The Trust Gap – considerations and barriers to using AI in Planning Consultations
- hello794543
- Jul 25
- 5 min read
The Future Fox hosted a Local Authority Roundtable on 26 June 2025, featuring 12 early adopter councils, convened by Annette Jezierska, CEO The Future Fox, and Chaired by Dr Wei Yang OBE, Co-Founder and CEO Digital Task Force for Planning. In this piece, we detail the discussion. Due to the Chatham House Rule, quotations and specific examples have been displayed anonymously.
Local authority planners have a tough time ploughing through representations to Local Plans in time to meet the tight deadlines set out in their Local Development Scheme. We consistently hear there is an overwhelming and increasing amount of feedback to go through. In June 2025, we hosted a candid local authority roundtable of early adopters of AI in planning consultations. The local authority teams who joined the roundtable were there because it’s clear that speed alone won’t secure buy-in. Officers, councillors, legal and cabinet members need the absolute confidence they can defend their results, and worry whether they can after using AI. The initial tone for the session was set by some key contributions:
“We saw a fivefold increase in responses to our consultation, providing an impetus to see if we could use an AI tool that would then help us with summarising those comments.”
“How do you keep your personal sensitive data safe?”
“Is this just a black box—and how do you then justify your decisions to internal stakeholders?”
Three councils who have used AI on their recent Local Plans presented ahead of an open discussion. We explored how officers were addressing the ‘trust gap’ and the AI system design and kinds of information needed to fulfil their obligations. With the right measures in place, the time‑savings are extremely welcome and the use of AI can be seen as indispensable in the face of very tight timescales. We detail the discussion, which crystallised into seven repeatable lessons.
“How should we build trust and also develop leadership from the planning profession? It’s crucial to see how we can leverage the benefit of AI to enhance efficiency, effectiveness of planning, but also inclusivity.” - Dr Wei Yang, Chair
“We have to lead responsibly, and to do that, we have to work collaboratively on this because there are many different nuances in the planning sector, in consultations and dealing with the public.” - Annette Jezierska, CEO
7 takeaways from the 2025 Practitioners’ Roundtable
Lesson #1 – Be transparent
Transparency reassures both internal and external stakeholders. One council that used ConsultAI for both Reg 18 and Reg 19 consultations published a one‑page AI‑usage statement on their consultation website. They found The Future Fox’s Responsible AI and Data Protection policies helpful for engaging governance teams and providing a baseline for content.
Declaring the use of AI is in line with guidance from PINS, published in 2024, as well as ICO guidance on clarifying to data subjects how their personal data will be used.
Lesson #2 – Data‑privacy by Design
“Tell consultees up‑front: don’t include personal data in your representation - but it will be redacted before the AI sees it.”
“We checked everything ourselves and were reassured by the closed system.”
The group discussed how to communicate clearly about data use and protection. Best practices include:
Adding instructions to consultees to avoid including unnecessary personal data.
Ensuring names, emails, and postcodes are redacted before data is passed to the AI.
Using a closed AI system that does not train on customer data, which helped satisfy IT and legal teams.
Designing with privacy in mind, and explaining it clearly, builds trust and mitigates GDPR risks.
Lesson #3 – Keep the Humans in the Loop
While AI saves time, officers still need to read and engage with responses to meet statutory duties, as well as retain a working knowledge for informing decisions, and Examination scrutiny later down the line. But there’s no denying that with thousands of comments, hundreds of sites and policies, and potentially hundreds of thousands or even millions of different individual points made, officers find it difficult to retain all the information in their heads.
Well‑designed systems support human oversight by:
Making it easy to review how comments are tagged and summarised.
Maintaining a transparent audit trail for future investigation.
Allowing officers to override AI‑generated outputs when needed.
In short: AI enhances, but doesn’t replace, professional judgment.
“Critical thinking from planners is important.” - Dr Wei Yang
Lesson #4 – Design for AI up‑front
“Thinking about the use of AI before you design the questions was a steep learning curve.”
Most councils began using AI after running their (mostly online) consultations — but this revealed challenges in preparing the data for analysis. To avoid rework and make the most of AI, it pays to plan for analysis right from the start.
Key points the group highlighted:
Structure surveys and consultation forms around clear topics, site codes, or policy references so responses can be more easily grouped later.
Design questions that produce focused, useful input, e.g. avoid mixing multiple topics in a single question.
Check the output format from your survey platform to ensure it’s clean, consistent, and compatible with downstream analysis.
Decide early what insights you want from the data, so you can design the consultation to capture the right information.
By building in some clear logic and planning ahead, officers found they could avoid “clean-up” delays and enable faster, more accurate AI-assisted analysis.
Lesson #5 – Overcoming procurement hurdles
“We didn't really encounter many problems with procurement because we used the Digital Marketplace, and the timeframe for what we had to do was so tight"
Procurement can feel like a barrier — but it doesn’t have to be. Councils who moved quickly shared these tips:
Use frameworks like the Government Digital Marketplace for pre‑qualified suppliers.
Frame the purchase as “invest‑to‑save,” citing cost savings from other councils.
Look for flexible, volume‑based licenses that can fit within modest budgets.
Tap into digital, IT, or corporate funds if planning budgets are tight.
Some councils got approval and launched within weeks rather than months.
Lesson #6 – Build Momentum with Early Wins
Councils using AI for the first time achieved quick turnarounds - from consultation close to fully reviewed reports within 4–6 weeks, rather than months.
These quick results supported timely internal decision making, allowed for more responsive communication with the public and stakeholders, and saved on staff fatigue.
And the successful demonstration of early value creating political headroom for adoption on subsequent consultations; early wins helped build trust and confidence in the technology.
“Once it’s set up, those 150 reports come back overnight.”
“We could report back to members within a month, keeping the momentum and transparency.”
Lesson #7 – Upskilling & Culture
“Defining the questions on how we should use AI is so crucial – planners have to lead on that.” -Dr Wei Yang
Trust grows when teams understand and can challenge the methods being used.
The group discussed ways to upskill and foster a supportive culture:
Create plain‑English AI‑usage statements to communicate clearly.
Provide training for officers and members, especially those unfamiliar with AI.
Encourage planners to take the lead in defining how AI fits into the process.
There was also discussion about whether MHCLG could support the sector with standardised training materials, and whether PINS would issue further guidance and templates.
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