Local government in England is undergoing profound transformation. The UK Government’s planning reform agenda is reshaping how places are planned, funded, and delivered. From simplifying two-tier structures into empowered unitary or combined authorities, to streamlining local plan processes and introducing legislative reforms through the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act and the Planning and Infrastructure Bill; the policy landscape is shifting.

There are not just structural changes. It is a call for local authorities to be more strategic, spatially aware, and better equipped to deliver joined-up outcomes across housing, transport, energy, digital infrastructure, and public health.

A Need for Integrated Planning

Amid this evolving environment, the Department for Transport’s Connectivity Tool presents an opportunity to bridge national policy ambitions with local delivery. By combining transport and land use data at a granular level, the tool provides a dynamic and evidence-led view of connectivity. It also demonstrates how easily people can access work, education, healthcare, shops, and services using sustainable modes like walking, cycling, and public transport.

Crucially, the tool is not static. It allows users, particularly local planners and transport officials to simulate interventions, such as new public transport routes or active travel corridors, and see in real time how those changes influence a location’s overall accessibility score.

These insights are immediately useful in assessing the suitability of candidate development sites, but its real power lies in how it supports integrated policy decisions. That’s where to build, where to invest in infrastructure, how to plan around hubs, and how to align growth with transport capacity. As new governance models take shape and spatial planning becomes more strategic, the Connectivity Tool becomes a vital instrument for cross-sector alignment.

And Its Broader Potential

In our organisation, we see the digitisation of integrated planning not merely as a data service or technical product, but as an operating model for place-based planning and investment. Utilised to its full potential, it can underpin spatial prioritisation across emerging combined authorities, guide infrastructure levies and zoning approaches, and provide the digital evidence base to support the next generation of Local Plans.

Policy makers are increasingly talking about brownfield-first development, density around hubs, 15-minute neighbourhoods, and net zero transport corridors. Integrated planning digital tools will provide a consistent and transparent way to model these policies in practice, something that is essential in a system currently fragmented by varied methodologies and local interpretations.

As this area matures, it should become embedded in statutory planning policy and guidance, not just as a technical reference but as a core instrument of decision-making across housing, regeneration, climate, and public service planning. It will also become increasingly valuable in the planning reform journey as a means of demonstrating the viability and sustainability of proposed developments.

This will require ensuring digital tools are secure, scalable, and open to extensibility. They must be designed for long-term ownership within public sector teams, able to absorb new data layers (e.g. energy, broadband, social outcomes), and capable of handling increased user demand as more authorities and sectors engage with it.

The Need for Engagement and Buy-In

Realising this potential will require more than technology alone. It will demand sustained engagement with a wide community of users and decision-makers, including:

  • Local authority planners and housing teams, responsible for identifying and allocating development sites
  • Transport policy makers and infrastructure planners, needing to align services with growth
  • Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) and sub-national transport bodies, who can use the tool to target investment and build business cases
  • Public transport operators, who can collaborate around evidence-based service improvements
  • Public health bodies and integrated care systems, for whom access to services is a determinant of wellbeing
  • Digital infrastructure and utility providers, who must coordinate infrastructure delivery with future population patterns
  • Developers and consultants, who need to demonstrate site sustainability in line with emerging planning frameworks

The success of technology such as the DfT’s Connectivity Tool will hinge on making it useful, usable, and used across this spectrum. It will need to be integrated into the digital and policy fabric of local government; which is itself evolving.

We also believe it offers a chance to create a shared language between departments and disciplines, turning planning, transport, health, digital, and climate professionals into collaborators around a common spatial understanding.

Looking Ahead

In an era of constrained budgets, climate urgency, and demographic pressure, local government needs to work smarter. Digitised integrated transport planning tooling has the potential to provide a shared evidence base that enables strategic prioritisation, reduces planning risk, and delivers better outcomes for communities.

We are committed to supporting our customers in delivering and evolving in this technology space. From scalable and secure cloud deployment to ongoing user research, data integration, and digital governance, we are ready to help take central and local government alike into a future era of connected, intelligent transport planning.

This country’s planning future is local, integrated, and spatially intelligent. Tools such as the DfT’s Connectivity Tool can help make that future deliverable.

You can check out our full range of Public Sector services, solutions and expertise here.

Latest blogs