Written Question·Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government·UIN 102569

Planning Permission: Public Consultation

Tabled: 2 January 2026

Answered: 12 January 2026

Question

James McMurdock

Independent — South Basildon and East Thurrock

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of natural language processing and AI-assisted tagging to reduce consultation processing times for local planning

Answer

Matthew Pennycook

Through my Department’s PropTech Innovation Fund, the government is funding local planning authorities to use digital citizen engagement tools, including interactive maps and 3D models, alongside leveraging AI to summarise consultation responses. Our case...

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