Important digital changes are set out in today's planning reform white paper #PropTech #PlanTech https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-future

Moving the planning system from one based on *data* not *documents* has been long overdue

The data and digital planning reforms are the product of tangible, iterative product work, set out in the open over months on our digital land team's site, led by @psd https://digital-land.github.io/ 

The planning authority service changes draw on local authority work supported by @LDgovUK's #LocalDigitalFund but driven by a group of visionary reformers in councils & digital agencies - see https://localdigital.gov.uk/funded-project/reducing-invalid-planning-applications/ and https://localdigital.gov.uk/funded-project/user-centred-back-office-planning-system/ (& also work in @PINSgov)

The need to create local plans and planning decisions as consumable digital products draws on our @mhclg team's work, including prototypes that emerged from the difficulty even finding key content, supported by @dxw and @mySociety https://local-plan.herokuapp.com/v3/plan-data 

The opportunity for stronger public engagement in the planning process draws on the exciting opportunity from emerging UK #PropTech such as @cmnplace @Built_ID @TheFutureFox, with a nod to @FaisalButt_ and others advocating for this emerging sector

And the vision behind the changes emerged from pioneering work by @euanmills (now in our team) and @Stef_W at @CPCatapult some years ago, and thinking on data-led platform gov from @richardjpope @tomskitomski and others back in the day

For our teams in @mhclg the paper is a public articulation of hard work put in across digital and policy teams over many months, working in collaboration with leading digital agencies, councils and PropTech co's

At a personal level its what keeps me excited about gov - we know how to build great transactional digital services (even if we've some way to go), but bringing deeper digital thinking into strategic policy work like this is imo the cutting edge of digital gov practice