Croydon Council has secured £180k from the government to modernise planning and ensure a better, more responsive service for residents and customers.
The funding will support the delivery of Executive Mayor Jason Perry’s commitment to transform the planning service, and ensure buildings are well designed and in keeping with the character of local neighbourhoods.
The council has secured £80,000 from the government’s Planning Skills Delivery Fund. This fund supports local authorities in dealing with planning application backlogs, focus on faster decisions on planning applications and boost skills in planning teams.
Croydon has also been awarded £100,000 from the government’s Digital Planning Improvement Fund. This money will be used to help the council adopt modern, data-led planning practices and development management software. The funding will enable the council to undertake a digital maturity assessment. It will support staff training in digital systems. It will also enable Croydon to join the Open Digital Planning community – a network of councils who are innovating and building new software for planning authorities to use.
“Having listened to local people, I have made transforming our planning service a priority. I’m keen to ensure that the service is as easy to navigate and as responsive as possible.
“This £180k funding is great news for residents, developers and all our planning customers. I promised that I would seek external funding to bolster services wherever possible and this money will support our transformation plans, so that our customers are getting clear and timely assistance with any planning issues they are facing.”
Jason Perry, Executive Mayor of Croydon
