The UK government is expanding testing of PlanAssist, an AI tool that helps council planning officers review applications, from three councils to 15. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced the move on 30 October alongside new planning rules.
PlanAssist was built by Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, the AI firm Faculty and local authorities. It brings an application, the relevant local policies and site constraints into one place for a trained officer to review. The government says officers remain responsible for every decision, and that the tool is used alongside their normal process rather than as mandated software.
The first trial ran in Camden, Barnet and Dorset. The government says early testing cut the time spent on key planning tasks by 58%, which it says helps halve processing times for routine householder applications from eight weeks to four. It has not published how that figure was measured.
The wider test adds councils including Bristol, Lambeth, Newcastle, Nottingham and Westminster, and runs for 12 months. The government intends to make PlanAssist available to every council in England by the end of 2027.
Why it matters: planning delays are a long-standing complaint in England, and this is a real test of whether AI can speed up routine public decisions while a named human stays accountable for each one.
Source: GOV.UK announcement