The Government’s Incubator for AI (i.AI) and the Digital Planning team in the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government are working on the development of an AI tool for authorities to speed up their submissions of data.
Named Extract, it is currently in incubation as the team evaluates it against a ‘ground truth’ dataset of representative Article 4 directions that have been manually converted.
i.AI said that once the technical capability has been established it will be tested with a small number of planning authorities in collaboration with Digital Planning.
Extract uses AI to read planning documents – often in PDF format – and pull out useful information such as permitted development rights, addresses and dates. It then identifies and extracts maps, using computer vision to trace boundaries and define specific areas, and uses geolocation techniques to place those areas accurately on a map.
All this helps to turn complex documents into structured digital data to be used in planning.
Overcoming a problem
i.AI said this is aimed at overcoming a problem in which a significant number of planning applications are declared invalid, leading to delays for manual processing and error correction, as the original data is not in the formats required by digital planning tools.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology – within which i.AI works – said the tool will be able to turn old planning documents into digital data in 40 seconds.
Technology Secretary Pete Kyle said: “The UK’s planning system has been held back for too long by outdated paper documents, slow processes, making it nearly impossible for councils to make informed decisions quickly.
“As part of our Plan for Change, we’re using the power of AI to transform sluggish systems so we can start to rebuild. With Extract, councils will have access to better quality data so they can move more quickly on planning decisions and get on with driving growth.
“Technology like this could be a vital step towards councils meeting targets to help build the 1.5 million new homes the country needs, all while updating and improving the planning system for the future.”
Tackling backlogs
Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook said: “By harnessing new technology like Extract, we can tackle backlogs, inefficiencies and waste and ensure councils are focusing precious time and resources on efficiently determining applications to build new homes.”
i.AI added that Extract could have other applications across the public sector in which location-specific data is used to deliver services and inform policy and decision making.
