Introduction

The Transformational Planning Project builds on the success of the first phase of the National Process Improvement Project (NPIP), with four Local Authorities being chosen as pilots to research and develop the employment of industry standard Business Process Improvement techniques in a local planning environment.

London Borough of Lewisham, Leeds City Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Hambleton District Council have examined how they process planning applications using process mapping and activity based costing techniques in order to develop a ‘transformed’ approach.

The pathfinder authorities completed their projects against a background of change, both in some of the regulations surrounding the planning process, and in the global financial markets. The figures contained in this document are representative of a ‘normal’ year, and do not necessarily reflect the downturn in financial markets and housing applications which were seen towards the end of the pathfinder projects. This should not detract from the lessons learnt and the potential savings which can be delivered, however.

The scope of the Transformational Planning Project has been:

• To create and effectively disseminate a set of tools, based upon real experiences in local planning authorities, which promote more efficient and customer-focused processing of planning applications;

• To raise awareness of the necessity to transform local planning authorities;

• To provide a base from which further evidence-based transformational approaches can be created to extend the support available to local planning authorities.

Benefits – What have the Pathfinders Achieved?

The pathfinders found a number of benefits to their service from undertaking their BPI projects:

• Each of the Transformational Planning pathfinders expects to deliver cashable savings through their project - up to 14%;

• Each of the pathfinders has identified areas of non-value adding activity which can be removed, with the time channelled into more value adding areas for customers and staff;

• Staff have become more customer-focused – they now give even greater consideration to how their activities affect customers, and vice versa;

• The pathfinders are utilising the tools and techniques gained from their projects in other areas in their authority – building capacity for positive change;

• Staff became highly engaged and enthusiastic in the projects, and their potential to improve both their jobs, and the service they provide to the community;

• The pathfinders found additional benefits from collaborating with each other on their projects – the Yorkshire pathfinders would go as far as to say that their projects were a single, shared journey, rather than three separate workstreams.

“Overall, each of the pathfinders expects to increase their ability to fulfil their primary goal – delivering high quality, well designed and sustainable developments.”

Read the full project synthesis report here