Breaking down barriers: working together to support local authorities
The Digital Planning team is constantly looking for ways to make and enhance land and housing data a...
Democracy matters: join our Elections Digital Team and build great services
Hi, I’m Liz Owen, Deputy Director of the Elections Digital Team at the Ministry of Housing, Communit...
National Apprenticeship Week 2025: my story as a cyber security apprentice in MHCLG
The Civil Service offers an attractive range of apprenticeship schemes providing the opportunity to ...
Digital Planning: Scaling the Planning Data service
Our purpose is to make land and housing data easier to find, use and trust. We believe this will le...
What it’s like to be a user researcher at MHCLG Digital
Hi, I’m James, a user researcher at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCL...
Norfolk County Council’s experience with the Cyber Assessment Framework for local government
In October 2024, the Local Digital team launched the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) for local gove...
Digital Planning Directory launches: a milestone moment for the UK’s planning sector
Dr Wei Yang OBE, CEO of the Digital Task Force for Planning speaking at the launch event The UK’s pl...
Funding Service: how a glossary helps us speak the same language
If you’ve worked with a content designer before (or are one) then you’ll be familiar with one of our...
I don’t worry about AI taking my job – just my cat
“Am I better at my job than my cat?” That’s a question I had to ponder when my cat managed to book a...
4 things I've learnt as a policy professional working in digital
Moving from policy to digital Earlier this year, I decided to try something different by taking up ...
Digital Planning Programme: our year in review
As we wrap up 2024, we’re reflecting on another exciting year for the MHCLG Digital Planning Program...
Homes for Ukraine: applying digital principles and innovation to respond to a crisis rapidly at scale
Hello, my name is Coco. I’ve worked in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MH...
Funding Service: How digital innovation will help us to deliver grants faster, better and cheaper
The Funding Service is a multidisciplinary team in MHCLG transforming the way the department deliver...
Digital Planning: Developing planning applications specifications in the open
Following our previous blog about data specifications for planning application submissions, we're pl...
Digital Planning: applying digital principles and innovation to transform England’s planning system
The Digital Planning programme within MHCLG has a mission to modernise the planning system and make ...
Faster, better, cheaper: delivering improved outcomes for citizens
Everyone in government is focused on outcomes. Whether these are wrapped up in policies or programme...
Data Hackathon: Exploring how open data can help transform the planning system
‘Housing Heroes’ was the team name an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool generated for us at a recent...
Designing a user-centred cyber assessment service for local government
In October 2024, the MHCLG Local Digital team launched the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) for loca...
From manual to automated: enhancing reporting for the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping team
The Digital Process Improvement team in MHCLG is a diverse, multidisciplinary team dedicated to maki...
What might a Policy Standard in government look like?
Government is becoming more familiar with doing user-centred policy design, whether in creating prog...
Funding Service: Defining data standards for grant teams
Creating reusable standards to improve grant delivery Data collection in funding is complex, with no...
Using data design to transform the planning application process: get involved
The planning application process, known as development management, is integral to new developments c...
Empowering voters: behind the scenes of the Choose My PCC service
We are a multidisciplinary team embedded within the MHCLG’s Elections Directorate, which builds and ...
Prioritising mental health in the workplace
My interest in mental health stems from a personal experience, having supported my wife through very...
User needs and user biases: telling them apart
As I sat through my 10th or so user research interview on the Common Tools as a Service project at t...
Design, delivery, and determinism: reflections on the SDinGov conference 2024
Not quite the entire MHCLG contingent at the Service Design in Government conference, hosted in Edin...
Funding Service: why combining self-service with a human touch works best for grant teams
What we mean by guided self-service In the world of designing and launching new funds, guided self-...
My experience on the Summer Internship Programme in MHCLG
A career in MHCLG Digital is open to everyone regardless of their background. The Civil Service Summ...
Taking a bold, innovative approach to tackle the digital and data recruitment challenge
Digital and data roles are known to be difficult to fill, not only in government but in the wider se...
Adaptive funding: 8 ways to make funding effective in solving complex problems
Complex problems Most of the problems that today’s governments are trying to address are complex. I...