The Digital Planning team at MHCLG are delighted to announce the new PropTech Engagement Fund, set up to support the PropTech sector and local authorities to accelerate adoption of technology that will enhance community engagement and deliver a modern planning system.
Planning for the Future
The Planning for the Future White Paper set out a vision to increase the use of digital engagement within the planning process, to make the planning system more accountable and democratic by offering alternative routes to engage alongside traditional forms of engagement. An Expression of Interest launches today for local authorities who would like to apply for funding to run a digital engagement pilot addressing one of four themes.
The PropTech Engagement Fund will begin with engagement around the plan-making process and development management, key areas of consultation where digital can help broaden the range of voices being heard. We recognise there is an emerging market offering digital citizen engagement tools and services; these council-led funded projects will enable us to better understand the barriers to be overcome to allow local authorities to adopt these tools at scale.
Funding up to 12 digital engagement pilots
Pioneering local authorities have already been incorporating digital into their engagement plans, but it is not yet standard practice and national guidance has not kept pace with technological developments. Through the fund activities and projects supported, MHCLG will work with local authorities to help establish best practice and scope requirements for digital engagement guidance.
This round of funding will provide 10-12 local authorities with up to £100k each for their selected project. Local authorities will then be able to procure a supplier to work with on their engagement project, utilising the range of innovative tools that are available in the market. We will support local authorities to use G-Cloud or Spark DPS for procurement, with assistance for commercial teams as well.
Q&A session and how to apply
- There will be a fund Q&A session for local government officials on 18 August.
- Interested local authorities will have 4 weeks to apply for the PropTech Engagement Fund, with a deadline of 31 August to submit their Expression of Interest.
- Full details on the Expression of Interest can be found on the Local Digital website.
3 comments
Comment by Prof Flora Samuel posted on
We at the University of Reading have just been awarded £900K funding by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to develop pilot map based engagement formats for community consultation, face to face and digital across the UK. We are working with the Quality of Life Foundation, Commonplace and the Universities of Cardiff, Ulster and Edinburgh and multiple industry and policy partners. There appears to be considerable potential for crossover between what we are doing and what is proposed here so please do get in touch if you are interested in collaboration.
Comment by Michael Edwards (web editor) posted on
Community and grassroots organisations take rather a dim view of this scheme being limited to local authorities ! If the aim is better engagement of citizens with the planning process, and given the lack of funding among community organisations, how about a funding stream for experiments driven from the bottom up?
[writing on behalf of JustSpace.org.uk]
Comment by Rosie Pearson posted on
How will you be engaging with communities and residents to ensure that digitalisation of the planning system works for them? I am fully in favour of planning moving out of the dark ages, away from pdfs, and becoming more accessible BUT I am worried that MHCLG will not make sure that changes work for normal human beings. I have personal experience of the local plan system via a local campaign group and, as Chairman of the Community Planning Alliance, founded in March and with 492 community groups signed up to our map all over the UK, I am happy to propose that we help you with community testing. Going digital is great, but essential to get it right.