Durham County Council has saved £10,403 and 50% of officer time by using a digital site assessment platform to standardise assessments when preparing a new local plan. The council wanted to improve the way it assessed potential sites.
In particular, it wanted to
- reduce the time and cost of assessing a large number of sites;
- standardise assessment criteria and scoring across the authority;
- reduce reliance on manual processes and spreadsheets;
- improve transparency and consistency in decision-making; and
- create an approach that could be reused and scaled.
Before the pilot, site assessments involved multiple teams, tools and handovers. Officers relied on a combination of GIS (geographic information system) analysis, research and manual data entry across spreadsheets and documents. This made the process time-intensive, difficult to repeat consistently and prone to duplication.
The council also wanted to move away from one-off assessment exercises towards a digital approach that could be reused and updated as evidence changed, providing a stronger basis for ongoing plan-making.
What they did
The council worked with Urban Intelligence to introduce PlaceMaker, a digital local plan platform, replacing a range of spreadsheet-based and manual processes previously used for site assessment.
As part of the pilot, Durham streamlined and moved its existing Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) data into the platform. This created a stronger and more scalable digital evidence base to support future site assessment work.
The council also helped shape a standardised Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) database structure that is now being shared with other councils using the same platform.
Carrying out site assessments digitally
Using the PlaceMaker platform, Durham carried out site assessments in a more consistent and repeatable way. Officers used the platform to:
- assess potential sites using a shared set of criteria;
- record assessment information in a consistent digital format;
- update assessments as evidence or assumptions changed; and
- reuse assessment data instead of recreating it at each stage
This reduced duplication between teams and made it easier to manage, compare and update large numbers of sites over time.
Supporting assessment at scale
The pilot focused on improving the efficiency of site assessment across the authority. By reducing reliance on spreadsheets and manual data handling, the digital approach helped officers move through assessment stages more quickly while keeping oversight of outputs. The approach supported housing and employment land availability assessment work, while maintaining the role of professional judgement. It also improved collaboration by providing a shared system for site assessment. This reduced handovers between planning, GIS and specialist teams and supported better coordination.
Officer review and validation
Planning officers reviewed assessment outputs throughout the pilot. The platform supported decision-making rather than replacing it. Officers remained in control of how assessments were interpreted and applied, using local knowledge and professional judgement alongside digital outputs.
Results and impact
The pilot significantly reduced the time needed to assess sites. By replacing manual processes with a structured digital workflow, Durham reduced assessment time by more than half. The pilot also shortened the overall assessment process by reducing or removing entire stages. For example, information gathering was largely removed, while data validation and final outputs were completed in a fraction of the time previously required. This allowed officers to focus more time on reviewing outputs and applying professional judgement.
Reducing costs and improving efficiency
The pilot delivered an estimated annual operational cost savings of £10,403 by:
- spending less officer time on site assessment tasks;
- relying less on specialist GIS and research input for routine work; and
- reducing handovers between teams and tools.
While the pilot required upfront configuration and testing, the council identified clear ongoing efficiency benefits from continuing to use the digital approach.
Improving consistency and transparency
Using a single digital assessment platform helped standardise how the council assess sites across the authority. The council used PlaceMaker to support:
- the consistent application of assessment criteria;
- clearer audit trails showing how decisions were reached;
- easier comparison of sites using the same evidence base; and
- more transparent decision-making across teams.
This addressed long-standing challenges with maintaining consistency across large numbers of sites and multiple assessment stages.
Supporting future engagement
Although no public consultation was carried out during the pilot, the council expects the digital approach to support improved transparency and engagement in later plan-making stages. Structured digital assessments can be reused, updated and shared more easily than spreadsheet-based approaches, supporting future consultation, reporting and evidence publication when required.
What they learned
Durham found that:
- standardising assessment criteria and workflows made the process more efficient and easier to repeat;
- the biggest time savings came from reducing manual data handling and duplication;
- upfront configuration and testing is essential to build trust in outputs;
- structuring assessments digitally makes them easier to update and reuse as evidence changes; and
- digital tools work best when they support professional judgement rather than replacing it.
The pilot also highlighted the importance of planning how digital outputs will be used later in the plan-making process, including reporting, evidence publication and future consultation.
Future plans
Durham plans to build on the learning from the pilot as it continues work on its new local plan. The council intends to embed the digital site assessment approach in ongoing processes. This includes reusing and refining assessment criteria and maintaining a single digital source of site assessment data as evidence changes.
Since the pilot, Durham has run a fully digital call for sites using the platform, receiving over 800 site submissions entered directly into the system. This reduced administrative effort by removing the need for manual site plotting and supported earlier analysis through automated criteria filtering.
Durham is also exploring how the approach could support future stages of plan-making, including reporting and evidence publication, while ensuring professional judgement remains central to decision-making.
This report is based on a case study by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
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