Rethinking the building permit

The problem

Residents applying to build a garage or extension waited an average of 11 weeks, often because of missing documents that surfaced only after weeks of review.

What needed to be done

Shorten the wait without lowering safety standards and without adding staff.

How the right problem was found

I followed 14 applications from start to finish and sat with case officers in three departments. Most delays were not review time but waiting for corrections. We changed the front of the service: a plain-language checklist, a pre-check that flags missing documents and a single named contact for each case.

The outcome, measured

More applications were complete the first time, and officers spent their time reviewing instead of chasing.

11 → 6 weeks

Average wait

38% → 74%

Applications complete on first submission

14

Applications followed end to end

Skills and tools