Qurexa Logo
Qurexa

Trust. Care. Deliver.

Back to Blog & Insights
Technology

Your loft conversion no longer waits for a committee, and AI is reading the paperwork

Qurexa Editorial Team2 November 20266 min read 0 0
Your loft conversion no longer waits for a committee, and AI is reading the paperwork

What happened

Two changes to the planning system in England came together on 30 October 2026. One is a rule change. The other is a piece of software. The rule change took effect on 31 October 2026. It is called the National Scheme of Delegation. Under it, straightforward planning applications are decided by professional planning officers rather than waiting to go before a planning committee of elected councillors. The government gives examples of what counts as straightforward: loft conversions, house extensions, and improvements to small business premises. The idea is that councillors spend their committee time on the significant developments, and ordinary householder applications stop sitting in a queue waiting for a monthly meeting. The second change is a tool called PlanAssist. It has been built with Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, the company Faculty, and a number of local authorities. It pulls an application, the relevant planning policies and the site constraints into one place, and gives the planning officer an initial assessment backed by the evidence it has gathered. Importantly, the officer still reviews the application and still makes the decision. The software is not mandatory, and councils use it alongside their normal processes. PlanAssist has been trialled in Camden, Barnet and Dorset. It is now being expanded to 15 councils for 12 months. The government intends to make it available to every council in England by the end of 2027. Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary, said families and businesses "shouldn't be left waiting unnecessarily for straightforward planning decisions". Kanishka Narayan, the AI Minister, said: "This is what putting AI to work for the public looks like in practice."

Why this matters

Planning delays are one of those problems that sound technical and feel personal. If you are waiting to extend a kitchen because a new baby is coming, or waiting to convert a loft so an elderly parent can move in, the delay is not an administrative detail. It is months of your life on hold, often with builders booked and money committed. The same goes for a small business wanting to improve its premises. A few months of waiting can be the difference between a plan that works financially and one that does not. The numbers explain why the government has targeted this end of the system. Householder applications make up nearly 70 per cent of all planning applications, and a correspondingly large share of planning officers' workload. If you can speed up that 70 per cent, you free capacity for everything else. The stated aim is to halve processing times for routine householder applications, from eight weeks to four. There is also a wider point here about how AI is arriving in public services. Most of the attention goes to dramatic uses. This is a duller and arguably more useful kind: software that gathers scattered documents into one place so that a trained person can get to the actual judgement faster.

What the evidence actually says

The government has published some figures, and they are worth reading precisely. Early testing cut the time spent on key planning tasks by 58 per cent. Note the wording: that is time on particular tasks during testing, not a 58 per cent cut in how long your application takes overall. The halving of householder processing times, from eight weeks to four, is a target rather than a measured result. PlanAssist has been trialled in three councils and is now being expanded to 15 for a year. That expansion is, in effect, a larger test. On staffing, the government says 420 new planners have been recruited through government-backed programmes. That exceeds a 2024 manifesto pledge of 300. The wider ambition is 1,400 new planners across the planning system by the end of this Parliament. More than £14 million is going into this in 2026/27, split between the Pathways to Planning graduate scheme, which gets over £12 million, and the organisation Public Practice, which gets over £2 million. There is also a commitment to digitise planning documents and publish them as open data by the end of 2027. Two honest caveats. First, the people quoted praising the software include senior figures from the companies that built it: Owen Larter of Google DeepMind, Maureen Costello of Google Cloud, and Paul Maltby of Faculty. Their enthusiasm is understandable and not independent evidence. Second, a tool that produces an initial assessment carries a familiar risk: that a busy human agrees with the machine rather than checking it. The government's stated safeguard is that officers remain responsible for the decision. Whether that holds up in practice is exactly what a 12-month trial across 15 councils should reveal.

Practical advice

If you are planning building work, here is how to use this change sensibly. 1. Check whether you even need permission. Many small projects fall under permitted development rights and do not need a full application. Your council's planning pages, or the government's Planning Portal, will tell you. 2. Submit a complete application. The fastest route through any system is paperwork that does not need chasing. Accurate drawings, correct measurements and clear photographs prevent the back-and-forth that causes most delays. 3. Ask your council how it is handling delegation now. The national rules changed on 31 October 2026, but councils implement them locally. A quick call to the planning department is worth more than guesswork. 4. Do not assume four weeks. The eight-to-four-weeks figure is a target. Plan your building work with some slack, and avoid paying deposits that depend on a decision arriving by a particular date. 5. Remember you can still object or comment on your neighbours' applications. Decisions moving from committee to officers does not remove the consultation stage. If a neighbour's plans affect you, say so in writing within the consultation period. 6. Keep a record. Note dates you submitted things and who you spoke to. If something stalls, a clear timeline is the most useful thing you can have.

What to know

From 31 October 2026, straightforward planning applications in England, such as loft conversions, house extensions and small business premises improvements, are decided by planning officers under a new National Scheme of Delegation, instead of waiting for a planning committee. Alongside this, a tool called PlanAssist, built with Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, Faculty and local authorities, brings applications, policies and site constraints together and gives officers an evidence-backed initial assessment. Officers still make the decision, and the software is not mandatory. It was trialled in Camden, Barnet and Dorset, is expanding to 15 councils for 12 months, and is intended to be available across England by the end of 2027. Early testing cut time on key tasks by 58 per cent. The aim is to halve routine householder processing from eight weeks to four, which is a target, not yet a result. The government says 420 new planners have been recruited, against a pledge of 300, with an ambition of 1,400 across the system this Parliament. Sources: GOV.UK (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), "Faster planning decisions as new rules and AI tackle delays", 30 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/faster-planning-decisions-as-new-rules-and-ai-tackle-delays. This article is for general information. It is not planning, legal or financial advice, and it does not replace advice from a qualified professional.

#planning#artificial intelligence#housing#local government#PlanAssist#home improvement

Related articles