Planning Portal Blog

At Planning Portal, we know local authorities are under sustained pressure – from rising workloads to shifting policy and stretched resources. That’s why we’re committed to supporting you where it matters most: improving submission quality at source, reducing validation demands on your team, and streamlining processes before applications reach you.

As sector partners, we continually review and refine our planning and building control services to ensure they work effectively for all our stakeholders. Shaped by user research and close collaboration with local authorities, our programme of Q1 and Q2 enhancements is designed to reduce administrative burden, improve validation rates, and strengthen confidence in the applications you receive – supporting more streamlined and resilient planning processes for everyone.

Below is a summary of the key changes coming in the first part of 2026 – and what they mean for your authority.

At Planning Portal, we’re committed to empowering our applicants with clear, reliable information to help them make informed decisions. With this in mind, we’d like to let you know about the forthcoming annual fee increase – affecting planning application fees in England. This increase is set by government and linked to the consumer price index. Changes will take affect from 1 April 2026.

As we step into 2026, we’re looking forward to continuing our close collaboration with local authority building control teams across the country to strengthen relationships, generate new business and build long-term prosperity that supports everyone involved in the building control process.

Just as with planning, our focus for building control goes well beyond forms and submissions. Supporting and streamlining the entire building control journey remains one of our key priorities, as part of our ongoing commitment to support and optimise the day-to-day working processes of stakeholders across the built environment.

Years of partnering with local authorities has given us a deep understanding of the working practices, pressures, and non-negotiables of building control teams. We’re proud to offer a legislatively compliant national service, free for local authorities, that responds directly to those realities – supporting not only application submission, but providing wider solutions designed to work in practice. As demand for efficient, transparent and consistent building control services continues to grow, we know collaboration will remain at the heart of how we move forward.

Since launching our integrated Building Control Portal at the start of 2024, we’ve facilitated over 20,000 application submissions across England and Wales, transferring more than £11 million in building control fees to local authority teams. During that time we’ve worked closely with local authorities across the country as they embed the service into their day-to-day operations, and begin to see the benefits in practice. 

As with our national planning application service, Planning Portal’s integrated Building Control Portal is free for local authorities to use, meaning councils can realise the efficiencies of an integrated Building Control application service without additional cost. From reduced data entry to faster validation, from clearer communication with applicants to straightforward, secure payment processing; authorities are already seeing practical improvements in how Building Control applications are managed.