If we ditch the pinball machine of our fragmented planning system and embrace AI and cloud computing, we might just see New Towns in our lifetime, say MPs and Autodesk.
What if we could retool the UK’s planning regime so that it was a single, AI-enabled digital ecosystem that planners, developers, architects, engineers and builders could use collaboratively in real-time, instead of a largely analogue patchwork of competing requirements fed by uncoordinated inputs from various technical and professional silos?
It would mean, say Autodesk and WPI Strategy, authors of a new report on the question, that “the development of good-quality abundant housing could leave the realm of theory and be realised in our lifetimes, with the support of the public”.
Specifically, they want the government to use its New Towns initiative as a pilot to launch such a digital planning ecosystem.
It would require the government to create interoperable data standards. Experienced planning officers would need to learn how to use the AI tools.
But the outcome would be a planning system that gets New Towns and infrastructure built in reasonable time frames, a system that developers, local authorities, designers, builders and the public can use with a higher degree of confidence, the report argues.
As an example of new functionality that is hard to imagine now, the report says that applying modern digital planning tools to a New Town development could shorten the design phase alone from nearly a year to a matter of weeks.
And it says the cost of design iteration could fall by up to 70% because there would be no need for repeated modelling and redesign cycles.
Two MPs involved in Parliamentary oversight of planning and development issues have backed the idea.
How the system saps viability from schemes
Hardly anyone in the housing business believes the Labour government can get 1.5 million new homes built by 2029, as it promised. Planning is a big part of that scepticism.
“Local plans, where they exist, are developed in silos by local governments of varying political persuasions, intentions and expertise and are subsequently often contradictory or vague,” the report notes.
So, proposed developments go through a pinball machine of rejections and changes. Each bell and buzzer adds time and cost, sapping the scheme’s commercial viability as originally conceived.
Says the report: “Masterplanners, architects, consultants and infrastructure engineers work across separate modelling systems, often exchanging drawings and reports rather than collaborating within a shared live environment.
“Design changes are tested parcel by parcel. Impacts on infrastructure capacity or neighbouring plots may only become visible in later iterations. This results in uncertainty persisting into the development timeline, more so than is optimal for investors or public authorities.”
This is the scenario that leads to the shrivelling of a scheme’s affordable housing element, for example, the report says.
How it could be
The report says digital planning tools like AI-powered cloud software and integrated parcel-level design used with building information models and geographic information systems could pull all the different calculations – land valuation models, infrastructure cost assessments and architectural designs – out of their technical siloes and onto a live, collaborative platform, providing continuously updated cost assumptions in real-time.
“By connecting planning, design, engineering and other functions into one digital ecosystem, the assumptions, trade-offs and sequencing of development can be made visible and intelligible across the lifecycle of a project to all involved, allow for interoperability across disparate functions, and enable a system that better reflects the modern age,” the report says.
“Such a model would improve developments, speed up decisions, and maintain local buy-in. Best practice in public procurement, design standards, and assessment can be shared and implemented quickly across local authorities, reducing the friction created by a diversity of local priorities, systems and functions.”
San Francisco: six weeks to six minutes
The report envisages a future where all functions in planning, including environmental analytics, carbon modelling and stakeholder collaboration, are brought together so all relevant experts can work in tandem quickly.
It offers a modest example from San Francisco, where WSP used a cloud-based planning and design platform on a mixed-use development of 150,000 sq ft in area – around 3.4 acres.
WSP found that using a cloud-based platform cut performance analysis that would normally require six or more weeks down to just six minutes. AI-driven iteration let teams evaluate more than 10 design alternatives simultaneously.
Report co-author WPI mapped those results onto a 10,000-home New Town development in the UK. It would need up to 70 individual planning parcels, each demanding validation cycles, daylight modelling and design iteration. In today’s analogue system, this could equate to 10-12 months just within the design stream alone.
But using the San Francisco approach in the pre-application design phase could bring that down to weeks, said WPI.
What they want government to do
The report calls on the government to first establish a national baseline for a shared digital planning system.
“MHCLG and NISTA should launch a consultation on establishing interoperable standards for shared cloud-based spatial modelling and structured planning data across local planning authorities. Rather than mandating specific vendors, the consultation should focus on defining common requirements for live 3D modelling environments, federated BIM/GIS integration, environmental simulation capability and cross-boundary data-sharing protocols.”
Second, it urges the government to start with the New Towns. This month, seven New Towns in England were named as possibles, down from 12 recommended by the New Towns Taskforce in September last year.
Taken together, these seven would have 191,000 new homes if their upper targets were met.
“Where central government funding, designation or approval mechanisms apply to New Towns and other strategically significant growth locations, delivery bodies and participating authorities should be expected to operate collaborative planning workflows from inception,” the report says, adding: “Embedding this requirement at programme level would accelerate validation, strengthen transparency and materially improve delivery confidence at settlement scale.”
Third, teach experienced planners how to use AI tools. More planners are needed, but that will take years and boosting their numbers alone won’t solve the problem.
The report says there’s evidence that planners can “achieve proficiency in some of the major new technologies in as little as 10 days, and harness insights in a matter of hours”.
Two MPs like it
“The industry will struggle to meet the government’s ambitious housebuilding target if the planning process remains rooted in analogue systems,” said Nathan Brown, UK public policy lead at Autodesk.
“Retrofitting digital standards onto legacy frameworks is not sufficient for projects of this scale. We need to embed digital capability from the outset to enable scalable, efficient delivery.”
Agreeing with him are two MPs with planning and development oversight roles in Parliament.
Mike Reader is a civil engineer who worked at Pick Everard and Mace before becoming the Labour MP for Northampton South in 2024. He chairs the all-party parliamentary group on infrastructure.
“New Towns offer us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do things differently,” he said. “We can take a joined-up approach from day one, aligning housing with energy, water, transport and digital infrastructure, while making full use of modern methods of construction. That’s how we build at scale, at pace and with place in mind.”
Chris Curtis is the Labour MP for Milton Keynes North, and a member of the MCHLG select committee. He harkened back to 1967, when then prime minister Harold Wilson began the first wave of New Towns, including his own constituency.
“Milton Keynes stands as proof of what can be achieved when determination meets delivery, and that same mindset must shape this new generation of New Towns,” said Curtis.
“The report highlights that a clear advantage we have over Wilson’s government is technology. We must harness it to ensure our planning system is capable of delivering each New Town quickly and efficiently.”
