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  "path": "/2026/06/17/coverage-of-ai-planning-tools-announcement/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-17T15:45:19.000Z",
  "site": "https://mhclgmedia.blog.gov.uk",
  "tags": [
    "announcement",
    "The Telegraph"
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  "textContent": "There is positive national coverage following a joint announcement by MHCLG and DSIT of two new AI-powered planning tools designed to speed up planning decisions and support the government's ambition to build the homes this country needs.\n\n**Press Association** ran the cross-departmental story following proactive sell-in from comms and a technical media briefing ahead of publication. The piece leads on MHCLG funding an £8.2 million contract with Google to pilot an early-stage AI tool that could halve the time it takes to process planning proposals. It also reports on a second tool, Extract, now available to all councils in England, which converts old planning documents and maps into usable data within minutes, cutting an estimated 250,000 hours of manual document checking each year.\n\n**The Times** focuses on the national rollout of the Extract tool, which was trialled across 20 local planning authorities and is expected to save the average council around 255 hours of manual work. It also reports that Barnet, Camden and Dorset councils will trial the AI tool developed with Google DeepMind and Faculty, which could halve decision times for householder applications, such as extensions and loft conversions, from eight to four weeks.\n\nThe Telegraph similarly focuses on the three-council trial, noting that the AI tool will suggest decisions on routine planning applications including loft extensions, kitchen extensions and bedroom conversions.\n\n**Politico** highlighted the very early-stage AI tool developed by Google DeepMind. The write up focused closely on the Augmented Planning Decisions (APD) and highlighted its impressive overlays on Ordnance Survey maps with the help from Google Street View integration.\n\nThis announcement has been widely welcomed by stakeholders including the Royal Town Planning Institute, the Planning Officers Society, the Digital Task Force for Planning, and the Royal Institute of British Architects.\n\n> **Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook said:**\n>\n>  \"Our planning system remains heavily reliant on cumbersome paper-based processes that consume the time of expert planning officers and cause delays on even the most routine types of application.\n>\n> \"We are dragging the system into the twenty-first century by harnessing the power of AI to streamline the planning application process, freeing up planners to make quicker and better decisions and reducing unnecessary delays.\"",
  "title": "Coverage of AI planning tools announcement",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-17T15:45:27.000Z"
}