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The government has launched two new digital apps for council planning officers and homeowners aimed at speeding up and simplifying decisions over permitted development applications for domestic homes.
Announced today by housing secretary Robert Jenrick, the apps have been developed for homeowners applying for extensions on their properties and the planning officers making the decisions on whether to accept them.
The first app will be for homeowners and ask them a number of simple questions to assess whether their extension plans meet local and national requirements before a permitted development application is submitted.
Users can then apply within the app for the certificate needed to show that their plans meet permitted development requirements and building can go ahead.
This app is called the RIPA app, which stands for Reducing Invalid Planning Applications.
The second app is for council officers and will allow them to track the progress of applications and make quicker and decisions when they are submitted. This is called the BoPS app, which stands for Back-office Planning System.
The government said this app will put the data needed by planning officers in a much more user-friendly format and allow officials to focus on data rather than documents when making decisions.
The new apps form part of the government’s plans laid out in the Planning White Paper published last August, which looks to overhaul the current paper-based planning system with a largely digital service.
The apps were designed by Buckinghamshire, Southwark and Lambeth councils and were funded through the government’s Local Digital Fund. The apps are now being tested in these areas ahead of a nationwide roll-out.
Mr Jenrick said: “We want to speed up the planning process to help families make improvements to their homes more quickly. These apps are a step towards a planning system that is transparent, efficient and end-to-end digital – saving time and money for developers, architects and homeowners, and letting planners focus on the merits of applications rather than chasing paperwork.”
Rob Bristow, director of planning, transport and sustainability at Lambeth Council, said: “Around half of the planning applications we receive in Lambeth are found to be invalid – mostly because people have difficulty interpreting the complex planning requirements to make valid applications. The RIPA app will guide users through the rules, based on what they want to do and where in the borough their property is, to see whether their plans meet the requirements.
“Along with the BoPS app, which will see a hugely improved back-end system for planners to use in their assessments, these exciting new tools will not only provide an enhanced experience for property owners, they will also enable interested parties such as neighbours to be consulted sooner, and help planning officers process applications more effectively.”
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