The UK government and Google DeepMind say they are jointly developing a new prototype system that uses AI to speed up housing planning decisions. Powered by Gemini, it aims to cut the time planning officers spend on decisions by up to 50%.
June 2025 · UK Government × Google DeepMind
"Extract": AI turns dusty paper planning files into digital data in seconds
A prototype built by MHCLG and the i.AI incubator with Google DeepMind uses Gemini's multimodal reasoning to read PDFs, handwritten notes and blurry maps — aiming to clear chronic planning delays on the road to 1.5 million new homes by 2030.
Per-document processing time
1–2 hrs
Manual processing
→
~40 sec
With Extract (DeepMind)
~100 documents a day at roughly 10 pence each — what took hours now takes seconds.
350k
planning applications a year in the UK
250k+
hours of manual document work per year
1.5M
new homes targeted by 2030
Early-trial accuracy
Boundary tracing (IoU>0.8)
90%
How the pipeline works
PDFs · handwritten notes · blurry maps
→
Gemini multimodal reading + Meta SAM boundary tracing
→
Digital output: text, dates, GeoJSON boundaries
Rollout: trials in Hillingdon, Nuneaton & Bedworth, Exeter → all English councils by spring 2026 → all planning documents digitised by end 2026. Extract itself does not make decisions.
Councils see promise
Trial councils report higher productivity, high-quality geospatial output and faster, cheaper services — with significant time savings on Tree Preservation Orders.
Sceptics caution
Data-storage costs are high and there is no proof yet that decision quality or speed improve — a "backwards-facing" exercise on historic files whose real impact is unproven.
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