For councils
Fewer invalid applications, and quicker validation of the rest
Two sides
Before submission and at validation, one check
Before they submit
Householders, architects and agents, on your council’s page
- The documents your council asks for, national and local, with examples
- Each upload checked within a minute, with what to fix and the requirement behind it
- Site constraints and permitted-development signals before anything is drawn
- A check report with a code to attach to the Planning Portal submission
When it arrives
Your validation officers and technical support
- The same findings, document by document, linked by the check code
- Site constraints from national planning data on the same screen
- A draft invalid-application letter citing each requirement
- Every finding confirmed or dismissed by an officer, and recorded
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.
The validation officer's screen
What is there, what is missing, and why
Findings per document
For every required document: met, not met or unclear, where in the document the check looked, and the national or local requirement it rests on.
Site constraints
Conservation area, listed building, Article 4 direction, tree preservation order and flood zone at the address, from planning.data.gov.uk, with the dataset named.
Permitted-development signals
Dimensions from the form or written on the drawings compared with the General Permitted Development Order limits by fixed code, labelled as a signal with the paragraph it comes from.
A draft letter
Once the officer has judged the findings, a draft invalid-application letter lists each missing item and its requirement. The officer edits and sends it; ValidFirst sends nothing on the council's behalf.
A record of who decided
Every judgement is saved with the officer's name, the time and an optional reason, in the audit log of the application.
Your local validation list
Your local list on top of the national requirements, with every source kept
Provenance
Each local item keeps the paragraph of your published list it comes from, and the list's publication date. Applicants and officers see it next to every finding, so each request can be explained.
Versions you approve
We prepare the layer from your current list; you check it and approve it. Every change makes a new version, and applications already running keep the version they started with.
The two-year rule
A local item can only be insisted on if the list was published or republished in the two years before the application (DMPO 2015 article 11(3)). The publication date is visible, so you can see when it is due.
Measurement
See for yourself whether it works
| Measure | What it counts | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| First-time valid rate | Share of applications valid on first submission: checked beforehand, not checked, and your baseline | Back office, matched by check code |
| Validation time | Officer minutes per validation (timed sample) and days from receipt to valid | Officer time sample; back-office dates |
| Officer agreement | How often officers confirmed the check's findings, what it missed, what was too strict, and how often it said unclear | ValidFirst measurement page |
| Invalid-letter rounds | Average number of invalid letters per application | Back office |
Planning Portal and back office
Fits around the systems you already use
Planning Portal
Applicants submit through the Planning Portal as now and attach the ValidFirst check report. Its short check code links the submission to the check when it reaches your team. There is no direct connection to the Planning Portal.
Your back office
Each application exports as a zip: the check report as PDF plus all files, the findings and decisions as data, and the draft letter. A one-click validation summary pastes into the notes in Idox Uniform, Agile Applications, Northgate/NEC Assure, Arcus or Tascomi.
Read-only API
Your IT team or supplier fetches any application's check by its check code, as JSON or as the PDF report, with a key your administrator makes and revokes. Writing into your back office directly is something to agree in a pilot with your supplier.
Your name and colours
Applicants see your council, not us
- Your own web address, such as a subdomain of your council’s domain, or your page on validfirst.co.uk
- Your council’s name, logo and colour on the applicant pages and the check report, with “works with ValidFirst” in small print
- Colour contrast is kept at 4.5:1 or more, whatever colour you choose, for accessibility
Roles
Who does what in your team
Administrator
Usually the validation team leader or DM manager. Adds and removes officers, approves local list versions, sets how long applications are kept, sets branding, can require a passkey or Microsoft Entra ID for staff, exports the audit log and sees the measurement page.
Validation officer
Sees incoming applications, judges each finding, edits and sends the letter from your usual systems, and exports to the back office. Can be limited to certain application types.
Applicants and agents see only their own applications. An agent can invite an architect for just the drawings.
Getting started
Live within a week
DAY 1
Your local list
We load your published local validation list as a layer, with every source, and you approve it. The DPIA, data processing terms and ATRS record go to your DPO, already drafted.
DAYS 2 TO 4
Your team, and a test
Officers sign in with Microsoft or an email code: nothing to install. A 30-minute briefing, then they run a few recent applications through it to see how it reads.
DAY 5
Open to applicants
Link it from your planning pages and invalid-application letters, and tell your agents' forum. We check in weekly and measure against your baseline.
Your council already has a page on the national requirements: one of England’s 308 planning authorities. Find your council.