The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has launched a formal pilot of the open source Planning and Design Code tools developed under the Open Digital Planning project, involving twelve English district and borough councils. Councils including Buckinghamshire, Medway, and South Cambridgeshire are testing the ripa and bops applications for managing prior approval and householder applications. Results are expected to inform the rollout provisions under the forthcoming Levelling Up and Regeneration Act secondary legislation.

Source: Local Government Chronicle