Planning Portal updates: What applicants need to know at the start of 2026

At Planning Portal, we’re always looking for ways to improve the applicant experience – enabling smoother submissions and giving you the best possible start to your application journey.

We continually refine our planning and building control services to ensure they work as effectively as possible for all users, with improvements guided by user feedback, research, and ongoing collaboration with local authorities and industry partners.

In that spirit, we’ve kicked off 2026 with a series of practical system upgrades designed to streamline the submission process, reduce errors, and improve validation success – supporting smoother processes for you.

Below, you’ll find a summary of the key updates being rolled out in early 2026, and what they mean for you and your applications.

1) Local Validation Checklists – built into your application journey

We’re passionate about improving validation rates – in fact, it’s one of our main focuses for 2026. We’ve started the year by bringing Local Validation Checklists directly into the application journey. 

What’s new? 

💡From Q2 2026, Local Validation Checklists will be integrated into the application process. You will be able to review the relevant local checklist as part of your submission journey, with a direct link provided within the application flow – so there’s no need to search for it elsewhere. 

What does it mean for you? 

✅This gives you greater peace of mind that your application meets all local requirements before submission. By making validation expectations clearer at the right point in the process, we’re helping to increase the quality of submissions and reduce invalidations caused by missing information, meaning fewer delays and a smoother validation process overall. 

2) Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) – integrated into digital question set

Further supporting our mission of improving validation, we’ll be collecting Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) information as part of our application process – meaning you won’t need to submit separate CIL documents.

What’s new?

💡CIL questions will be embedded directly into the application journey for relevant applications being submitting to CIL-enabled authorities. This will be supported by clear, on-screen guidance to ensure applicants understand their bespoke requirements.

What does this mean for you?

✅Conditional logic will guide you through the correct sections, ensuring you complete the right information at the right time. This reduces the risk of interpretation errors and removes the need to complete and upload separate CIL documents, lowering the chance of rejected submissions and time-consuming amendments.

Capturing this information as structured data improves consistency and enables quicker, more accurate processing by local authorities, supporting faster, more streamlined validation.

3) Supporting Documents – improved upload experience 

We’re upgrading the Supporting Documents upload experience to provide clearer guidance, real-time feedback, and more resilient handling of large document sets. 

What’s new? 

💡Each document will now have its own individual upload progress indicator, allowing issues to be identified and addressed, on a file-by-file basis. Clear, in-context guidance will explain exactly what’s required to resolve any errors. 

You’ll be able to fix issues with individual documents without having to restart the entire upload process, giving you greater control and visibility throughout.

What does it mean for you? 

✅Based on user interviews and research, this upgrade will reduce document errors and failed uploads – empowering you to submit complete and compliant documentation more confidently. This means fewer incomplete submissions, fewer support queries and a smoother overall application submission process.  

4) Bulk payment for multiple applications

Agents submitting multiple applications will be able to pay for several applications at once, instead of completing payments individually.

What’s new?

💡Multiple outstanding applicant payments can be settled via one single transaction.

What does it mean for you?

✅A simpler, more efficient payment process – with shorter payment and release times, fewer untraceable transactions, and clearer visibility of payment status. Overall, this reduces administrative overhead and removes the need for manual matching or follow-up.

5) New application forms

We’re also introducing three new application forms to Planning Portal.

What’s new?

💡The new forms are:

• Application for Permission in Principle – A lighter touch process to check that a small residential development is acceptable in principle, before having to submitting full technical details for approval

• Application for a Certificate of Lawfulness of Proposed Works to a Listed Building – Confirms that proposed works are lawful and do not require listed building consent.

• Planning application for development relating to the onshore extraction of oil and gas – Covers a wide range of consent scenarios specific to these types of proposals.

✅Integrating these forms digitally allows us to better respond to the evolving needs of the built environment. With the introduction of the ‘grey belt’ land categorisation, for example, many applicants are exploring Permission in Principle to test how the policy may apply to their sites – particularly given its developing parameters and differing interpretations. This reinforces the importance of a flexible digital service that can adapt quickly as planning policy evolves.

Further updates 

💡AI planning policy navigator

Alongside the updates listed above, we’re also developing a new digital planning policy navigator within Interactive House to support applicants earlier in their planning journey.

Already used by millions of homeowners and professionals each year, Interactive House helps people understand common projects and planning requirements before they apply. The new guidance navigator will introduce a chat-based conversational interface that provides real-time guidance based exclusively on Planning Portal content and national planning policy sources.

More than a simple chatbot, the tool is designed to help applicants prepare stronger submissions through clearer guidance before they apply, while also reducing avoidable enquiries for Local Planning Authorities. We look forward to sharing more details very soon.

💡Bank transfers 

From Q4 2025, Bank Transfers are now handled as a separate payment type within our system, creating a clearer and more straightforward payment journey. You’ll now see a dedicated summary screen explaining exactly what to do next, and payment references have been standardised to use your Planning Portal application reference, giving you one consistent identifier across both your application and payment. 

💡Assisted living project guidance 

We’re expanding our mini-guides section to support the assisted living review process – offering clearer guidance for applicants across common adaptation projects such as stairlifts, ramps, and widened doorways.   

💡National Planning Application Fee increase 

As covered in our previous blog post, the Government is updating planning application fees in England from 1 April. We’ll be updating our site and fee schedule in line with these changes when they come into effect. You can find out more about the update here. 

Looking ahead 

These 2026 improvements reflect our ongoing commitment to supporting a more efficient, transparent and resilient planning and development sector – improving validation rates, reducing avoidable delays, and helping applications move through the process with greater certainty for applicants, agents and local authorities alike. 

As partners to the entire built environment, our role goes beyond submission. We respond to the sector’s evolving needs and use our platform to help facilitate positive change – supporting greater consistency, clarity and confidence across the planning process. We’ll continue working closely with industry partners and listening to user feedback as further enhancements are introduced throughout 2026. 

If you have any feedback or suggestions for our team, please get in touch at userresearch@terraquest.co.uk
– your insight helps shape what we do next.