Planning Hub 2.0 - imagining the future

During the run up to, and now following, the Holyrood election, the RTPI Scotland team have been using our imaginations to think about a future Scotland and its planning system. We've set out this imagineering in a series of think pieces designed to start conversations. 

One of the what-ifs we have been considering is about the planning hub, which we now know will continue in the new parliamentary term. Given that it's carrying on, what would an ideal version of Hub 2.0 look like?

First, what if the name of the hub articulated what the hub is there to do? National Planning Improvement has the advantage of doing-what-it-says-on-the-tin, so how about National Planning Support as a Sunday name for the hub? That would sit nicely with National Planning Improvement and could be further developed as a distinctive brand, perhaps with planning support sitting under the planning improvement umbrella.

Going back to the hub itself, what if the functions and activities of the hub were developed as thematic spokes, each with its own clear identity and purpose? That would help everyone understand what the hub is, and what the hub is doing. We'd love for Hub 2.0 to be understandable from the outside, so everyone can understand what it does, and its value.

The next what-if is - obviously - to define the themes within the hub. We've already suggested a digital planning lighthouse which could work here, although it's important to say that in our ideal world activities around site brokerage and stalled sites would fall out of the Hub 2.0's remit and move across to More Homes Scotland as part of the housing delivery piece. Setting that to one side, what if the other strands within Hub 2.0 were developed to do three things: to coordinate stakeholder activities; to support current practice; and to innovate into the future?

Coordinating stakeholder activities was the focus of PARD's national planning skills work in 2024/25 led by Susie Stirling - this brought the sector together in a focused way around skills and training. Hub 2.0 would do well to continue this work. That first strand would intersect and inform the second strand about supporting current practice. What if that included the roll out of NPF4 policy guidance; developing planning leaders and leadership; best practice case studies; technical support and expertise; data and dashboards - all of the things that help planning authorities, key agencies, government and the private sector to do their work better?

The final strand in our imagined Hub 2.0 focuses on the future - anticipating the new technologies, topics and ways of working. The hub has already been doing some of this work with its focused efforts around hydrogen, BESS and data centres - and no doubt there will be other future technologies coming along for us to get to grips with. We also know that public sector reform will bring challenge and opportunity in the near future. So what if Hub 2.0 could support authorities to develop innovative ways of working and piloting new ways of doing things?

what would your ideal Hub 2.0 look like? Get in touch and let us know - scotland@rtpi.org.uk. 

This thinkkpiece was first published in Issue 204 of the Scottish Planner, May 2026