Enhancing the planning system in Wales – Alpha phase executive summary

Eluned Morgan MS, First Minister, made a clear commitment to speed up decision making in the planning process in her September 2024 statement to the Senedd on priorities for the remainder of this Senedd term.  Our work with the Welsh Government’s Planning Division is part of this Government commitment to service delivery. 

This report summarises the work carried out during the Alpha phase of this project, which focused on improving the pre-application advice service for householders as an early example of service improvement using digital approaches. 

We partnered with 3 local planning authorities (LPAs), Cardiff, Gwynedd and Vale of Glamorgan, to develop a best practice solution informed by experts.

• Many householders are not aware that pre-application advice is available.
• Information about the service can be hard to find, hard to understand, and often written in complex language.
• There is no clear, householder-specific content or guidance, making it difficult for non-experts to use the service.
• Planning officers face challenges interpreting complex policies and legislation. This can lead to inconsistent advice and ways of working across LPAs.
• The service is not accessible for everyone.
• The user journey can be confusing and complex for people without planning experience.
• It is difficult for users to contact planning staff when they need help.
• Applicants often rely on experts outside the planning authority or submit low quality applications.
• There is a high administrative burden on local planning authority staff, with many manual and repetitive tasks.
• Opportunities to automate simple processes and reduce workload were being missed.

• We mapped and validated how the current pre-application advice service works across 3 LPAs. We used this to create a broader view of the service.
• We spoke to householders (including those who had and had not used pre-application advice), planning support staff, officers and managers.
• We carried out usability testing of planning content on the 3 LPA websites with 8 householders.
• We developed and tested a prototype digital service for pre-application advice in English and Welsh.
• We tested the prototype in 3 rounds, focusing on web pages, an online form and email updates.
• We created a Wales-wide service blueprint and digital touchpoints for future use. 

• Create a dedicated, online journey for householder planning permission, with clear navigation and step-by-step guidance.
• Use plain language, bullet points and actionable headings to make content easier to read.
• Develop a simple online form for requesting pre-application advice, with automatic email updates for users.
• Standardise how LPAs provide pre-application advice to make the service more consistent and efficient. 

The report includes recommendations to improve the pre-application advice service for householders. These cover the full user journey, digital tools and ways of working for LPAs. 

• Improve the efficiency and sustainability of the Welsh digital planning system.
• Reduce time and effort for applicants and planning officers by following best practice and government digital standards when designing public facing services.
• Standardise planning practices and processes across Wales where this would lead to improvements in service efficiency.
• Improve digital services for planning applications by making it easier for householders to find and understand information, fill in forms and track progress.
• Encourage collaboration and sharing of best practice across the sector.
• Reduce pressure on planning teams by streamlining digital processes for pre-application advice, so they have more time to focus on complex cases and provide better support. 

• For applicants: easier to find the right information, less confusion and better-quality applications.
• For LPAs: more pre-application enquiries leading to a higher standard of planning applications, fewer customer service queries and a more efficient process.
• For Welsh Government: a simpler, more efficient, sustainable, and user-centred planning system. 

• Time limits and difficulty recruiting research participants meant we could not include as many people as we planned in each round.
• Focus was on digital solutions where they could add most value.
• Recommendations are not final and will evolve as more authorities and users are involved. 

We will: 

• share the Alpha Phase report and recommendations with the three LPA partners and Strategic Advisory Group for feedback and comment
• plan how to bring the changes into live services
• agree and formalise the next steps
• hold a public show and tell to share what we learned and invite others to get involved 

We recommend further testing, involving more LPAs and refining the service based on user feedback. 

Read about the project on our website and sign up to project updates.