value' methods of financial appraisal and illustrates their use in determining the productive value of lighting. Examples of subjective evaluations are also given. Quantity of light alone will never redeem poor design and the best value will only be obtained if the needs of the users are met without undue energy demands.

In Part I I made the point that job analysis, used as a training instrument, can be carried out at a variety of different levels or depths. I gave several examples of job analysis of the simplest possible kind in which the analysis takes the form of a straightforward list of duties or tasks, not themselves described in detail but merely recorded by name. I also made the point that, simple though it is, this simple check list of duties or tasks can be highly effective; this form of analysis is good value for money and enthusiasm for it is undiminished with the passage of time.

Hospital work loads (new outpatients, outpatient attendances, discharges and deaths, and casualty) increase by 1-3% per annum. Hospital revenue expenditure grows by 5-10% each year, or 2% per annum in real-money terms. These figures suggest that over the period studied (1951-66) the efficiency of the Hospital Service has not improved significantly.

The trend in midwifery in the U.K. is towards a higher proportion of hospital confinements; but this is not conducive to getting value for money. Experience in Wolverhampton, where the maternity work load has increased strikingly in the past few years, shows that an inexpensive, flexible, and safe policy of domiciliary delivery or aftercare following early discharge is workable. Before the domiciliary service is finally rejected, the Minister of Health should reassess the scope of this policy.

IT has been the aim of much professional endeavour to discover through collection and comparison of statistics the factors which are likely to produce a good library service. Such ambitious undertakings as the Library Association survey, the County Libraries statistical reports, the London and Home Counties' Branch quinquennial reports and the McColvin report are examples of attempts to formulate for the benefit of all, standards which by contrast of good and bad may lead to the general improvement of the library service everywhere.

THE National Economic Development Council, in its paragraphs on education and training, has called for developments and improvements in facilities. However firmly people in industry may be convinced of the wisdom of NEDDY's words, and not all are, the question of the cost of any developments and improvements should be carefully examined. It would be a pity if the surge of interest and enthusiasm for training, and the undoubted benefit and increase in efficiency which can result, were to cost more than they ought. It would be particularly unfortunate if such costs were to cause people to draw back once the first flush of enthusiasm had passed.

By J. R. Reitz and Frederick J. Milford Massachusetts : Addison Wesley Publishing Inc. Pp. xi + 386. Price 49s. These two books will be reviewed together because they naturally contain much common material and come from the same publishers. The former appears to be a family affair and, it seems, page for page is slightly better value for money.

In recent years some of the larger British companies have begun to provide training in foreign languages for their employees. Are these training schemes adequate? Should not smaller companies and individual executives be thinking about this? And are those companies who have already undertaken such schemes getting value for money?

From time to time over the past couple of years or so, I have taken part in conversations with various groups of physicists, and whenever the conversation has turned to the subject of The Institute of Physics, it has been apparent that many members, in particular the younger physicists like myself, are becoming more and more dissatisfied with the direction in which the Institute seems to be moving. Let's just look at two or three examples, most of them dealing in one way or another with financial matters.

Edited by L. Fox Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1962. Pp. ix + 509. Price 70s. The first thing that must be said about this book is that it is uncommonly good value for money. It is based on lectures delivered at a Summer School in the Oxford University Computing Laboratory in 1961.