Title

PLANNING

Could the Planning White Paper's digital first approach be applied more widely?

Thanks to the pandemic, this year's Planning for the Future White Paper is on-trend, says Gill Kneller. She wonders where else its digital-first approach could be applied 'and what bigger opportunities are there that we could embrace?'

I have to admit that it's not often a White Paper gets me so interested and excited about its opportunities. I devoured August's Planning for the Future White Paper like Pac-Man hunts down his digital dots.

Whatever you think of the planning policy elements of the White Paper, its radical digital-first approach to modernise the planning process couldn't have come at a better time.

As we're now all working at the heart of the digital stratosphere, thanks to the pandemic, the paper is on-trend; it will make the user experience easier, quicker and more engaging. It will also help our planning teams and it could save money, time and frustration.

The paper sets out how local planning authorities will need to totally re-invent community engagement so it is truly accessible and actually engaging to residents. We know planning documents can be dry, technical and not exactly user-friendly so this is a huge step to becoming relevant to our residents.

Having live real-time access to information with useful 3D visuals is already increasing public participation in trials.

Instead of planning officers wading through lengthy comments, AI will act as their first line of filtering, making it easier and more efficient for councils, and far simpler and clearer for users.

The prospect of user-centric services so that we're designing the processes around our residents and their needs is exactly what we should be doing.

By taking this approach we could not only revolutionise the planning system – the scope is limitless. It could profoundly change how local government operates.

If we can do it for planning, it got me thinking, where else we can apply it and what bigger opportunities are there that we could embrace?

Perhaps we need to think more as a collective rather than individual councils. We could reduce duplication, share development costs and even use the same systems to increase opportunities for mutual aid.

I don't think this radical transformation will be easy. But we didn't sign up to do the easy thing – we signed-up to do the right thing for our communities.

Gill Kneller is chief executive of East Hampshire DC and Havant BC

@gill_kneller

PLANNING

Planning for the future of planning

By Dr Wei Yang | 24 July 2025

Dr Wei Yang presents the case for investing in tools that improve transparency, efficiency and inclusivity, to support a modernised planning system fit for t...

PLANNING

Balancing need with investment

By Angela Holden | 24 July 2025

Angela Holden previews the findings of a new report from the Regulator of Social Housing and sets out the key lessons for both housing associations and counc...

PLANNING

Recruiting for complexity

By Rebecca Davis | 23 July 2025

Rebecca Davis discusses why we need to hire minds, not just hands, and looks at some examples of how this strategy has been approached within the West Midlands.

PLANNING

Putting children front and centre

By Cllr Hannah Dalton | 23 July 2025

The District Councils’ Network has joined with the Staff College to create a route map for councils considering the disaggregation of children’s services as ...

Gill Kneller

Popular articles by Gill Kneller