{"slug": "councils-are-using-ai-snooping-to-find-sites-to-build-homes-is-your-area-doing", "title": "Councils are using AI snooping to find sites to build homes: Is YOUR area doing it?", "summary": "Councils across Britain have used artificial intelligence technology to identify land for property developments, with Lewisham council in south London finding 3,000 parcels of land that could yield 9,747 homes using the Small Sites AI Finder tool created with architecture firm RCKa. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has announced £2.4 million in funding for 11 council and tech company partnerships in a new pilot programme, while separate AI tools are being tested to assist with planning application decisions, including a prototype that could cut processing times from eight weeks to four.", "body_md": "# Councils are using AI snooping to find sites to build homes: Is YOUR area doing it?\n\n**See more This is Money on Google -**[save us as a Preferred Source](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=thisismoney.co.uk)\n\nCouncils across Britain have used artificial intelligence technology to trawl through data about their local areas and identify land that could be used for property developments.\n\nLocal authorities took part in a pilot in 2024, the results of which have just been published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.\n\nThey reveal that Lewisham council in south London used AI to find a huge 3,000 parcels of land in the borough that could be earmarked for development.\n\nThe council used Ordnance Survey data to train an AI tool to search for sites that could be used to build new homes.\n\nIt said 9,747 homes could be built on the sites it identified which included 'infill, backland and side-street' locations.\n\nThe tool is called the Small Sites AI Finder and was created by the council and a north London architecture firm called RCKa.\n\nWhile this pilot was two years ago, the use of AI by council planning departments continues to ramp up.\n\nEagle eyed: Councils are using tech and AI to identify sites where homes could be built\n\nThe Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has just announced that 11 council and tech company 'partnerships' will take part in another pilot programme. They will get £2.4million of funding and last eight months under round six of the Proptech Innovation Fund.\n\nThis includes the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and West Midlands Combined Authority, which will test an AI tool called Blocktype. It is described as an 'AI-powered platform for collaborative, design-led housing capacity assessments across multiple sites, scales and locations'.\n\nOther councils will test using AI in section 106 negotiations. These are the agreements under which councils require property developers to fund local infrastructure such as schools, roads and doctors' surgeries.\n\nBirmingham City Council and Reading Borough Council will test a tool called AI Gizmo while Uttlesford District Council and Harlow Council will test a tool called Gpeto AI.\n\nThe London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Barking and Dagenham will test a software called PlanningHub.\n\n## Planning decisions could get AI help\n\nSeparately, two AI tools are being tested which could play a role in approving or denying homeowners' planning applications for things like extensions and loft conversions.\n\nBarnet, Camden and Dorset councils are testing an AI prototype which 'triages' planning applications and provides planning officers with a summary.\n\nThis was created by government together with Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, Faculty and local planning authorities.\n\nIt claims to cut processing times down from eight weeks to four.\n\nIt is in early stage testing with Barnet, Camden and Dorset councils. The prototype triages applications, summarises key information and provides planning officers with an initial assessment they can consider when making their decision. It has been created by government together with Google DeepMind, Google Cloud, Faculty and local planning authorities.\n\nAnother tool, Extract, is now available to all councils in England. It uses AI to help planning officers convert old paper planning documents and maps into digital notes.\n\n## Green belt councils turn to tech\n\nMany of the councils who took part in the 2024 pilot scheme have lots of land which is in the green belt, where there are strict rules about whether and how homes can be built.\n\nIn Sevenoaks, Kent, about 93 per cent of land is in the green belt and 60 per cent is designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty. The council fed data into a tool called Landclan to identify brownfield sites to build homes on.\n\nReigate and Banstead council in Surrey used a programme called Vestega to 'assess site suitability and viability, test development scenarios and support planning of the council’s development programme'. This focused on council-owned land.\n\nBefore using this technology, it said the housing team were only able to assess one piece of land for development every year.\n\nHowever, the pilot allowed it to create a longlist of 80 parcels of land which it then whittled down to 19 which became part of a 'focused development pipeline' for 'council-led' housing. This could see 400 homes being built, a report said.\n\nThe council's principal development manager, Catherine Radziwonik, said: 'This has enabled us to speed up our site assessment process and pipeline for housing delivery.'\n\nWest Oxfordshire District Council and Cotswold District Council used Go Vocal and Landclan to allow members of the public to submit sites for development. It said this reduced the time it took to assess a site from around ten weeks to one week.\n\nIn the Wirral, the council used a tool called Placemaker to assess over 800 sites during the pilot period. It said it could assess land 50 per cent more quickly.\n\nIn Basildon, Essex, the council used a software programme called Landclan to identify 42 parcels of land that houses could potentially be built on. Since then, only two of the sites have received planning permission.\n\nAbout two-thirds of land in Basildon has been classified as Metropolitan Green Belt.\n\nBedfordshire council used a tool called Placemaker to assess all land parcels, including greenfield land, based on access to local services and infrastructure capacity to see if they could be built on.\n\nDurham county council also used Placemaker and said it reduced the amount of time it took to assess sites for development by half.\n\nEast Herts District Council allowed local people to submit parcels of land to be considered for development through a new website developed by a company called Cadcorp.\n\nIt received around 290 submissions during the call for sites, from estate agents and land owners but also residents.\n\nMany of the councils said they would use the information to help them make local plans. These are documents drawn up by councils which set out how the area will be developed in the coming years.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/councils-are-using-ai-snooping-to-find-sites-to-build-homes-is-your-area-doing", "canonical_source": "https://www.dailymail.com/money/mortgageshome/article-15994009/Councils-using-AI-snooping-sites-build-homes-area-doing-it.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490", "published_at": "2026-07-27 07:53:21+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-27 08:27:30.909347+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Lewisham Council", "RCKa", "Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government", "Google DeepMind", "Google Cloud", "Faculty", "Liverpool City Region Combined Authority", "West Midlands Combined Authority"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/councils-are-using-ai-snooping-to-find-sites-to-build-homes-is-your-area-doing", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/councils-are-using-ai-snooping-to-find-sites-to-build-homes-is-your-area-doing.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/councils-are-using-ai-snooping-to-find-sites-to-build-homes-is-your-area-doing.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/councils-are-using-ai-snooping-to-find-sites-to-build-homes-is-your-area-doing.jsonld"}}