Mr Murray said that using AI would reduce the administrative burden on council-planning managers. Google’s AI will suggest decisions for officers to review before they are referred to senior officials for approval.
Marc Warner, the chief executive of Faculty, said: “By using AI to support planning officers with clear recommendations – with humans retaining final sign off – we will help cut approval times on simple renovations in half.
“This will give councils more time and resources to focus on the bigger infrastructure projects that will improve communities and drive economic growth.”
Tone Langengen, a senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute, said: “This is a welcome step towards bringing England’s planning system into the digital age.
“As we’ve long argued, technology and AI can help remove unnecessary bureaucracy, speed up routine decisions and free up planners to focus on the projects that matter most for growth.”
Alongside these trials, ministers confirmed that a separate AI system has been rolled out to every planning authority in England.
The software, called Extract, converts decades-old planning documents, maps and handwritten records, which still underpin many planning decisions, into digital data.
Officials estimate that Extract could eliminate around 250,000 hours of manual work per year.
The Government set out draft regulations in Parliament this month to overhaul the system so that planning officers decide on smaller planning applications, rather than council committees.
Lila Ibrahim, the chief AI readiness officer at Google DeepMind, said the tool would reduce the “mountain of paperwork” that councils face.
She said: “This will help significantly cut decision times, freeing up planners to focus on the future to get Britain building faster.”