Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the research by Create Streets, AI Judging Architecture for Well-Being: Large Language Models Simulate Human Empathy and Predict Public Preference, published on 13 October, for the purpose of supporting the use of good design in the planning system.

The government is committed to building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and places. There is a clear framework through policy and guidance on how to achieve well-designed places in plan making and decision making, and the principles of good design are set out in national design guidance. We will be publishing updated guidance in due course. We are also exploring the role of digital tools to support local planning authorities to deliver good design through the planning system.

We support the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.

My department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ product, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDFs into data. This will unlock data, which can be made available on planning.data.gov.uk, to power innovation, analysis and new types of planning software. We intend to make this product available for all local authorities in England during 2026. We are developing Extract to make it as intuitive as possible to all users, to encourage greater adoption. As a vital part of our commitment to developing AI-enabled products responsibly, we are also identifying and meeting the need for AI literacy and training among users in local planning authorities.