Basildon Borough Council has made a major breakthrough in its efforts to tackle the county's chronic housing shortage, using cutting-edge digital tools to pinpoint 23% more potential urban development sites. The innovative approach, which involved mapping and analysing every land parcel within the borough's urban areas, not only reduced processing times but also revealed 42 hidden gems – two of which have already secured planning permission.
The council employed LANDCLAN, a digital platform that integrated data from Land Registry boundaries, planning policies, land use, flood risk, and proximity to essential services. By combining this with local information such as planning consents and council-owned land, officers created a highly refined set of criteria for identifying suitable development sites.
Traditional manual assessments were deemed too time-consuming in the face of preparing a new local plan, given that nearly two-thirds of Basildon borough is designated Metropolitan Green Belt. The digital tools enabled a comprehensive borough-wide assessment that would have been impossible through older methods.
The success of Basildon's pilot – backed by the PropTech Innovation Fund – also saw the council harness its public consultation platform, Commonplace, to boost transparency and community engagement. An interactive map displaying the identified urban sites was published, allowing residents to rate their support and comment on the proposals. This collaborative approach generated over 1,000 public comments and strengthened relationships between planning, asset management, and development teams within the council.
The Basildon pilot demonstrates the tangible benefits of integrating technology into local planning processes. By digitalising site assessments and engaging communities through interactive tools, councils can streamline their efforts to identify suitable housing sites, reduce administrative burdens, and increase transparency – ultimately contributing to addressing the UK's pressing housing supply challenges.