Increased housing targets under the updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) place local planning authorities under immense pressure to deliver more homes at an accelerated rate. With this news, planners face the challenge of balancing housing needs with sustainable growth, infrastructure capacity and meaningful community engagement. Councils must navigate increasingly complex decisions to deliver on their targets. In this landscape, conventional plan-making methods will not be sufficient.

Urban Intelligence’s PlaceMaker software is used by councils up and down the country who need to act strategically in order to make smart decisions about the future of their communities.

The platform is empowering planners to be on the front foot when it comes to setting out the vision and priorities for growth in their council areas, whilst still supporting traditional processes such as call for sites. They are leveraging the power of data to transform their local plan-making, enabling them to be more proactive in identifying sites, using automation to get important information sooner, and testing innovative scenarios to make impactful decisions about potential future housing delivery.

With PlaceMaker, councils are building robust evidence bases to better understand the opportunities in their area and the impact of policy decisions on housing delivery. Here's how some of our council's have gone about it:

1. Proactively Identifying Sites

A call for sites exercise is a fairly one-sided process, bound by the market and in some areas producing few opportunities for development. Using open source and council-owned datasets, PlaceMaker automatically evaluates the suitability of every single land parcel in the council area, based on council-specified criteria such as existing development, transport connectivity, environmental constraints, relationship to existing settlements, and development capacity. This enables planners to proactively assess sites for their suitability and identify those that deserve further investigation on availability, achievability and sustainability. This process gives them the insight they need to promote potential development sites internally, including sites that may not have otherwise come forward for development.

Giving officers this information allows them to work 'further upstream' and be more proactive in their approach to not only identify possible sites, but plan in accordance with the complex needs of delivering them.

2. Streamlining Call for Sites Exercises

Running a successful call for sites exercise is a necessary step for any local authority for engaging stakeholders and uncovering viable development opportunities. With PlaceMaker, councils are streamlining this process by digitising submissions, allowing promoters to draw sites directly onto an interactive map, enter site specific details, and then submit the site in to the councils centralised site database. These are then instantly assessed by PlaceMaker, with officers then able to verify or adjust this assessment and add further detail. PlaceMaker councils have received thousands of site submissions, and saved months of processing time, allowing their planners to use their time to proactively plan and enable delivery.

“With digital tools, we’re saving significant planner time, enabling them to focus on higher-value work.”
Andrew Turner, Planning and Transport Policy Manager, Milton Keynes City Council

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3. Understanding density and capacity

Where land availability is restricted by boundaries or constraints such as green belt, exploring density and defining possible capacity is key to ensure land is used to its full potential. With PlaceMaker, councils such as Newcastle are able to accurately understand existing prevailing densities, and work at a granular level to explore opportunities for future development. With the ability to explore and test possible density uplifts, officers can review potential strategies at scale, without the need for site by site investigations.

Take a look at our latest PlaceMaker case study with Newcastle City Council to find out more about their data-driven approach to their Land Availability Assessment.

4. Scenario testing for smarter planning

As well as providing evidence for decision-making, PlaceMaker's analysis enables planners to scenario test a range of options for development strategies. This can include testing changes to land supply if approaches to constraints such as green belt are changed or if policy approaches are adjusted on development locations. It could also include testing changes in total housing supply if densities are uplifted in certain locations.

Within a continually evolving policy landscape, its imperative that planners are equipped with robust evidence and analysis to propose innovative ideas to stakeholders and their communities. With PlaceMaker, planners have a strategic oversight on future growth, enabling them to tackle complex decision-making, confidently.

See PlaceMaker in Action

Ready to see how PlaceMaker can help your council meet housing targets and transform your local plan-making process? Book a free demo today to see the platform in action and discover how it can streamline site assessments, enhance public engagement, and support data-driven decision making for your council. Don’t just take our word for it—head to our Articles page to read the latest case studies and see how PlaceMaker councils are delivering for their communities.

‍This is the first article in a series exploring the specific LPA implications of the updated housing targets, where we'll be taking a closer look at the opportunities technology presents for a data-driven, innovative and strategic approach to addressing the housing crisis and delivering for communities. You'll find future articles via our LinkedIn page or on our articles page.