The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has awarded £2.3 million to a consortium of five English councils — including Southwark, Leeds, and Exeter — to pilot open source digital planning tools built on the RIPA and BOPS platforms. The funding, channelled through the Open Digital Planning project, aims to streamline householder application processing and reduce determination times. Results from the pilot will inform a national rollout template expected in early 2026.

Source: PublicTechnology.net