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Designing planning and housing data

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Project - Planning applications

Roadmap

The data design team has been working on behalf of the development management policy team to develop open data specifications for planning application submissions. It is the process that they own which is being adapted to ensure consistent, interoperable data is flowing through it.

Below is a roadmap for the development of these specifications.

Q2: 1st July - 30th September 2025

Planning permission specification development

Application submissions

  • analysing and categorising feedback (now, future, general)
  • iterating the working draft specifications where appropriate based on that feedback
  • developing and sharing v0.1 Declarative Model for pilot specifications
  • develop documentation for the declarative model
  • build integrity check tools for declarative model
  • composite specifications to be generated from declarative model
  • create test case data for the individual modules

Applications and decisions

  • kick off research project into applications & decisions

General

  • developing a change process and changelog for the data specifications
  • drafting and consulting the community on useful codelists (e.g. planning application types, tenure types, housing or unit types)
  • develop a draft approach for handling national and local planning requirements
  • specify testing ask for the community and also criteria to move specifications from pilot to candidate
  • specification landscape mapping and scoping

Open data standards community engagement

  • restarting the community engagement activities
  • revised charter
  • active recruitment of members
  • clear asks for Q2
  • formalise the separation of the development of standards and the supporting / adjacent funded projects
  • prioritisation of additional national specifications (community feedback)
  • develop and maintain a regular blog output
  • evidence what scenarios might not work with the specifications

Development management policy engagement

  • working with the development management policy team to gather their feedback on application submission specifications
  • supporting DM policy in codifying their existing form update process
  • analyse the relationship between development management legislation and policy alongside the LURA
  • work with policy to develop a timeline for spec changes based on changes to DMPO

Digital policy engagement (supporting mandating)

  • we announce a timeline with buy-in from policy for mandating a submission data standards
  • supporting digital policy in their engagements with legal to achieve mandation

Q3: 1st October - 31st December 2025

Planning permission specification development

Application submission

  • final iteration based on testing feedback
  • move submission specifications from pilot to candidate
  • publishing and publicising supporting codelist datasets

Application decision

  • conclude research into decisions and publish open report of findings
  • develop and share a complementary set of working draft specifications for planning application decisions
    • analysing and categorising feedback (now, future, general)
    • iterating the draft specifications where appropriate based on that feedback
    • move working draft specifications to pilot
  • deconstructing the CIL form (covers floorspace) into complementary modules

Open data standards community engagement

  • identify community management support for managing set up of events and co-ordinating feedback (note not leading / chairing the sessions)
  • a dedicated developer to help make the status of developing specifications and feedback more visible
  • seek feedback and iterate v0.1 declarative model for pilot specifications
  • seek feedback on working draft decision specifications to support move to pilot
  • developing an open process for community-initiated specifications to develop and sit alongside the mhclg specifications
  • understand needs of local authorities submitting ps1, ps2
  • develop an approach for handling extending the core specifications (for example, gla or gmca specific extensions)

Development management policy engagement

  • working with the development management policy team to iterate specifications where appropriate
  • work with DM policy to integrate upcoming policy changes into the specifications
  • working with DM policy to re-engineer their update process to start with data specification
  • work with DM policy on rationalising the specifications (dependent on their being a automated process for going from specifications to forms)

Digital policy engagement (supporting mandating)

  • we update timeline with buy-in from policy for mandating a decisions data standards
  • mandating process is started for application submissions specifications (Autumn 2025)

Q4: 1st January - 31st March 2026

Planning permission specification development

  • make changes to working draft based on research into Apps and decisions

Open data standards community engagement

  • build a site to house all the specifications and documentation for planning applications

Development management policy engagement

  • supporting development management policy in embedding data specifications into their processes

Digital policy engagement (supporting mandating)

  • mandating process is started for application decisions specifications (Spring 2026)