Funding boost to support digital planning innovation

The MHCLG Digital Planning programme is providing further grant funding to local planning authorities (LPAs), for specific digital, data and innovation work, to modernise their planning services.  In this blog post, we set out the allocation of funding for a range of improvements and projects which will transform planning processes and deliver efficiencies.

Digital planning innovation

The government has committed to building 1.5million new homes over this Parliament and modernising our planning system is crucial to achieving this goal. 

Through our Digital Planning programme, we’re working hand in hand with LPAs to build a planning system which is fit for the 21st century – one that harnesses data and technology to make decisions faster and more transparent.  

Over the last few years, we’ve provided grant funding to LPAs, bringing them into the Open Digital Planning community and enabling them to embrace digital tools, make their planning data available and drive innovation. The results are promising, with early adopters already seeing reduced planning application processing times and better outcomes for communities.  

Read our previous blog post where we shared insights into our collaborative approach to learn more about the Open Digital Planning community and this ground-breaking partnership. 

We’re now taking this work further and supporting more LPAs on their digital transformation journey and investing in new projects focused on scalable solutions that could be implemented nationwide.  

Digital Planning Improvement Fund 

We’re supporting a further 46 LPAs to join Open Digital Planning. Each will receive a £50,000 grant to help them to adopt modern planning practices, publish relevant planning data and develop their digital capabilities.  

The LPAs will embark on a digital journey where they will complete the following activities: 

Play an active role in the Open Digital Planning (ODP) community, where they can access comprehensive guidance and a peer support – now a network of 117 LPAs   Self-assess the digital maturity of their planning service and use this as a baseline for future work  Develop an action plan to improve the maturity of their service over time   Access relevant digital and data training opportunities identified in the action plan.  Improve and publish 4 spatial datasets to the Planning Data Platform: Conservation Areas, Listed Buildings, Tree Preservation Orders, Article 4 Directions 

The LPAs are:  

 Adur District Council  Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council  Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council  Bassetlaw District Council  Bury Council  Calderdale Council  Cannock Chase District Council  Cheltenham Borough Council  Colchester City Council  Cotswolds District Council  Coventry City Council  Crawley Borough Council  East Riding of Yorkshire Council  Exeter City Council  Forest of Dean District Council  Halton Borough Councils  Hart District Council  Havant Borough Council  Hull City Council  Huntingdonshire District Council  Ipswich Borough Council  Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council  Lake District National Park Authority  Leeds City Council  London Borough of Bromley  London Borough of Hillingdon  London Borough of Lewisham  Maidstone Borough Council  Manchester City Council  North Norfolk District Council  North Tyneside Council  North Warwickshire Borough Council  Oldham Council  Oxford City Council  Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council  Southampton City Council  Stafford Borough Council  Stevenage Borough Council  Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council  Stoke on Trent City Council  Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council  Thanet District Council  Uttlesford District Council  Wealden District Council  West Oxfordshire District Council  Worthing Borough Council 

You can find out more about joining our Open Digital Planning community through our dedicated website, and keep up to data via our LinkedIn page, and by subscribing to the regular newsletter. 

You can also read a series of case studies about the work LPAs have done to modernise their services.

Continuous funding to support 12 impactful Round 4 PropTech (property technology) projects 

The PropTech Innovation Fund is the largest UK government PropTech programme. To date, it has supported 77 LPAs working across 114 pilot projects to adopt digital tools in partnership with tech companies. These initiatives have helped mature the UK market and validate digital approaches as crucial levers for improved, faster plan-making and development outcomes. A series of case studies have been produced which capture the experience and outcomes of many of these pilots.  

With 4 rounds of funding completed, we’re now grant funding 22 LPAs working on 12 existing pilots who have demonstrated that their work is scalable, can unlock sites and speed up plan-making processes. 

The successful recipients and their focus areas are:   

Basildon Borough Council: land assessment – land and site assessment East Herts District Council: land assessment – land and site assessment Greater Cambridge Shared Planning (South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council): land assessment   North East Derbyshire District Council with Bassetlaw District Council and Chesterfield Borough Council: land assessment   Plymouth City Council with South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council: land assessment     Central Bedfordshire: land assessment – viability and feasibility   Dacorum Borough Council: land assessment – viability and feasibility   Newcastle City Council with Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council: land assessment – viability and feasibility  Tandridge District Council: land assessment – viability and feasibility  West Oxfordshire District Council with Nottingham City Council and Cotswold District Council: land assessment – viability and feasibility   Central Lincolnshire (North Kesteven District Council with City of Lincoln and West Lindsey): digital citizen engagement – visualisation    City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council with Nottingham City Council: digital citizen engagement – visualisation

To find out more, look out for our online PropTech show and tells, visit our Digital Planning LinkedIn page and subscribe to the regular newsletter  for news and updates.  

Development management software funding   

As part of our mission to modernise the planning system we’re also supporting a series of new partnership projects between LPAs and service providers in the planning industry to transform the existing back-office systems used by many LPAs.   

5 leading software suppliers are working with the Planning Portal and one of their existing local authority customers to pilot the adoption of new planning applications data standards which we’re currently developing.  

The partnerships, which are each being funded £225,000 and will work together from April to December 2025, are:   

Agile Applications/IEG4 with the London Borough of Redbridge   Arcus Global with Salford City Council   DEF with Dorset Council   Idox with Leeds City Council   NEC with the London Borough of Hounslow  

Each partnership will test and implement the new data standards, capturing and sharing what they learn before a nationwide rollout across other local authorities in England.   

As well as accelerating the adoption of the new data standards, they will also explore additional benefits that consistent data across planning back-office systems can deliver.   

This focus on data standardisation will enable planning applications to be processed more efficiently – a significant milestone in our journey towards a fully modernised planning system that serves everyone better.   

Other innovative digital planning projects 

3 standalone transformative projects are each receiving £300,000 funding, with all initiatives launching in March 2025 to run for a full year. 

The City of London Corporation is leading on a project to create a standardised approach to digitalising local plans and their associated data. Starting in March 2025, this 12-month initiative aims to make these crucial planning documents more accessible for communities and stakeholders to use. Further LPAs will also be part of the project, to ensure any solutions can be scaled nationwide and meet the planning needs of different regions.  Greater Manchester Digital Planning Project will see Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Greater London Authority working together to build on the experience from the Planning London Data Hub. This collaboration aims to explore whether a similar data platform can be created elsewhere to monitor, visualise and report development data in Greater Manchester. Local authority building control teams help people comply with the building regulations by giving feedback on plans and providing site inspections. For this project the London Borough of Lambeth will research, design and develop a simple, front and back-office prototype, re-using existing work. The project will also explore integration with existing back-office planning systems.  

Get involved    

Keep up to date on our Digital Planning programme by visiting our website, following us on LinkedIn and subscribing to our newsletter.   Local authorities who want to improve their digital and data expertise can express an interest to join our growing Open Digital Planning community and benefit from peer support and valuable resources. Read our previous blog post to learn more about the Open Digital Planning community. You can also look at this previous MHCLG Digital blog post about the programme, one case study bringing to life MHCLG Digital’s objectives and guiding principles.