England's government is widening the test of an AI tool that helps planning officers with the paperwork behind routine planning applications, the requests homeowners file to build an extension, convert a loft or add a conservatory. The tool, PlanAssist, was developed with Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, the company Faculty and local councils, and is built with Google's Gemini AI. Twelve more councils are joining in three groups, so it will be tested for 12 months in 15 councils. The government said on Friday, Oct. 30, that it intends to make the tool available to every council in England by the end of 2027, if testing goes well.
PlanAssist gathers an application, the local rules and the limits on the site in one place. Google DeepMind says it checks that the documents and drawings are complete, checks the plans against local and national planning rules and protections such as orders that shield particular trees from being cut down, looks for objections raised earlier, for example by local residents, and drafts a report with its sources that the officer can edit. The officer then decides.
Camden, Barnet and Dorset councils, three of England's local governments, have tested it since June. The government says that testing cut the time officers spent on key planning tasks by 58%, which it says is helping halve the time a routine homeowner's application takes, from eight weeks to four. The government announced the tool alongside new rules and more planners, and it has not said how much of that speedup comes from the tool alone. Google DeepMind says officers approved more than 70% of the tool's reports with no edits. The new councils include Westminster, Lambeth, Bristol, Newcastle, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent, and their officers will use the tool alongside their normal process to see how it holds up at scale.
The government says planning officers stay responsible for reviewing applications and making decisions, and that councils will not be required to use the tool. Applications from homeowners make up nearly 70% of all planning applications each year, the government says. On Saturday, Oct. 31, a new rule took effect in England that has planning officers decide straightforward applications themselves instead of waiting for a slot at a committee of elected local councillors.
The figures so far come from three councils, and the year of testing with live applications is meant to show whether they hold up. Neither the government nor Google DeepMind has said what the tool will cost councils or how mistakes in its reports will be tracked.