Hounslow wins £185,000 funding to improve planning and public spaces with digital technology

Hounslow Council has secured a total of £185,000 in funding from the government’s Digital Planning Improvement Fund and the PropTech Innovation Fund, enabling it to work together with seldom heard groups to improve public spaces. The funding will also advance the Council’s digital planning capabilities, putting select data from planning applications to work, creating efficiencies, improving transparency and bringing planning proposals to life.

The £85,000 awarded through the PropTech Innovation Fund will help the council to work with young people, BAME groups and others who don’t often engage with traditional planning consultations. The Council will ask these communities to imagine how public spaces can better meet the needs of local communities. 

Hounslow Council will organise community-based workshops that assume no prior planning knowledge, and support involvement through gaming, augmented reality tools, and more. A social media campaign designed to talk to young people and BAME groups, will also encourage seldom heard groups to help reimagine shared public spaces.

The Council was also awarded £100,000 as part of the Digital Planning Improvement Fund. This will help the council to use select data from planning applications to produce cost, time and resource efficiencies. It will also help to improve transparency and certainty for stakeholders and bring planning proposals to life for local communities.

Hounslow is dedicated to enhancing digital capabilities, digital maturity and improved customer experience through a number of projects, both completed and ongoing. The Council is working with a technology provider to develop a new planning IT system that will improve data management, secure efficiency savings, and further enhance the user experience.

Cllr Tom Bruce, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Development, said: “This new funding will help us to involve even more local people in the design of their public spaces. It will also superpower specific, existing planning data, to share and develop our learning and harness technology to deliver more effective and efficient services.

“These projects compliment the Council’s digital strategy, and its work creating connected and inclusive communities. The schemes will help to support and empower people in Hounslow, through exciting 3D and modern visualisation tools and other innovative and digitally optimised services.”