Benefits of the projects we have funded
Faster, smarter services
On average, up to 50% of planning applications are invalid when a council receives them. Good quality data publishing to the National Planning Data Platform, coupled with a submission service such as PlanX, which helps applicants to make sense of planning rules relevant to their project, make it more likely that a planning application will be valid.
Common errors related to the site location plan, the application form and planning fees can be reduced through services designed with the user experience in mind. For example, we estimate that PlanX can prevent as much as 71% of invalid planning applications. We are measuring the performance of live services right now.
Continuous improvement, informed by evidence
Good product development is led by evidence. All project partners contribute to an active metrics working group. We keep a close eye on the performance of services to understand where improvements can be made and to support the business case for adoption.
All partners have benchmarked their data and we are collecting information about live services to test our assumptions. We aim to publish updates on what we are learning as we go, including the results from improvement projects with established software providers in the future.
Our early results suggest that the time taken to validate an application is reduced by around 30% when validating a planning application using BOPS. PlanX is currently demonstrating a 20% reduction in the number of Lawful Development Certificate applications that are invalid on submission.
We believe that with better online guidance and better-quality applications received, planning officers will spend less time working through minor issues, and can focus on higher-value planning work.
“What I appreciate the most is our collaboration across disciplines. The diverse range of expertise within the ODP community not only fuels innovation, but also ensures that our solutions truly match up with the needs of planning teams.”
Stephen Barnes, Senior Planner (Digital Projects), Lambeth Council
Next steps
The PlanX and BOPS products will be processing householder applications by the end of 2024, and all application types by the middle of 2024.
This year we relaunched Digital Site Notice, which is now live on Camden Council's website. Our focus is now on launching in the London Borough of Lambeth and refining the tool based on analytics and user feedback.
New data standards for planning applications are currently in development and will be part of forthcoming legislation when the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill is passed later in the year.
Members of our community are proactively working with established software providers to develop modern integrations between products in the market, as we lead the movement towards a more flexible market for planning software.
Currently, only LPAs funded by DLUHC’s Digital Planning Programme can join ODP. We aim to open membership to all Local Authorities later this year and to explore more effective ways to engage with technology companies so that we create a more open digital planning system together.