...currently wait, with a nationwide rollout targeted for 2027 if the early trials succeed.
Right now the tool is being tested by Barnet, Camden and Dorset councils. It triages applications, flags key information and drafts an initial assessment, with a qualified planning officer still making every final call.
The second-order effect is the one worth watching. Householder applications, loft conversions, extensions, small alterations, make up nearly 70% of all planning applications in England. Clearing that backlog faster frees up planners to spend more time on the larger housing developments that actually move the needle on the 1.5 million homes target.
There's also a separate tool, Extract, now live for every council in England. It converts decades of paper planning records, some with handwritten notes, into useable digital data in minutes. Planning officers currently spend an estimated 250,000 hours a year doing that manually. That time is now freed up.
The contradiction to hold in mind: AI won't build a single house. The planning bottleneck is real, but so is the shortage of land, builders and materials. Faster approvals are necessary. They are nowhere near sufficient on their own.
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