DCLG has written to Chief Planning Officers today to announce that there will be a 15% increase to planning application fees in England commencing on 22nd November 2012.
This will apply to all applications.
We are currently making the changes to the Portal fee calculator to be ready for the change.
In Wales, existing fees will apply.
DCLG has released a PDF of the letter sent to LPAs covering the fee increase. You can download it here.
A government-backed competition will offer grants totalling £7m to boost research and development of the innovative 3D printing manufacturing process including the development of concrete building components.
And you thought my earlier post was a joke, ha!
The RIBA has just announced that it is partnering with us to promote our Smarter Planning initiative to architects.
If you’d like to know more about their take on this please read their practice bulletin or if you’d like more information from us see my earlier post or visit the Smarter Planning pages on the Portal.
In the last week or so more than 200 businesses and Local Authorities have registered their interest in the scheme.
Just occured to me are LPAs attaching QR codes to lamp posts or the front of buildings?
Amazing, fantastic and marvellous, were just some of the reactions (admittedly from me) when Dan our stat man gave me the latest good news on the web traffic and applications front.
For the very first time we topped over 1 Million visits to the website in one month (1,006,554 to be precise) thats 24% up on October last year, and a 16% increase on the last 6 months as an average.
Page views were 9,329,975 an 8.8% increase from 2011 and Unique Visitors were 435,706 [25.4% increase from 2011]
Planning Application numbers were also very healthy at 25,930 online apps which equates to around 63.2% online
Thanks to all of you who commented on my recent Smarter Planning post suggesting how we might improve the scheme.
I’ve discussed your comments with the team and we have adjusted the terms to reflect your concerns.
In particular, we’ve taken out the mandatory commitment to pay online and introduced additional clarification and flexibility on some of the other terms, including attachment naming.
We’ve republished the professional toolkit on the Portal on this page.
Our account management team are now busy processing the 150 or so other requests we’ve had from planning and building professionals about signing up.
Smarter Planning for local planning authorities
Smarter Planning isn’t just about planning agents. The scheme also extends to local planning authorities.
Smarter Planning is about the Portal working with both agents and LPAs to try and deliver a more effective end-to-end applications process online.
LPAs can also join the scheme by demonstrating best practice in processing online planning applications. So far over 70 LPAs have registered and interest in the scheme and are talking to our account managers about accreditation.
More information for LPAs is available from the Smarter Planning page on the Portal.
A short video featuring a few of my friends
I know it’s fairly irrelevant in the great scheme of things but it put a smile on my face and it’s nice to know you’re out there.
Thanks to those of you that have contributed so far.
Chris
Planning Portal Blog 
