Today at the Google Cloud Summit London, we discussed why Google Cloud is the foundation for the UK government’s Augmented Planning Decisions tool.
Today at the Google Cloud Summit London, we are celebrating a significant milestone in the UK Government’s journey toward a digitally enabled planning system. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) have shared major updates on two landmark projects that are set to redefine how local authorities operate: the national rollout of the Extract tool and the continued progress of the Augmented Planning Decisions prototype.
While both initiatives utilize Google Cloud’s technology, the Augmented Planning Decisions prototype represents a unique collaboration between the Government, Google Cloud, Google DeepMind, and our partners at Faculty. In contrast, the Extract tool was developed internally by MHCLG and the Incubator for AI (i.AI) — the Government’s in-house applied AI team. Here’s how the Google Cloud platform provides the secure, enterprise-grade foundation required to develop these innovations during the most innovative trial phases.
The UK Government is the primary architect and owner of this digital transformation, but bringing such a vision to life requires a robust and scalable infrastructure. The decision to build the alpha version of the Augmented Planning Decisions tool via Google Cloud is central to the project’s long-term success. This prototype is currently being developed and alpha tested with the London Borough of Barnet, Dorset Council and London Borough of Camden local planning authorities, to help planning officers navigate complex local policies. The government plans for the Augmented Planning Decisions (APD) tool to be made available to councils nationally from 2027. Results at this stage are early and experimental. If MHCLG chooses, Google Cloud is well placed to provide the elastic infrastructure needed to scale this service to all 300+ local authorities across the country, ensuring that as the tool moves from its initial alpha phase, it remains fast, reliable and ready for daily public use.
Alongside this, MHCLG and i.AI have rolled out their Extract tool to all councils across England following a series of highly successful trials. This tool automates the processing of complex planning documents, and its availability nationwide is made possible by the reliability of Google Cloud. Handling sensitive government data at this scale demands the highest levels of security and risk management. By utilizing Gemini on Google Cloud, the government can use the advanced reasoning of our most capable AI models within a protected environment. This approach allows the government to mitigate risks like prompt injection and ensure that data remains sovereign and secure. Extract is expected to save the average council around 255 hours of manual work digesting documents into digital form.
This achievement is a testament to a powerful collaborative ecosystem involving the policy expertise of MHCLG, the technical ability of i.AI, the cutting-edge research and engineering of Google DeepMind and the delivery expertise of Faculty. By utilizing Gemini and Google Cloud’s infrastructure for the foundational development work, the government has ensured these tools will not just be experimental pilots, but production-ready solutions. As the Augmented Planning Decisions tool moves toward its 2027 goals, Google Cloud is proud to be the platform of choice for its development, proving that when the public sector’s vision is supported by enterprise-scale technology, the result is more efficient and transparent systems for everyone.
“The UK has an opportunity to build the homes our communities need, but local councils face a mountain of paperwork. That’s why we’re co-creating a sophisticated planning tool directly with councils to solve real-world bottlenecks. This will help significantly cut decision times, freeing up planners to focus on the future to get Britain building faster.”
“The English planning system is clogged up. Planning officers are forced to spend half their time reviewing applications to convert an attic, putting those for housing estates and warehouses on hold. Built with planning officers, our AI system will take the drudgery out of reviewing simple planning applications so they can make quick decisions. It will let planning officers focus on the major developments that matter, and crucially, let families improve their homes without months of delay and uncertainty.”
“The tool’s ability to collect relevant information, undertake a provisional assessment, and draft the foundations of a report has the potential to save significant officer time spent working on the administration of planning applications and direct this to speeding up the decision-making process for residents. In turn, this will contribute significantly to delivering our house building growth targets in the borough.”
