Unlocking innovation in planning: Reflections on the PropTech Innovation Challenge
How do we bridge the gap between our ambitious housing targets and the complex realities of planning...
Creating a reusable Svelte component library to help developers build data-rich digital products faster
In recent weeks, our product development team has been building a Svelte component library to provid...
Extract: Using AI to unlock historic planning data
Extract identifying Ground Control Points to georeference the old map This isn’t going to be a stor...
Supporting local government to reduce cyber risk through targeted interventions
The cyber threat to local government is real, increasing, and constantly evolving. Attacks can disru...
Putting innovation at the heart of unlocking small sites
In a significant move to accelerate housing delivery across England, the Deputy Prime Minister has t...
Unlocking planning innovation: 150 brilliant minds collaborate in Leeds
Innovation came to life at the recent Local Government Innovation Hackathon, in Leeds. This high-en...
Advancing digital planning: Open Digital Planning’s first end-to-end product pilots
Last year was a significant step forward in our mission to modernise England’s planning system. Supp...
Funding Service: Transforming an Excel spreadsheet into a user-friendly form
The Funding Service helps grant teams deliver funding quickly and consistently to local councils and...
Funding Service: behind the scenes as a grant relationship manager
Just 2 years ago, the MHCLG Funding Service was celebrating onboarding our second grant ever. Fast f...
Exploring approaches for using GOV.UK One Login in local government: join our discovery
The way service users access public services is changing. At the heart of this transformation is GOV...
Digital Planning: Get involved validating the baseline planning application data specifications
At the end of last year we started work on data standards for planning applications. We have been lo...
Local Digital’s next steps with Tom Smith, Director for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics
I’m Tom Smith, the Director of a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Advanced Analytics Directorate...
Digital Planning: Learning about resilience, cohesion and trust at the 25th Belgo-British Conference
Lou Welham at the 25th annual Belgo-British Conference Recently I had the privilege of attending the...
Very common tools: what we’ve learnt whilst improving SharePoint
The Common Tools as a Service (CTaaS) team is responsible for building standardised, reliable and re...
Funding Service: How we transformed Delta based on user needs
Delta is the main platform the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) uses to...
Funding boost to support digital planning innovation
The MHCLG Digital Planning programme is providing further grant funding to local planning authoritie...
Open Digital Planning: a cross-sector partnership to transform local planning services
Open Digital Planning community at a meeting in Newcastle The Ministry of Housing, Communities and L...
International Women’s Day 2025: Meet the women shaping AI, cyber and technology at MHCLG
This year’s International Women’s Day’s theme is ‘Accelerate action’. This is something that resonat...
Setting the foundations for faster plan-making
Up-to-date local plans in every planning authority across the country are essential to delivering ...
Bringing SaaS tools into a fully supported service: powering innovation as a live services manager
As a live services manager at MHCLG Digital, my role revolves around encouraging a more effective us...
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...
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 ...