Q: It’s not too clear as to whether Round 2 is aimed at DM, or wider for Planning Policy / Local Plan teams etc as well?
Round 2 is aimed at Development Management, however, this could be your gateway to other Digital Planning work as we will be looking to do further work with high performing councils after this phase of funding.
Q: Is there a timescale as to when the data standards might be released?
Data standards are part of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act (LURA) which has received Royal Assent in Parliament – we expect them to be launched within the next 12 months
Q: Is DLUHC envisioning projects being driven by LA’s Planning team or by ICT?
It is the LPA’s choice to define this.
Q: How could we use funding to leverage better communication between individual software packages to ultimately improve the customer experience?
We’re not looking to fund integration projects this year, rather supporting local authorities to develop their digital and data capacity so that they are better placed to deliver this work when data standards are established.
Q: Can an LPA use Fund to second someone from the private sector into a digital role for the duration of the fund period?
Yes, the Digital Planning Improvement Fund can be used to backfill council roles, in line with the action plan provided, though the opportunity here is to develop capability within your teams and services.
Q: Is it possible for a word or pdf copy of the application form so that I can prepare something to show our senior leadership team of what I need to produce?
The full list of application questions is available as a link from the start of the application journey and also available here: https://frontend.access-funding.levellingup.gov.uk/all_questions/DPIF/R2
Q: The support with co-creating a digital planning action plan is a very attractive offer. How might this align with the process of (re)procuring DM platforms and procuring Interaction with suppliers?
The fund is not aimed at procuring new systems or creating interactions, and we expect the fund to prepare you to adopt modern planning software. However there will be a section in the Maturity Assessment where you are asked to self-assess your use of technology, which may inform your future decisions.
Q: Is there an opportunity to influence the data standards, to make them more appropriate to internal dataflows and processes?
Yes, Local Planning Authorities will be invited to respond to and test the data standards that roll out nationally
Q: As a County Council, the extent of our digital planning data work may potentially be less than a district/borough – any advice for a County Council?
This fund is supporting ministerial priority to improve the time taken to determine a planning application for housing schemes. As a result we are not encouraging applications from County Council teams at this time.
Q: Regarding the funds not paying for software subscriptions or licenses, some providers charge one off fees for work required to enable process improvements. Would this be able to be covered by the fund?
Part of your action plan following your digital maturity assessment may be around training to support your council’s use of your existing software, but not subscriptions or licences.
Q: Will suppliers be given funding to develop connectors to automatically extract the dataset data required?
Suppliers are not directly funded, however we are currently funding local authorities to work with existing suppliers to improve data connectors.
Q: We are looking to get a digital policy map to accompany our emerging local plan, an interactive map with GIS layers. Does the funding cover this?
No, the fund is focused on development management challenges at this time.
Q: The focus of being on a journey was attractive for us but fixing £100k will be difficult to justify within a short bid period. Is there no flexibility?
This year there is a fixed sum for fixed actions based on our learning from previous years, please see our prospectus for more details.
Q: With the listed buildings dataset, when you say listed buildings do you mean locally listed buildings?
The expectation is for the outline of buildings listed by Historic England. We anticipate there being a separate dataset for locally listed buildings https://www.planning.data.gov.uk/guidance/specifications/listed-building
Q: It is a little confusing, what would the LA be expected to publish in regards to Listed Buildings that Historic England does not already do?
We think this standard may change based on what we are learning from this work, but the software needs the outline of the listed building, other information such as its name and grade comes from Historic England’s data.
Q: Are you expecting LPAs to define the curtilage of listed buildings?
We are expecting the outline of the area which the listing affects, so the building outline, or curtilage if that includes the garden or street front, for example.
Q:What can the money be used for/do we have a choice or will we just be told? Can we fully fund entire digital planning teams?
Once awarded, a successful local planning authority will be expected to complete a digital maturity assessment, commit time and resource to delivering actions from the subsequent plan, and publish 4 datasets to the Planning Data Platform.
Q: How can we link up with suppliers for GIS improvement?
Based on the data work that other councils have undertaken so far we think you should be able to do this in-house, and we recommend you pursue this as an opportunity to develop skills and capability in your teams. If you have a proposal to link up with a supplier, please reference this in your application.
Q: How can the fund digitalize Design Code? Is there going to be future rounds and would they fund digital community engagement or digital design codes?
The PlanX project will explore development of a rules-based digital service for design codes in the near future. If you are interested in this, please apply to the fund and complete the first five steps. This will put you in a good position to adopt PlanX and contribute to that work in the future, if you choose to.
Q: Question three asks about similar programmes we have worked on, does this mean programmes run by DLUHC, specific programmes led by the Digital Planning team or can it include Council’s own transformation programmes?
You are welcome to reference any project, programme or initiative you consider relevant.
Q: What are the limits of engagement with commercial partners?
Operational requirements for software providers will be set by the local authority.
Q: Can we use the fund for new GIS data – e.g. 3D models of buildings etc to build a digital twin of the district?
Unfortunately not, the prospectus has the full details, the PropTech Innovation Fund may be appropriate for this – please see the prospectus
Q: The prospectus advises that DLUHC will provide the framework for the Digital Planning Maturity Self-Assessment and will provide support. It would be good to know about the skills sets from within the Council that will be needed to assist with completing the self-assessment. This may influence who is on the team initially – e.g. programme management, IT / CRM / mapping / GIS specialists instead of / as well as planners.
The Digital Planning Maturity Assessment will need coordination, which we suggest is taken up by a project lead or a project manager. You are likely to have to call on different parts of the service for their contributions to the self-assessment. You do not need to detail each individual in the team plan in the application form.
Q: Do you need to have an existing supplier or can you apply for help to move to a new one such as help with data migration?
This funding is not for data migration projects.
Q: How does the software from DLUHC fit in with our existing providers?
PlanX and BOPS are not DLUHC software, they are being developed by a group of LPAs with funding and some support from DLUHC. DLUHC aims to support the development of a more open and flexible market for planning software where different software packages work together better than at present.
Q: How exactly do you resource the Open Digital Planning service in your LA, and do you need any FT roles dedicated to the project? Do they sit in the IT or Business Area?
From a funded LPA: We created some secondment posts e.g. project lead from Business Support, SME from our planning team and built upon service improvement team. We initially procured a GIS specialist to support our data work with the DLUHC Digital Planning data team until we built capacity in our GIS team. Others will similarly look at their existing capacity and may choose to recruit accordingly. There are draft role descriptors and I think JD/PS available from ODP.
Q: For councils that don’t spend all of the £100k to publish the datasets, self assessment and develop a digital plan could you advise whether you require the funding bid itself to explain what the council may spend the residual amount on and when or can this be set out in the digital plan to be developed with support from DLUHC following the allocation of funding?
We expect to have conversations with councils about any underspent grant funding once they have completed the first five steps of work. At that point, we will discuss ways forward.
Q: Can the fund be used for comprehensive review of legacy historical TPO data?
Yes, the fund can be used to digitise difficult datasets such as TPOs.
Q: Is there any score weighting for multi-authority partner joint bids?Are joint bids viewed more favourably?
There is no score weighting for this. Please make it clear if you are making a joint bid. We will only consider joint bids to the Digital Planning Improvement Fund from LPAs that share a planning service team and use the same software.
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
