Future Cities Catapult has awarded nine Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Local Planning Authorities £200,000 to support the development of new tools and innovations to transform the planning system.
The UK’s ‘centre of excellence in urban innovation’ awarded the funds after inviting UK businesses, individuals, entrepreneurs and planning authorities to develop ideas to create a more data-driven and digitally enabled planning system. Proposals submitted included augmented reality to allow citizens to see future developments by holding up their phone or tablet.
The winners will have 12 weeks to develop prototypes that will help achieve a more transparent, inclusive and certain planning system.
The competition followed a recent report published by Future Cities Catapult that identified the key challenges facing planning authorities around the UK.