AI planning tools will help solve the housing crisis
The Prime Minister, Kier Starmer has announced the launch of ‘Extract’, an AI assistant developed by the government, alongside Google, designed for planning officers and local councils.
Richard Beresford, chief executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) have been developing digital planning tools themselves, resulting in a sprawling mess of solutions which, ironically, contributes to planning confusions and delay. ‘Extract’ is different, it can be used by all LPAs and will enable planners to find and interpret the information they need more efficiently, while also helping the Government to better understand where improvements could exist on the bureaucratic and submission process”
‘Extract’ is capable of scanning, processing, translating, and validating all types of documents, including those that are decades-old and handwritten, converting them into data for councils within minutes. With approximately 350,000 documents submitted in England each year, ‘Extract’ is expected to slash 250,000 hours spent by planning officers each year manually checking these documents.
In a trial across three LPAs, ‘Extract’ completed tasks, that previously took one to two hours, in just a few minutes.
The government expects a full rollout by Spring 2026.
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insights at the NFB and House Builders Association (HBA), said:
“Over the years, we have engaged extensively with the government on planning digitalisation and while some fantastic groundwork has been set, what we really needed was something ubiquitous that benefited all planning departments and the wider debate. ‘Extract’ does just that”
Not only will ‘Extract’ and other AI tools save time and enable transparency, but it will also help the government understand planning and reform it strategically. For example, highlighting how geographical and site size differences inform which policies should benefit from threshold reform, or whether planning conditions are replicating information submitted with planning applications. It will help identify if local site allocations are or could be more robust and uncover the true barriers to site starts and project completions.
‘Extract’ is going to demonstrate how the planning system works in practice, but most importantly why digitalisation and AI tools are key to informing the debate and solving the industry’s biggest challenges, including procurement, planning, and the housing crisis.