As the planning system in England undergoes one of its most significant overhauls in recent memory, local plan teams are navigating a shifting landscape of expectations, timelines, and technologies. With the Local Plan 2025 reforms, there’s a clear message from government: local plans must be faster to produce, more accessible to the public, and data-rich by design.
At the heart of this transformation is a call for more meaningful, inclusive and digital-first consultation, and that’s where the right technology becomes essential.
Consultation Under the 2025 Reforms: What’s Changing?
The new reforms aim to simplify and speed up plan-making, but they also raise the bar for engagement and transparency. Key themes include:
- More focused consultations that are easier for the public to engage with
- Accessible and map-based formats to replace static PDFs and jargon-heavy documents
- Improved data capture and reporting to support plan justification and scrutiny
- A move toward “digital by default” plan presentation
These changes are not just procedural, they require a rethink in how local authorities communicate with their communities and gather feedback in ways that are efficient, inclusive, and robust.
Why Digital Consultation is Now Essential
Traditional consultation methods such as static documents, open comment boxes, public meetings etc, often fall short in delivering the level of accessibility and data clarity the new system demands. Digital consultation, when done right, brings several clear advantages:
- Better accessibility: Reaching a broader, more representative cross-section of the community
- Structured feedback: Gathering responses that are more focused, easier to analyse, and map directly to policies
- Audit trails: Automatically creating the evidence needed for soundness and legal compliance
- Time-saving efficiencies for already stretched planning teams
Tools That Support the New Way of Working
At JDi Solutions, we work with 40+ local planning authorities across the UK, providing council branded online consultation platforms purpose-built for plan-making.
OpusConsult helps planning teams:
- Structure consultations clearly, with topic-based navigation
- Collect and categorise representations with ease
- Publish and manage evidence libraries for Regulation 18 and 19 stages
- Export data in formats ready for inspectors, summaries, and reporting
And when it comes to the spatial presentation of plans, the fully integrated OpusMap platform allows authorities to create interactive, user-friendly policy maps that the public can easily explore. No more static PDFs - just dynamic, searchable maps that bring policies to life and invite meaningful interaction.
Planning Teams Are Already Adapting
Forward-looking local authorities are already adopting digital consultation platforms and enhancing their digital mapping capabilities in preparation for their next consultations.
Digital consultation is no longer a nice-to-have, it is the foundation for delivering a credible, robust local plan under the new system.
Ready to Modernise Your Local Plan Process?
Whether you are seeking a system designed to deliver with the more formal latter stages or plan-making such as a Regulation 18 and Regulation 19 consultations or reviewing your current engagement approach for early-stage evidence gathering to prepare a new Local Plan, we are here to help.
Learn more about OpusConsult and OpusMap, or get in touch with our team for a demo and friendly chat about how we can support your local plan-making journey.