Chapter 3: e-Planning Vision

What is a World-Class Planning Service?

18 The Government Reform agenda seeks to deliver 'world-class' public services. In its recent consultation document on 'Planning Policy Statement 1 - Creating Sustainable Communities', the government set out its vision for the development of a world class planning service. This can be characterised as a service that:

a. Leads the way in developing clear visions for communities ensuring that the wider objectives of regeneration and development are fully integrated

b. Enables sustainable development ensuring economic development, social inclusion, environmental protection and prudent use of resources

c. Encourages and promotes widespread participation by creating a culture that is positive and proactive whilst also being transparent, accessible and accountable

What is a World-Class e-Planning Service?

19 E-planning can help to deliver this wider vision by enabling opportunities for innovative ways of working that will contribute to delivery of more effective, efficient, participative and responsive services. A preliminary vision of a world class e-planning service is set out below for discussion and testing with stakeholders.

A Vision Of A World-Class E-Planning Service

20 The preliminary statement of a world-class e-planning service is:

"A world class e-Planning Service will deliver new, more efficient ways of enabling the community to engage in developing a shared vision for their local area, easier access to high quality, relevant, information and guidance and, streamlined processes for sharing and exchanging information amongst key players."

21 As a result, we could envisage:

• An increase in levels of participation in planning as users have greater choice, flexibility and sense of purpose
• A trend towards applicants becoming empowered to self-assess their chances of achieving a positive planning outcome as they become more knowledgeable about relevant policies and issues
• Inclusive access to seamless, joined-up information and services across the public sector, producing benefits such as increased efficiency, improved levels of service delivery and greater user satisfaction

Customer Segmentation

22 To achieve this vision, we will design our services around our main customer groups:

a. Service users including the business and voluntary sector as well as the public

b. Public sector service providers including central, regional and local government and related bodies, including statutory consultees

c. Ministers, elected members and their advisors

d. Service delivery partners including professional institutions and technology service providers

Service Users - Public And Businesses

23 During 2003 there were approximately 620,000 planning applications in England, of which about 80% were submitted from the business and voluntary sectors including planning agents and the construction industry. If 5 or more interested parties are also involved in commenting on each planning application, then this creates a total of over 3 million transactions.

24 Planning professionals are involved in planning activities across a wide range of organisations. This customer group will see the value of the e-planning vision grow significantly over the next few years.

25 Users want easier access to more responsive, planning and related information and advisory services that enable them to help themselves to information and increase transparency of the decision-making process.

26 E-planning services enable a greater degree of self-service with links to associated regulatory services and will deliver significant benefits to all users.

27 The typical interactions of the public with the planning system will be one-off transactions, non-expert users, mostly local focus, mostly free, a wide variety of access channels, a self-service and consumer focus.

28 The focus of business users will be on volume transactions, speed of processing and cost, expert users with a commercial focus, fee-earning services, value-added services, new business opportunities and gaining competitive advantage. They will want full access to a range of services including fully integrated casework and document management systems, automated notification and processing, self-service applications and appeals and use of business on-line marketplaces and communities. An electronic pre-application service will also be beneficial to business users, by raising the quality of applications and therefore the chances of planning applications being approved.

Public Sector Service Providers

29 This group covers all the public sector delivery agents concerned with achieving the e-planning vision, in particular, ODPM, Planning Inspectorate (PINS), Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), Regional Planning Bodies and organisations involved in the planning consultation process e.g. Environment Agency. The focus of the public sector will be to enable improved services for customers, deliver policy outcomes, meet related targets and streamline processes.

30 There are 397 LPAs and national park authorities in England all employing professional planners and support staff. The involvement of LPAs will be essential to the delivery of an effective e-planning system, as they will be responsible for delivering many of the e-services identified in Section 4 of this Blueprint. Central government departments also have an interest in planning-related matters particularly those such as the Environment Agency with statutory consultee status.

31 There are major opportunities for improving service delivery by joining up processes across organisations, in particular, through increased exchange and sharing of data and information.

Service Delivery Partners

32 This group includes professional organisations who have key role in helping to enhance the value-added via planning services and also includes technology services providers who have a key role to play in facilitating the development of high quality, relevant services and systems.

Ministers And Elected Members - National And Local

33 This group covers elected members at both national and local levels where planning issues are a significant concern. They require better understanding of the impact of planning services in contributing to delivering policy outcomes, better understanding of performance against targets, and opportunities for improving access to real-time information and monitoring real world change.

Next Actions

34 This vision is the basis of the e-planning Blueprint. It needs to be challenged, improved and shared by the stakeholder community, in particular the LPAs. It will be published on the ODPM web site and Planning Portal and updated in light of new learning and developments as required.

35 The vision will be further developed, supported by the Stakeholder Engagement approach described in Section 6. The vision will drive the definition of the Service Propositions in section 4. Each e-planning service will be developed with regard to the following wider, cross-cutting considerations:

• Information to support all of the proposed services, such as applications, appeals, casework and inquiries, will be, as far as possible, collected once, stored and managed in a single location but accessible via multiple channels as required
• Users will be offered, as far as possible, seamless, integrated consistent services that will be delivered by joining-up across traditional organisational or geographic boundaries
• New services will be designed to take full advantage, where possible, of central government infrastructure being developed by the e-Government Unit and in compliance with relevant e-standards such as the UK Government Interoperability Framework
• The development of new services will take account of emerging information policy obligations such as the Freedom of Information legislation.