AI could ‘slash planning delays and speed up building of 1.5m homes’
The government says it wants to speed up the building of 1.5 million homes by using artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce delays in granting planning permission.
It says a new AI tool called Extract can scan hundreds of files in seconds – making it easier to process planning applications. Extract was developed by government officials with support from Google.
The technology will be used to help councils convert decades-old, handwritten planning documents and maps into data in minutes – and will power new types of planning software to slash the 250,000 estimated hours spent by planning officers each year manually checking these documents.
It’s expected that this will dramatically reduce delays that have long plagued the system.
Around 350,000 planning applications are submitted each year in England, yet the system remains heavily reliant on paper documents – some hundreds of pages long. Once submitted, each of these documents needs to be manually validated and approved by a planning officer.
The government says that in test trials across Hillingdon, Nuneaton & Bedworth, and Exeter councils, Extract digitised planning records, including maps, in just three minutes each – compared to the 1–2 hours it typically takes manually. This means Extract could process around 100 planning records a day – significantly speeding up the process.
Extract is expected to be made available to all councils by Spring 2026. The government’s ambition is to fully digitise the planning system – making it faster, more transparent, and easier to navigate for homebuyers, councils, businesses and developers.
It comes alongside the government’s wider efforts to digitise the planning system, building on an estimated £59.4m per year spent by councils on digital planning and housing software, delivering an estimated time and cost saving of £527m for the public sector each year.
Hillingdon Council’s Chief Operating Officer Matthew Wallbridge said: “The UK Planning System relies on paper-based processes, and AI can help to read and then extract the key information from it, to help both residents and planning officers. The productivity benefits will allow for a faster and cheaper service.”
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