Planning decisions move to officers as government expands AI trial

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says straightforward planning applications in England will be decided by expert officers rather than waiting for committee meetings under rules taking effect on 31 October 2026. The change is intended to shorten waits for homeowners seeking extensions or loft conversions and small businesses improving their premises.

In its announcement published on 30 October, the department also set out an expansion of PlanAssist, an artificial intelligence tool designed to reduce planning administration. Officers will remain responsible for reviewing applications and making decisions; the technology will assemble information and provide an initial assessment rather than replace their judgement.

How will planning decisions change?

The department says the National Scheme of Delegation puts officers in charge of straightforward applications, removing the need for those cases to wait for a planning committee slot. Councillors will instead concentrate on the most significant developments, with the government presenting the change as a way to give applicants greater certainty.

The examples given by the department extend beyond household improvements to work on shops, pubs and other business premises. Its stated aim is to remove unnecessary delays in everyday cases while preserving capacity for developments that require more extensive consideration.

PlanAssist addresses a different part of the process: the time officers spend gathering and checking material. Developed with Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, Faculty and local authorities, it brings planning applications, local policies and site constraints together for trained officers to review.

According to the department, the tool identifies relevant information and produces an evidence-backed initial assessment. This is intended to reduce administrative work before officers reach a decision, rather than transfer decision-making responsibility to an automated system.

The government reports that early testing reduced time spent on key planning tasks by 58%. It says this helped halve processing times for routine householder applications from eight weeks to four. Those figures describe the department’s reported testing results, not a confirmed four-week turnaround for applications across England.

The potential reach is substantial: the department says householder applications account for nearly 70% of applications each year. Its case for the technology rests on reducing work across that high-volume category so planners have more time available for complex proposals.

Recruitment and wider planning reforms provide the backdrop

Alongside changes to decision-making and administration, the department reports that government-backed programmes have recruited 420 planners. That exceeds the government’s 2024 manifesto commitment to recruit 300 additional planners, which it says has been met more than two years before the end of the Parliament.

The staffing announcement distinguishes additional people from changes to working practices. Recruitment increases the number of planners available through those programmes, while delegation changes who handles straightforward cases and PlanAssist is intended to reduce the work involved in assessing them.

The government places the package within its wider programme to strengthen local planning services and support homes and infrastructure. That programme also includes ministerial priorities for planning inspectors under the new National Planning Policy Framework, covering housing supply and economic growth.

There are separate changes to the timetable for plan-making. The government has extended the legacy local plan submission deadline to March 2027 for qualifying English authorities. That concerns the preparation of local plans, rather than the handling of individual applications covered by the delegation announcement.

The department says PlanAssist also forms part of the Prime Minister’s AI Taskforce programme through the Incubator for AI, the government’s applied AI team. This places the planning project within a broader effort to use technology to reduce bureaucracy and improve public services.

Ministers and technology partners set out their positions

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said the combination of staffing, tools and procedural reform was intended to prevent unnecessary waits for families and businesses. She argued that it would also allow planners and councillors to devote more attention to developments delivering homes and infrastructure.

AI Minister Kanishka Narayan presented the project as a practical public-service use of artificial intelligence. His stated position was that reducing routine planning work could release skilled staff to concentrate on major developments.

Faculty’s director of public services, Paul Maltby, emphasised trust and usability. He said the company had worked with planning officers in Camden, Dorset and Barnet to shape the system around their needs, including making its operation understandable to those using it.

Google Cloud vice president Maureen Costello described the project as an attempt to address operational backlogs rather than simply digitise paperwork. She linked the wider trial to creating capacity for housing delivery, while Google DeepMind’s Owen Larter said the company would continue supporting government and councils as the tool expanded.

These are the positions of ministers and organisations involved in developing the system. The next testing stage will examine how PlanAssist performs across a larger group of councils, with officers continuing to use their normal processes alongside it.

Fifteen councils will test PlanAssist before a proposed wider rollout

The department says the initial trial involved the London Borough of Camden, the London Borough of Barnet and Dorset Council. Testing is now expanding to 12 additional authorities, taking the total to 15 for a 12-month programme.

The additional participants are Ashford Borough Council, the London Borough of Lambeth, Newcastle City Council, Nottingham City Council, Bristol City Council and Cumberland Council. They are joined by North Lincolnshire Council, Rochdale Borough Council, the London Borough of Redbridge, South Gloucestershire Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Westminster City Council.

The government intends to make PlanAssist available to every council in England by the end of 2027. That is a stated rollout ambition rather than confirmation that all councils will use it: the department explicitly says the software will not be mandatory.

Rayner also set a further recruitment ambition of 1,400 new recruits across the planning system by the end of the Parliament. This is a future target, distinct from the 420 recruits already reported through government-backed programmes.