We are supporting Welsh Government to explore how digital solutions can enhance the sustainability and effectiveness of the planning service in Wales.

We structured the project into 2 phases:

  1. pre-discovery
  2. discovery

During the pre-discovery phase, we conducted desktop research to understand the existing planning service, looked at different local authority planning websites to understand how they work, started initial engagement from stakeholders and held workshops to define the scope of the project.

The team attended the Digital Planning Winter School in Cardiff to network and find out about new digital planning tools to improve the service.

In discovery, our focus was to investigate and understand the challenges and barriers within the planning application process.

Findings so far

Planning in Wales is complex. After talking to key stakeholders, we found various issues across the whole planning service:

  • lack of resources – difficulty in recruiting and retaining experts
  • inefficient IT systems
  • inconsistent systems across different local planning authorities
  • information difficult to understand for the user – complex policies
  • poor quality of planning applications
  • challenges sharing information with the public
  • lack of feedback mechanisms
  • public distrust
  • fees not covering the application

Addressing these challenges is crucial for improving the effectiveness and accessibility of the planning service in Wales.

Impact

We are still in discovery, but the impact so far has been to bring the right people together to highlight, with evidence, the challenges being faced by people applying for planning permissions.

Next steps

This project will continue into our financial year 2024 to 2025.

Our next steps are to wrap up discovery and produce a report for Welsh Government with findings and recommendations.

Watch our show and tell

How it meets our objectives

CDPS’s objectives:

Objective 1: Supporting the leadership and culture amongst public service leaders to drive good digital policy making and support digital transformation.

Objective 2: Support others to ensure that people can access digital public services by helping them create services that are designed around user needs.

Objective 5: Continuing to promote shared use of the technologies and create and embed common and shared standards in digital, data and technology.

Objective 6: Actions to help business in Wales better meet the digital transformation needs of public services.

The Five Ways of Working – Well-being of Future Generations Act

  • Long-term
  • Integration
  • Involvement
  • Collaboration
  • Prevention

7 well-being goals – Well-being of Future Generations Act

  • A prosperous Wales
  • A resilient Wales
  • A more equal Wales
  • A Wales of more cohesive communities
  • A Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language
  • A globally responsible Wales