For UK local planning authorities

Planning applications that are valid first time

Householders and agents check their documents before they submit and see within a minute what a validation officer would ask for. Your validation team sees the same findings, each tied to the national or local requirement.

Try it with an application Find your council’s page

Checked in 38 seconds

Applicants attach the check report to their Planning Portal submission
Every finding cites the national or local requirement
Data and AI processing in Europe, under UK GDPR
A planning officer always decides, never the AI

The problem

Invalid applications cost everyone weeks

An invalid application means a letter, a wait, a resubmission and an applicant who doesn’t know where they stand, while the statutory clock hasn’t started. Most of it is avoidable: a red line drawn short, a missing elevation, the wrong certificate.

~50%

of planning applications are invalid when first submitted; 22% of those because of the location plan

Planning Portal research, 2023

250,000

officer hours a year spent checking planning documents by hand

MHCLG, June 2026

41%

of decisions in April–June 2026 needed an extension of time or a performance agreement

MHCLG planning application statistics, England

Two sides

One check, for the applicant and for your validation team

For applicants and agents

Householders, architects, planning agents and small developers

Know beforehand which documents this council asks for, with examples of a good one
Within a minute, per document, what is in order and what isn't, in plain English
Site constraints and permitted-development signals before anything is drawn
Invite your architect for just the drawings
A check report with a code to attach to the Planning Portal submission

For your validation team

Validation officers, technical support and development management

See straight away what is there and what is missing, document by document
Site constraints from national planning data on the same screen
A draft invalid-application letter citing each requirement, ready to send
Approve, dismiss or correct every finding; every decision recorded
Measure first-time valid rate, validation time and how often the check agreed with your officers

How it works

From postcode to a valid application, in five steps

01
Address first
The applicant types a postcode. ValidFirst finds the council and lists what national planning data says about the site: conservation area, listed building, Article 4 direction, protected trees, flood zone.
02
The right application
They describe the work in plain words (“single-storey rear extension”). ValidFirst suggests the application type, says when permitted development might apply, and shows the documents this council asks for, with examples.
03
Checked within a minute
Every upload is read against the national requirements and the council’s local list. A red line that misses the road, a missing existing elevation or the wrong ownership certificate shows up at once, with how to fix it.
04
Submit with a check code
The applicant submits through the Planning Portal as usual and attaches the check report. Its code links the submission to the check when it reaches the council.
05
Validation in minutes
Your validation officer sees each document’s findings, the site constraints and what is missing. If the application is invalid, a letter listing each missing item and the requirement behind it is ready to send.

Application types

Beyond householder applications

Householder applications are just over half of all decisions in England. ValidFirst covers them and the other types that fill a validation queue. For each one: which documents are needed, what each must show, and the article or guidance it comes from. Requirements last checked on 14 November 2026.

Permitted development

Reads the drawings, not just the form

Heights, depths and distances written on the elevations and plans are compared with the limits in the General Permitted Development Order, taking the site’s constraints into account. The result is a signal for the applicant and your officer, with the paragraph it comes from: never a decision. A lawful development certificate or your officer gives certainty.

Class A extensions: depth, height, eaves within 2 m of a boundary, width of side extensions
Class B roof additions: volume, principal elevation, Article 2(3) land
Porches and outbuildings: area, height, distance to the boundary

Alongside PlanAssist

PlanAssist helps officers assess. ValidFirst makes sure what reaches them is valid.

Government’s PlanAssist is a welcome step for householder assessment in 15 councils. It starts after submission, though, and the other ~290 English authorities wait for a wider rollout planned by the end of 2027. Here is how the two compare on what has been published.

PlanAssist compared with ValidFirst
	PlanAssist (published)	ValidFirst
Who uses it	Planning officers, after an application is submitted	Applicants and agents before they submit, and validation officers when it arrives
Application types	Householder applications	8 types: householder, full, lawful development certificates, prior approval, listed building consent, works to trees, advertisement consent
Where it runs	15 councils in a 12-month beta; government intends to offer it to every council in England by the end of 2027	A page for each of England's 308 planning authorities today; a council goes live in days
What it stops	Officer time spent assessing an application	Invalid applications reaching the council in the first place, and officer time spent validating
Evidence	Vendor figures: up to 58% less officer time on assessment; no published error rates	Accuracy measured per council: every AI finding against the officer's decision, shown to the council
Transparency	No ATRS record or DPIA found	Draft ATRS record, DPIA and data processing terms ready for your DPO

PlanAssist facts from GOV.UK (30 October 2026) and Google DeepMind (31 October 2026). Sources and detail

Every council

Your council already has a page

All 308 local planning authorities in England, national park authorities and development corporations included. Each page runs on the national requirements and real site constraints, so you can try it with an address in your own area today. Your local list goes on top when you join.

Control

The decision stays with your council

A check, not a decision

The AI checks whether documents show what is asked. Your officer validates, asks for more or dismisses a finding. Validation stays a statutory decision of the council.

Every requirement with its source

Each finding names where it comes from: the DMPO 2015, the national information requirements, or the paragraph of your own local list. So every invalid-application letter can be explained and defended.

Ready for your DPO and security team

A draft DPIA, UK GDPR Article 28 terms, an Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard record and a security statement mapped to the NCSC cloud principles, written to be checked.

Security, data and AI How a council uses it Pilot, procurement and price

Questions

What councils ask first

Question not listed? Email hello@validfirst.co.uk

Does this replace the Planning Portal or our back-office system?

No. Applicants still submit through the Planning Portal (or your own forms), and your back office (Idox, Agile, Northgate or another) stays the system of record. ValidFirst sits before submission, where the applicant checks first, and at validation, where your officer sees the findings. Every application exports as a check report plus all its files, which any back office can take in; deeper connections are part of a pilot.

How is it different from PlanAssist?

PlanAssist, built by Google DeepMind and Faculty for MHCLG, helps officers assess householder applications after they arrive. ValidFirst works earlier and wider: it stops invalid applications before they are submitted, covers more application types, and is available to every council now. The two can work side by side. A full comparison, with sources.

Who keeps our local validation list up to date?

ValidFirst ships the national requirements (DMPO 2015 article 7 and the national information requirements) for every application type. Your local list goes on top, with the source and paragraph for every item. Send us your current list and we set it up with you; you approve each new version, and running applications keep the version they started with.

Does the AI decide whether an application is valid?

No. Validation is your council’s statutory decision. The AI checks whether documents show what the requirements ask for and proposes a letter. Your officer approves, asks for more or dismisses a finding, and every decision is recorded with who made it.

Where is the data processed?

Files and data are stored in Europe and the AI processes them in Europe too. UK GDPR allows this under the UK’s adequacy regulations for the EEA. A UK-only hosting option is on the roadmap. The trust page says exactly how, and what isn’t finished yet.

What if the check is wrong?

The applicant can still submit, with a note if they like. Your officer sees the finding, can dismiss it, and that is recorded. The council’s measurement page shows how often the check agreed with your officers, so you can see its accuracy for yourself.

How do we start?

Look up your council’s page, try it with a real application, then request a pilot. Set-up takes a day to a week; the pilot then runs to 12 weeks at no cost and measures first-time valid rate, validation time and officer agreement against your own baseline.

See it with a real application

Upload a location plan, an elevation or an ownership certificate in our example council and see what a validation officer would see.

Try it Request a pilot