Unlocking UK house-building with AI-accelerated planning

June 16, 2026 Responsibility & Safety

Owen Larter and David Thacker

New UK government AI planning prototype built with Gemini aims to halve the time it takes to process homeowner applications

Around the world, Governments are exploring how AI can deliver better public services, faster. The UK is working to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029, but local planning authorities are often slowed down by dense paperwork and administrative backlogs. To help get Britain building, we’re partnering with the UK government to help radically shorten the time it takes to process householder planning applications. Our goal is to help officers cut application decision times by 50%, freeing up time for planners so that more homes can be built. We’re excited to see how our National Partnerships for AI, which seek to support reimagining of public services to create more resilient societies, can help Britain build faster.

Co-creating a new AI planning tool for faster decisions

Following the successful launch of Extract — a tool built with Gemini by the UK government's Incubator for AI (i.AI) — to help councils turn old planning documents into clear, digital data — we’re partnering to develop a sophisticated new planning prototype for councils.

Google DeepMind is working alongside the UK government, Google Cloud, Faculty, and local planning authorities in Barnet, Dorset and Camden, to co-develop an AI-powered prototype that acts as a highly skilled assistant for planning officers, handling the heavy lifting of data extraction and case analysis. Working in close partnership will enable us to build an optimized tool, suited to the unique needs and day-to-day challenges that planners contend with every day. Following early trials in Barnet, Camden and Dorset, the government plans for the new AI planning tool to be made available to all councils nationally from 2027.

The AI planning tool will streamline routine tasks using AI, by: