In a GOV.UK announcement published on Saturday 31 October 2026, the government set out a package intended to reduce delay in England's planning system for routine cases. The immediate procedural change is that straightforward planning applications will be determined by planning officers under delegated powers rather than waiting for a planning committee slot. For householders seeking loft conversions, extensions or conservatories, and for small businesses making modest changes to premises, the policy aim is a quicker answer on lower-risk proposals. Ministers say councillors will be able to spend more time on larger or more contentious developments once routine caseload is moved away from committee timetables.
The reform is being implemented through a new National Scheme of Delegation, which the government says will provide greater certainty about which applications should be handled by officers. In practice, the measure is aimed at one of the most common sources of delay in local planning authorities: not always the technical assessment itself, but the wait for the next available committee meeting. For applicants, a more predictable officer route should reduce variation between councils on simple cases. For elected members, the change means a narrower role in day-to-day determinations and a sharper focus on strategic schemes, where local political judgement is more material.
Alongside the procedural change, ministers are expanding PlanAssist, the AI-enabled planning tool first announced in June 2026. Developed with Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, Faculty and participating councils, the system brings together application material, relevant policy and site constraints in a single workspace for trained officers to review. The government says early testing cut time spent on key planning tasks by 58 per cent and could reduce the handling time for routine householder applications from eight weeks to four. The announcement also states that officers remain responsible for reviewing applications and making decisions, with the tool providing an initial evidence-backed assessment rather than an automated determination.
Initial testing took place in Camden, Barnet and Dorset. The next 12-month phase extends PlanAssist to 15 councils in total, with Ashford, Lambeth, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol, Cumberland, North Lincolnshire, Rochdale, Redbridge, South Gloucestershire, Stoke-on-Trent and Westminster joining the original authorities. That scale matters because householder applications account for almost 70 per cent of planning applications each year, according to the government, and represent a large share of routine planning workload. The stated ambition is to make the tool available to every council in England by the end of 2027, although adoption will not be mandatory.
Staffing is the second strand of the package. The government says 420 planners have already been recruited through government-backed routes, exceeding the 2024 manifesto commitment to add 300 planners more than two years before the end of this Parliament. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner used the announcement to restate a wider target of 1,400 new recruits across the planning system by the end of the Parliament. For 2026/27, the department says it is investing more than £14 million in two entry routes: the Local Government Association's Pathways to Planning graduate scheme and Public Practice, which places mid-career built-environment professionals into the public sector. Of that total, more than £12 million is allocated to Pathways to Planning, including £8.5 million for salary bursaries, while Public Practice receives more than £2 million, including £1.6 million in targeted salary support for eligible councils.
The recruitment package is not limited to headcount. According to the government, Pathways to Planning offers a structured two-year placement with master's-level training for graduates working in local planning authorities. Public Practice is also being used to help councils strengthen recruitment processes, address organisational barriers and improve inclusive hiring. A further element is data reform. Officers will use PlanAssist alongside existing processes during the larger trial, and ministers say the software will not be mandated. Instead, the government plans to require the digitisation and publication of key planning documents as open data by the end of 2027, with the stated aim of removing barriers to AI adoption across the sector.
Ministers presented the package as a delivery reform rather than a transfer of decision-making on complex schemes. AI minister Kanishka Narayan described PlanAssist as a practical way to reduce administrative burden on routine planning work, while partner organisations including Google DeepMind, Google Cloud and Faculty said the next phase is designed to test the system at larger scale with local authorities. The project sits within the government's Incubator for AI and is being framed as part of a wider programme to reduce bureaucracy in public services. For households and smaller commercial applicants, the immediate test will be whether simpler cases move more quickly through local planning authorities once officer delegation, extra staffing and digital support are operating together. For councils, the announcement points to a three-part model of planning reform: clearer delegation rules, targeted recruitment and a stronger push towards digital records and open planning data.