Google DeepMind's housing planning AI "PlanAssist" expands to 15 UK councils; trial cut assessment time by 58%

British government expands PlanAssist to 15 councils

Britain's Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said on Oct. 30 (Oct. 31 Japan time) that "PlanAssist," an AI that supports the assessment of housing construction plans, will expand from the 3 councils where it has been trialed to 15 councils and be used for 12 months. The government developed PlanAssist with Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, British AI company Faculty and councils, and announced it as a prototype in June. It mainly targets householder applications, such as extensions and loft conversions, which account for about 70% of applications each year. The government aims to make it available to all councils in England by the end of 2027.

Google DeepMind released the trial results on its blog and on X on Oct. 31 (the night of the same day Japan time). It said that using PlanAssist, built with its generative AI "Gemini," reduced the time officers spend assessing householder applications by "up to 58%."

The 12 new councils are Lambeth, Westminster and Redbridge in London, as well as Bristol, Newcastle, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Rochdale, Cumberland, Ashford, North Lincolnshire and South Gloucestershire. They include urban and rural councils and will join in three phases. The initial trial had been running since June in Camden and Barnet in London and in Dorset in the southwest. In June, the government had laid out a plan to expand to up to 10 councils within the year, and the new number exceeds that.

Assessment time cut by an average of 58%, more than 70% of reports unchanged

According to Google DeepMind, PlanAssist checks whether the documents and drawings required for an application are complete, examines national and local planning policies, constraints such as heritage assets and protected trees, and past objections from residents, and drafts an assessment report with sources. Officers revise the report and decide for themselves whether to grant permission. The government also explained that officers are responsible for decisions and that councils are not required to use PlanAssist.

The company said that in the trial at the 3 councils, the time officers spent on assessing householder applications fell by an average of 58%. Officers approved more than 70% of the reports produced by PlanAssist without changes. These reports check whether applications comply with rules and whether the required documents are complete. The government expects to halve the processing time for routine householder applications from 8 weeks to 4 weeks.

Figures come only from the developers, and the metric differs from June's goal

All of the trial figures come from Google and government announcements, and no third-party verification has been published. Google DeepMind's blog does not state the number of applications handled in the trial, how time was measured or the baseline used for comparison. The company wrote up to 58% on X and an average of 58% in the body of its blog.

The metric also differs from the June goal. In June, Google DeepMind set a goal of cutting the time from application to decision by 50%. The 58% this time refers to officers' working time and does not indicate how long applicants wait. The government's cut from 8 weeks to 4 weeks is a projection, not a figure achieved in the trial.

In the same announcement, the government also said that new rules defining the range of applications left to officers' decisions took effect on Oct. 31, and that it had hired 420 planning officers. That exceeds the pledged 300, and it will spend more than 14 million pounds this fiscal year on two hiring routes. Even if assessments speed up, it will be difficult to separate the effect of PlanAssist from the rule changes and additional staff, British IT outlet Resultsense noted. Another focus is whether the results from the 3 councils will be replicated at 15 councils, including rural ones.

The Financial Times reported in May that Daniel Slade of the Royal Town Planning Institute urged the government not to remove human experience and values from decisions. Matthew Spry of planning consultancy Lichfields pointed to the risk that AI could repeat biases in past decisions. A London Assembly committee is also examining the use of AI in planning work and is seeking views until Nov. 26.

Government contract worth 8.2 million pounds, Google Cloud revenue doubles

In June, the government said it had signed an 8.2 million pound contract with Google Cloud, Google DeepMind and Faculty to develop the prototype. At the same time, the government is providing "Extract," an AI that turns old paper and handwritten planning documents into data, to all councils in England.

In Alphabet's July-September quarter results announced on Oct. 28 (Oct. 29 Japan time), revenue at its cloud unit Google Cloud doubled to $30.7 billion from $15.15 billion a year earlier. The PlanAssist contract is small compared with that scale, but if it spreads to councils nationwide, it will be a case of Gemini being used in core government work. The British government also signed a memorandum of understanding with Anthropic in February 2025 on using AI in public services, and in January 2026 decided to pilot an AI assistant for job seekers.