Govt announces AI tool to accelerate planning

The government has unveiled its new AI tool to speed up day-to-day planning and assist its housebuilding goal.

Following the government’s announcement in April that it was developing an AI tool to digitise planning records, the prime minister Keir Starmer has announced the launch of Extract, an AI assistant for planning officers and local councils created by the government with support from Google.

This “cutting-edge” technology will, according to government departments including the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), allow councils to convert old, handwritten planning documents and maps into data within minutes.

According to test trials across Hillingdon, Nuneaton & Bedworth and Exeter councils, the Extract tool digitised planning records in only three minutes each. This compares to the typical manual process of one to two hours.

“This means Extract could process around 100 planning records a day – significantly speeding up the process,” the government stated.

The AI, it said, would influence “new types of planning software to slash the 250,000 estimated hours spent by planning officers each year manually checking these documents”, “dramatically” reducing delays.

The planning system in England, according to ministers, is still “heavily reliant” on handwritten planning documents …