HM Land Registry published a guest post from Michael Kalam (Founder, UK Planning Gateway) on “right-first-time planning submissions”. It sets out a simple idea: a lot of planning delay is not caused by complex planning judgement. It comes from basic inconsistencies that trigger avoidable clarification.

This post is our version for the UK Planning Gateway blog, written for architects, planning consultants and development teams who prepare submissions week in, week out.

The delay is often in the basics

Planning applications can slow down for reasons that are familiar to anyone who has assembled a submission pack:

• A red line boundary does not match the registered extent.
• Ownership information is unclear or inconsistent across documents.
• Site information is re-entered and re-checked across multiple steps, sometimes in multiple systems.

None of that improves decision-making. It increases admin, and it tends to surface at the point when changes are most disruptive: after submission, when drawings, notices, and documents may need to be reissued.

HM Land Registry’s post makes a wider point too. Across England alone, more than 400,000 planning applications are submitted each year. Small reductions in clarification loops can add up at scale.

What we mean by “right first time”

We are not using the phrase as marketing shorthand for “faster” or “better”. We mean something narrower and more practical:

Before a submission goes in, the core site information should be internally consistent and aligned with authoritative land and mapping data, so avoidable clarification can be handled earlier.

That is it. No promise of planning outcomes. No claim that software can remove judgement from planning. Just fewer preventable mismatches getting discovered late.

Where land and mapping data fits in the workflow

In the HM Land Registry post, we describe how UK Planning Gateway brings together:

• HM Land Registry data,
• Ordnance Survey mapping,
• Local authority validation requirements,

…at the point the submission is being prepared, rather than treating land data as something to review retrospectively.

The aim is straightforward: help users consider boundary and ownership alignment early, so the proposal being applied for aligns more closely with what is owned and registered.

In practice, this means some issues that would otherwise become “post-submission queries” can be resolved before submission, reducing the likelihood of revised drawings or additional correspondence after validation.

What practitioners tell us

The time impact varies by project and by authority, so we are careful about claims. What we hear consistently is that avoiding a single round of clarification can prevent days of rework and coordination.

In the HM Land Registry piece, Robert Kerr (Director, RK Design) described the value of “greater certainty at the start” and being able to focus on “design and planning merits” rather than admin corrections.

That is the point of the work. It is not about adding another step. It is about moving a small number of checks to the point where they are cheapest to fix, and where they reduce knock-on work later.

Geovation and why it matters

UK Planning Gateway joined the Geovation Accelerator Programme in August 2025. In the guest post, we explain how the programme, backed by HM Land Registry and Ordnance Survey, supported us with access to relevant datasets and challenge on how land data should be applied within existing planning workflows.

That matters because planning is full of edge cases. A concept that sounds clean on a whiteboard often breaks when you meet real submissions, real authority requirements, and real sites. Pressure-testing early helps you build something that works in practice.

What we are doing next

The next step is not a grand reinvention of planning. It is practical work aimed at one outcome: clearer site information earlier.

We are focused on making it easier for applicants and professionals to check that boundaries and ownership details are consistent before they submit, and to share what we learn as more applications move through the system.

If you want the original HM Land Registry post, it is “Right-first-time planning submissions” and was published on 24 February 2026.