10 The estimated net present cost of running the operational service in-house was £793 million over 15 years, while the net present cost of the partnership with SBS is expected to be £635 million. The principal reasons for the difference are that SBS can invest cash in transforming operations more quickly than National Savings and can create new jobs through the development of third party work. National Savings' scope for investment was constrained by annual cash budgets, which were planned to decline in real terms at an annual rate of 2.5 per cent and it could not create new jobs for surplus staff. SBS and other bidders were not subject to such constraints and could plan to incur losses in the first years of the contract to realise efficiency gains more quickly than National Savings could.