Building better
planning

Local councils hold decades of planning information, much of it locked away in paper files pdfs or microfiche. While this information is essential for decision-making, putting it to use is slow and labour-intensive. The result is a system under strain: delays for homeowners, uncertainty for developers, and fewer homes built.

Extract uses frontier multimodal reasoning capabilities to produce modern, usable data from the handwritten scrawls, drawings and printed text contained in planning documents. Early testing shows Extract can do this significantly faster, more consistently, and at lower cost than manual methods, taking just 2 minutes to extract key information.

Extracted data can then feed modern digital planning software, which has been shown to reduce invalid applications by 60%, and overall processing time by 45%. Through this work, we aim to make planning rules transparent to the public and free up councils from data wrangling to focus on deciding planning applications.

On 4 June 2026, we launched Extract to all local councils in England. This is the first time, that we are aware of, that a central government team have built, scaled and rolled-out an AI service for local government.

If you are a Local Authority interested in using Extract, head to: extract.ai.gov.uk

69% of all planning applications are ‘householder’ - focused on altering and extending a single dwelling. Even though these are relatively simple application types, they take up significant planning time, slowing down decisions on housebuilding. 

We think that developments in AI mean that the technology can reliably assist planners making householder decisions, reducing decision times from upwards of 8 weeks to around 4 weeks. 

The prototype triages applications, summarises key information and provides planning officers with an initial assessment they can consider when making their decision.

We partnered with Google DeepMind and Faculty via a new process made possible by the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force in 2025. These powers support the government to procure innovation, cutting process times and allowing assessments based on live demos as well as paperwork.