WhiteHall AI Tools Help UK Buildings Better Quickly and Smarter

good morning. Israel has taken multiple strikes in Iran overnight, with oil prices surged and added to the already long list of geopolitical crises and uncertainties facing the UK and the world. But it’s too early to say what the exact outcome will be for British politics. Much more in the coming weeks, I am sure.

For now, some thoughts on government attempts to use AI to improve the workings of the state.

Save time

One of the biggest things this government can do is to improve our lives and to make life easier, increasing the productivity of the public sector. If the British state becomes as productive as it was in 2019, the money workers plan to spend on public services will go a long way.

Possible means of improvement are through the adoption of artificial intelligence. This has encouraged both current management and previous administrations under Rishi Sunak. This week, Keir Starmer announced Extract, a new AI tool developed by the government’s Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (IAI).

The delays in approval planning across England* are partly due to the large amount of information stored in various formats, such as maps and PDFs. Questions about whether planning applications are related to conservation areas, what the site boundaries are, and whether it relates to other policies that touch on can take planners hours. This also creates additional barriers to making all this information public online and in public, which increases the amount of work local authorities have to do.

This week, Keir Starmer announced Extract, a new AI tool developed by the government’s Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (IAI).

The purpose of extraction is to dramatically speed up the process. This is how AI-powered tools work very well in testing. The UK AI incubator was designed to allow British states to acquire their own sovereignty capabilities and know-how when using AI in public policy. This in itself saves time and money. Rather than being limited to creating internal business cases, the government sector (in this case, housing sector MHCLG) can pose problems for IAI and tackle internal solutions, as they go out into the private sector and want Palantir or Google or Openai to develop something appropriate and useful.

Another advantage is that you can create Win-Win scenarios. One way to speed up planning is to simplify rules and processes, but these processes exist for a reason. To take my vete noir, the 2022 Building Safety Act. I don’t think this law is working as intended and requires substantial amendment. But it exists for a real problem, and simply saying “Well, scrap it” is hardly a good idea. Additionally, the extract can be flagged for common unwanted occlusions.

It is a mistake to see only productivity improvements as the question of “how quickly we can reach Jesus.” To improve productivity, you can say “no” faster. Take a planned orb of East London that was discarded last year. The US developer at the 90-meter-high spherical music and entertainment venue said it would have millions of pounds acquired the Stratford Site and “to be involved in the five-year planning process with numerous government agencies.”

There is no planning system anywhere in the democratic world. This allows residential areas to be plunged into constant artificial sunlight. But it shouldn’t take five years for that to become clear. If the planning system can say “no” and “yes” faster, then so many people can spend time.

*This applies to the UK as a whole, but today’s newsletter only refers to the UK as IAI works with the Ministry of Housing, communities and local governments.

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I’ve just started reading. I argue that your speedy answer is the world’s first advice column, an 18th century periodical, a collection of letters to Mercury in Athens. It is a fun and fascinating insight into a completely foreign world from ourselves, but it is familiar. But you spend it and have a great weekend!

Today’s top stories

Milestone Check | Keir Starmer hopes this week’s spending review will allow the government to strike six “milestones” it promises to meet before the next general election. It is expected by August 2029. What is the risk? Where is the progress?

“We may need to give something” | Experts say that despite Rachel Reeves’s outline of the fastest rise in local taxes over two decades, if forced to raise taxes again in the fall, they will be forced to meet her financial goals.

Home Truth | England’s Affordable Housing Programme has not been allocated with less new money per year for this remaining Parliament than its current annual budget, despite Reeves boasting a record £39 billion settlement.

Surge in SEN | One-fifth of UK children need special needs assistance in schools, but one in 20 currently has a dedicated support plan funded by the council fighting balloon costs, the diagram shows.

PFI Sky Thinking | NHS England has launched work on a new model to attract private finance for health infrastructure payments following calls from the sector to upgrade aging properties by ending the ban on controversial funding schemes.