Open Digital Planning

Background to the projects

The planning system today is slow and inefficient due to limited use of digital tools and the high number of paper-based and document led processes. Nationally, almost 50 percent of all planning applications are 'invalid' or missing key information when submitted.

Sending councils the additional information needed leads to significant delays for applicants. Meanwhile, almost half of planning officer time is taken up with straightforward applications. And many public consultations only successfully engage a small proportion of the local communities that they affect.

Lambeth, as a partner of ODP , is helping to build modern services for submitting and approving planning applications. This work is in collaboration with other local authorities and digital agencies. These services will speed up decision-making for planning officers and applicants.

PlanX 

Lambeth has championed PlanX – a new tool to help residents submit their applications correctly on the first attempt - since its inception in 2019. This is now in use by more than 14 councils across the country.

Back office planning system (BoPS)

We have been working to deliver the BoPS since 2020, a solution which supports the day-to-day tasks involved in dealing with planning applications. BoPS is designed around the needs of planning officers who use the system on a regular basis. 

Digital Site Notices and Digital Planning Register

We are also collaborating with Camden Council to improve how we engage with the local community on planning decisions – through the development of Digital Site Notices and Digital Planning Register. These projects look at providing a digital summary of planning applications, much improved from the current notices that are required to be posted on lamp-posts.  We will also be improving the physical site notices we use around the borough.

We’re leveraging investment in development of these services to deliver on the Lambeth Digital Strategy.
This strategy aims to make land use planning processes digital, to facilitate investment in the borough compatible with our strategic policy objectives. 

Additionally, it sets out Lambeth’s commitment to provide easy to use online services, so that citizens don’t have to wait in phone queues or at our customer service centre. 

What has been done so far

2019: Reducing Invalid Planning Applications (RIPA) and the Back office planning system (BOPS) projects separately win funding from MHCLG's Local Digital Fund. Lambeth led the development of RIPA through these early stages. 

2020: RIPA and BOPS projects reach beta phase and align product development activities. Lambeth joined as a full time partner on the innovative BOPS project at this stage. 

2021: Lambeth launched a private beta for a Lawful Development Certificate applications service. Residents and local businesses were invited to test them. Lambeth had the largest response from these users. 

2022: Launch of the ODP website and combined project  and bringing all the workstreams together under one umbrella of ODP – Open Digital Planning. We launched the public beta Apply for Lawful Development service, running on PlanX services, live on our website. We began testing a public beta version of BOPS.  

2023: Lambeth continued to evaluate the success of the public beta, seeing significant reductions in the time to process applications – meeting project objectives. Successful bids for further funding of product development were prepared and delivered to MHCLG . Development of Digital Site Notices got underway.

2024: Development of the Digital Planning Register got underway. In December 2024, Lambeth launched a pilot of householder planning applications. This means residents can submit and have their proposals assessed using new technology that speeds up the process.

Where we are now

Our Apply for a Lawful Development Certificate and Apply for Householder Planning Permission services guide users through the application process. Lawful development certificates (LDCs) are a form of planning application typically used to confirm whether work is permitted by legislation.  

Householder planning permissions are the most common type of application seen by councils. PlanX services can help applicants to find out whether their project is likely to comply with the rules and what documents they will need to submit a valid application. BOPS streamlines the processing of planning applications by planning officers. The aim is to make it faster for residents and businesses to receive planning approval.

The Digital Planning Register and Digital Site Notices show planning applications in a clearer and more effective way. The aim is to make it easier for communities to provide high-quality, structured feedback on new proposals. Insights of which can be incorporated into planning decisions. 

Open Digital Planning has grown to what is now a community of 107 Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) - the UK’s largest local government digital planning community. 

Lambeth continues to work collaboratively with partners including the City of London Corporation, Buckinghamshire, London Borough of Camden, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, Gloucester City Council, Medway Council, Newcastle City Council and London Borough of Southwark. 

Our vision for the future 

In future phases, the project will look to develop functionality for dealing with ‘full planning’ applications. This is a key challenge, as dealing with these applications depend on the local planning policies of each authority.  

How you can get involved

The project is delivered through agile methodology. This is an iterative process that responds to feedback from users, including applicants and planning professionals. 

User research

Continual testing with users is part of Lambeth’s  commitment to designing services that meet applicants’ needs, improve transparency and deliver value for money.  

To help us test ideas, features and the design of the project, we are keen to engage with residents and local businesses. 

We hold regular user testing sessions with volunteers who use the tool to walk-through a planning application scenario. These sessions are led by our professional user researcher. If you are interested in volunteering to take part – please register your interest by emailing us at digitalplanning@lambeth.gov.uk.

'Show and Tell' live demonstrations and broadcasts 

We also hold regular monthly live Show and Tell broadcasts. The project team use these to report back on what they have been working on.  

For alerts about our upcoming broadcasts, connect with us on social media. 

Catch up on previous Show and Tells on the Open Digital Planning YouTube channel.

More information

• Visit the Open Digital Planning project website.
• Contact the Lambeth team for queries relating to the ODP project: DigitalPlanning@lambeth.gov.uk 
• To find out more about our funding application, watch the RIPA London Borough of Lambeth award video on the Local Digital website.
• Read the RIPA Beta report on Google Drive.