Initiative to be rolled out nationally by spring next year
The government has announced the launch of a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool, designed in collaboration with Google, in order to speed up the planning system.
An AI assistant for planning officers and local councils 鈥� which can scan hundreds of files in seconds 鈥� called Extract was announced yesterday (Monday) by the prime minister at London Tech Week.
Starmer said: 鈥淲ith Extract, we鈥檙e harnessing the power of AI to help planning officers cut red tape [and] speed up decisions.鈥�
The government said AI will power new types of planning software to slash the 250,000 estimated hours spent by planning officers each year manually checking documents.
Around 350,000 planning applications are submitted a year in England.
The nationwide launch of Extract is expected by spring next year and follows test trials across Hillingdon, Nuneaton & Bedworth, and Exeter councils.
During the trials, Extract digitised planning records, including maps, in just three minutes 鈥� compared to the one to two hours it would take a person to do it manually.
The government hopes Extract can process 100 planning records a day, freeing up thousands of hours for planning officers to focus on decision-making to speed up housebuilding.
Planning data processed through Extract will be uploaded to a centralised, publicly accessible gov.uk page. At the moment planning portals are held by individual local authorities.
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