Understanding Elections user journeys: lessons from in-person mobile testing
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, user research in government has largely shifted online. This transition...
Standardising the planning application process: Kicking off work on decisions
Every year thousands of planning decisions are made which shape the future of where we all live, wor...
Introducing UCD Ops at MHCLG: Bringing ResearchOps and DesignOps together
User-centred design (UCD) at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is gr...
Digital Planning: From pilots to scale – how PropTech partnerships are unlocking its potential
The launch of the Opportunity for PropTech Report, earlier this year, at Google’s Headquarters in Lo...
Rapid Policy Insights: How user-centred approaches support improved policy design in MHCLG
Embedding digital into policy In MHCLG, a central element of our digital strategy is ‘embedding dig...
Standardising the planning application process: Progress and next steps
Since October 2024, our team has been hard at work standardising the planning application process. T...
Common Tools: building a performance dashboard that meets user needs
The Common Tools as a Service (CTaaS) team is responsible for building standardised, reliable and re...
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...
Finding requisitions on the portal has just got easier
Branislav Nenin/Shutterstock.com Two new enhancements have been added to the portal, designed to sav...
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...
Building the service you need
I know that improving the speed of registration is our customers’ number one concern. It is the same...
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...
It's now even easier to add additional parties to applications in our portal
BushAlex/Shutterstock.com From 31 March, customers are now able to add landlord and tenant details a...
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...
Local Land Charges – the journey so far
GamePixel/Shutterstock.com The desire for quicker, simpler and cheaper conveyancing is driving a hos...
Asking for guidance part 4: A case of distribution in kind
Approximately 65% of complex applications receive requisitions. This is because some points are hard...
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...
Setting the foundations for faster plan-making
Up-to-date local plans in every planning authority across the country are essential to delivering ...