Strengthening building control services for local authorities in 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.

The story so far: progress across planning and building control

In 2024, we launched our integrated Planning and Building Control portal – offering applicants the opportunity to submit planning and building control applications in the same place, using the same log in details, for the first time ever.

Since this launch, we’ve made strong, measurable progress for local authority teams up and down the country:

• Over 60% of Local Authority Building Control (LABC) teams onboarded

• More than 20,000 building control applications submitted and £11M in fee payments transacted

• Launched the first bilingual Welsh building control service, supporting accessibility and compliance across Wales

• Built a growing pipeline of additional local authorities excited to partner with us

• Ability to fully integrate with local authority back-office systems ensuring secure, efficient data transfer.

This momentum has been driven by shared learning, open feedback, and the commitment of local authority partners to working with us to continually improve the building control experience for agents, applicants, and internal teams alike.

Supporting local authorities beyond onboarding

Onboarding to receive applications through us is just the starting point. Once you’ve joined, alongside rollout, our focus remains on ongoing support for building control teams to ensure the service works for both authorities and applicants and delivers real operational value for your team.

We do this by:

✅Dedicated account management

✅Offering regular touchpoints and training for internal teams

✅Providing tailored guidance, including around fees

✅Highlighting the efficiencies and savings our platform delivers at agent forums and meetings nationwide.

We encourage building control teams to revisit our comprehensive Building Control Body (BCB) guide, which provides a clear overview of:

• Full-service functionality

• How to configure accounts to reflect local authority processes

• Best practice for managing applications, payments and reporting

This guidance helps ensure building control teams are set up to work efficiently and consistently, even as volumes increase.

Recent building control portal updates – you asked, we listened:

Based on feedback from local authorities, we’ve introduced a series of practical improvements to make day-to-day building control administration easier:

Dual payment notification email addresses, allowing separate contacts for Building Control teams and Finance departments

Enhanced remittance reports, now including application types to support quicker reconciliation and accurate cost coding

Improved fee request workflows, with a mandatory prompt encouraging agents to provide more detailed information, helping teams assess fees more accurately and reduce follow-up queries

These updates are designed to reduce friction, save time, and improve data quality across the building control process.

What’s coming next for building control in 2026?

Looking ahead, our focus remains on evolving our building control service in response to how local authorities and applicants work in practice. Informed by feedback and collaboration, planned enhancements for 2026 include: 

✅A new application history tab to present a full audit trail and timeline view, allowing local authorities to see a clear record of application activity, from receipt of payment request to submission progress in one place – a frequently requested improvement that will bring greater transparency and auditability. 

✅The ability to manage the size limit of individual supporting documents that applicants can upload with their application. The file size default limit is set at 10MB and shortly you will be able to change this from your admin account to a maximum of 30MB per file. 

✅Ability to configure the client statement of consent form as required when applications are submitted by an agent. 

We’ll be sharing more detail on these developments in the coming months. 

Learning from peers across local authorities

Our latest testimonial blog highlights how other local authorities are using the building control service, the challenges they’ve addressed, and the benefits they’re seeing in terms of efficiency, consistency and engagement.

Sharing these real-world experiences helps build confidence and supports continuous improvement across the sector.

Driving better agent engagement and submissions

How can we collaborate to drive increased uptake of Building Control with Planning Portal? 

For Local Authorities: 

We’re seeing the strongest uptake from local authorities that clearly signpost Planning Portal’s Building Control service as a preferred method of submission in a prominent position on their website. Making the service easy to find and clearly recommended at the point applicants are looking to submit has proven to be one of the most effective ways to drive growth in submissions and realise the savings and efficiencies from digital service delivery and integration to your building control back-office systems. If increasing take-up is a priority, we’d encourage you to review how and where the service is referenced on your website and make this as visible as possible. 

Working in partnership with local authorities to advocate online submission to their agent communities via a direct communication campaign and holding agent forums to present the service and the efficiencies and savings to be realised.  

From Planning Portal: 

To support take-up and improve submission quality, we’re taking a more targeted approach to professional agent engagement. Using insight from the planning process, we’re focusing our communications on agents and applicants who are most likely to require building control services once planning permission has been approved. 

By reaching professionals at the right point in their journey, we can help raise awareness of the building control service earlier, encourage better-prepared applications, and reduce friction for both agents and local authorities. The aim is to support smoother transitions from planning approval to building control, benefiting everyone involved through clearer expectations, better information upfront, and more efficient data sharing and processing using a joined-up national service. 

In addition to this, we are also targeting activity across: 

• Google search 

• Social media 

• PR and industry communications 

We aim to do the hard work on your behalf, investing in adoption and making the service the go-to tool for submissions and application management. 

Let’s keep the conversation going 

Your insight as local authority and building control professionals is critical to shaping what comes next. Whether it’s feedback on recent changes, ideas for future improvements, or experiences from your teams, we want to keep listening and learning together. Please email us at userresearch@terraquest.co.uk or contact your dedicated Planning Portal Business Development Manager.

Ongoing account management

As we look ahead, our role remains focused on supporting local authority building control teams in practice, not just in principle. That means providing more than a route for submissions – it means ongoing account management, tailored tools, clear guidance, and continuous improvement shaped by real operational experience, all delivered as part of the free Planning Portal service available to all local authority building control teams.

By working closely with local authorities, listening to feedback, and investing in both service development and market adoption, we aim to support a building control service that is resilient, efficient, and built to work at national scale – while reflecting local needs.

We would love to hear from you. Get in touch with us…

We look forward to continued partnership in 2026.