Speeding up planning decisions with AI

October 31, 2026 Responsibility & Safety

Owen Larter and David Thacker

PlanAssist has shown it can cut the time planning officers spend assessing householder applications by up to 58%.

PlanAssist - an AI planning tool that handles the heavy lifting of routine applications so officers can focus their expertise where it matters most - is to be made available to an additional 12 local planning authorities across England.

In early pilot testing across Barnet, Camden, and Dorset, PlanAssist showed it could bring the average time a planning officer spent on householder assessment tasks down by 58%. Designed to support human judgement, the tool speeds up routine checks while ensuring planning officers retain the final say on every application.

Planning bottlenecks have real costs. For the economy, they slow progress toward the UK government's goal of building 1.5 million new homes by 2029. For families, that can mean months of waiting on approval for something as simple as a loft conversion, conservatory, or extension. Built with Gemini, PlanAssist is part of Google DeepMind’s broader partnership with the UK government to explore how AI can help transform planning and other public services.

How PlanAssist supports officers

Routine householder applications account for up to 70% of planning officers’ workloads. They're often simple to approve but take up a disproportionate share of their time.

Developed by Google DeepMind in collaboration with the UK government, Google Cloud, and Faculty, PlanAssist streamlines this work, giving planning officers automated support with processing applications and drafting assessment recommendations.

Moving from pilot to scale

Subject to successful testing, the government plans for the tool to be made available to all councils in England in 2027, with every assessment reviewed and approved by a qualified planning officer before any decision is made.