Starmer announces AI planning tool to clear national backlog
The Prime Minister hopes that Extract will enable planning officers to drastically cut down on the length of time it takes to process data from documents, by digitising information in minutes rather than hours.
Working with Google, the government has today unveiled its ambitions to fully digitise the planning system in England using its Gemini system.
With around 350,000 planning applications a year submitted to councils in England, the software will slash the time spent by planning officers manually checking documents.
During trials in Hillingdon, Nuneaton & Bedworth, and Exeter, Extract was able to condense and process planning applications, including maps, in three minutes each – compared to the one to two hours it takes a planning officer.
The government will expand the software to handle all planning document types, with the aim that local authorities have fully digitised all planning documents by the end of 2026.
In a statement, Keir Starmer said: “Why does it take so long to build anything in the UK?
“You can blame our outdated planning system that’s slowing us down.
“Around 350,000 planning applications are submitted a year in England, yet the system remains heavily reliant on paper documents — some even hundreds of pages long.
“Once submitted, each of these documents needs to be manually validated and approved by a planning officer, taking them hours on end to go through it.
“Today we’re announcing a new government-built AI tool called Extract that can process these documents in minutes, freeing up thousands of hours for planning officers to focus on decision-making to speed up housebuilding.
“In test trials across Hillingdon, Nuneaton & Bedworth, and Exeter councils, Extract digitised planning records in just three minutes each — compared to the 1 to 2 hours it typically takes manually. That means processing a 100 planning records a day, significantly speeding up the process.
“My vision is to fully digitise our planning system — making it faster, more transparent, and easier to navigate for working people.
“Through our Plan for Change, we will accelerate house building, improve reliability in the planning process and reduce cost and time for councils, businesses and developers.
“It’s a bold step forward in our mission to build 1.5 million more homes for working people, and to deliver a planning system fit for the future.”
Will this help with Gateway 2?
By Liverpool4Progress
So has AI been trained as to how to deal with S38(6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004? If so we won’t need any planning officers as the technology will be able to make its own planning balance judgements as well.
By UnaPlanner
Great, now let’s AI-afiy planning committees and s106 agreements!
By Duffmeister General
Good luck, another sound bite from a no action, sound bite Government.
By Steve5839
I appreciate the effort but would be keen to see figures on how accurate the AI programme was in validating the applications rather than just the time savings. Also concerned, as a planning consultant, that if AI is expanded to try and summarise documents, it wont understand the nuances of the planning system
By Anonymous
Proper adoption of AI is going to drastically save so much time and waste. The revolution is already happening in my industry, and it’s inevitably going to happen almost everywhere, the sooner it’s embraced the quicker we’ll see the benefits.
By Andee
Who is still submitting applications on paper!? Surely no Majors submitted by consultants are, so this isn’t going to make a difference to Major Projects planning officers or applications, which are still woefully behind meeting determination targets!
By Anonymous
This sounds more like it will save the admin work of support officers rather than planning officers. I don’t know of any planning officers that spend two hours checking drawings on every new application. Sounds like it will speed up validation though.
By Sten
Another sound bite from a Cabinet obsessed with project timetables and numbers. AI would be unable to judge the quality of submitted documents. You wouldn’t do also need to do the same thing for statutory consultees.
Some feedback from the 3 pilot Authorities would be useful about what AI didn’t do. The contract is probably already signed with Google, but we know nothing about cost or implications for Planning staff.
By Dave C
This will simply result in more applications being invalid as AI will give a yes/no answer rather than spending time working with applicants to turn inadequate applications into good applications that can be determined. The quality of applications is one of the biggest hurdles local planning authorities deal with, including from well respected agents and developers who, frankly, ought to do better.
By Anonymous
Digitising documents? Wow. Interpreting documents is where the issue lies and I’ve seen enough of AI on that score to know that’s not good enough at the moment. If Starmer thinks getting documents into the system more quickly is going to materially change how long it takes for development to happen, he’s deluded.
By Green Belt Ben