Local Planning Authorities
Our community is made up of council officers from over 100 Local Planning Authorities and content writers, developers and user researchers from digital agencies and central government. We offer a space for Local Planning Authorities to come together and share knowledge, learn and build connections.
Design and development support
Local Planning Authorities join Open Digital Planning for three reasons: product development, digital planning improvement and PropTech innovation. Each has a purpose and a different level of engagement based on the nature of the work that they're doing within each area.
We connect planning people with other planning people outside of their local authority to help build connections and support one another. We also offer training, learning and development to help work on problems together.
Central Government
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) funds Local Planning Authorities to create software to make planning easier. As a community, we are working together to help do things differently.
Local Planning Authorities can approach MHCLG with a proposal of what they would like to do to improve their planning service and bring it online. MHCLG makes sure testing, monitoring and evaluation and user research are implemented along the way and the community is closely involved in the full process.
A community in progress
2022
The first nine Local Planning Authorities to join the Open Digital Planning community have been working collaboratively to co-design back-office planning system (BOPS), Digital Site Notice and PlanX. These authorities have successfully implemented at least one Open Digital Planning product on their respective council websites.
2023
Ten Local Planning Authorities joined the Open Digital Planning community to begin the adoption, design and implementation journey for PlanX and BOPS.
Nine Local Planning Authorities joined the Open Digital Planning community to kick off three integration projects, which aim to seamlessly integrate existing software and services with Open Digital Planning products.
2024
Forty-three Local Planning Authorities joined the Open Digital Planning community to assess and enhance their digital planning maturity, access training opportunities and improve and publish their datasets on the Planning Data Platform.
Joining the Open Digital Planning community
Currently, only Local Planning Authorities funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) can join the Open Digital Planning community. The aim is to open membership to all Local Planning Authorities later this year.
