On Monday, 29^th June 2026, the British-Irish Council Planning and Places Work Sector held a webinar on ‘Resourcing in the Planning Profession: The changing role and impact of technology on the sector’.  The webinar was chaired by Kathryn McFerran, Co-Chair of the BIC’s Planning and Places Work Sector. The webinar was attended by approximately 105  people from across these islands.

The webinar featured three fascinating presentations exploring AI and some of the technologies being used to streamline and improve resources in the planning profession across several of the BIC’s administrations.

The first presentation was given by Robbie Fergusson, Senior Product Manager, Digital Development Consents, Scottish Government. Robbie spoke of the Scottish Government’s transition to a new application system for Planning Applications and Building Warrants..

The second presentation was from Dr. Alexandra Delaney-Bhattacharya, the Isle of Man’s Information Commissioner who noted that while AI and digital technology presents significant opportunities for enhancing planning and places policy, its use must be carefully governed. Embedding privacy, accountability, and transparency into AI systems from the outset is essential to minimise risk, maintain public trust, and ensure compliance with data protection obligations.

Milan Bogunovic from the UK Government’s Programme Director, Digital Planning concluded the webinar.  Milan and his colleagues spoke of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Digital Planning Programme and how it is using data, modern software and AI to build a faster, smarter, more accessible planning system. They also gave details of an AI planning prototype being developed with private companies to speed up householder planning applications and is currently being tested with three local planning authorities, with decision-making remaining in planners’ hands. 

The webinar recording, presentation slides and useful web links are available below.

On 3 – 4 September 2025, officials from the BIC’s Planning and Places Work Sector were hosted by the Scottish Government’s Planning, Architecture and Regeneration Directorate on a visit to Edinburgh.

On the first day the delegation was greeted by Ivan McKee MSP, Minister for Public Finance, for an overview of Scottish Government activity relevant to the two Work Sector themes:

• Skills and capacity for the public sector planning profession, and
• Climate change and the biodiversity emergency.

This briefing was followed by a presentation on the Scottish Government’s Future Planners Programme where the Work Sector heard from the current cohort in advance of the official Work Sector meeting.

On day two, the delegation visited the Granton Waterfront National Development, led by officials from the City of Edinburgh Council This project is at the heart of the Council’s ambition to be one of the world’s leading city regions for connected, sustainable, affordable and inclusive living.  With nearly 3,500 new net zero carbon homes, a low carbon heat network, space for new business, cultural venues, a new school and one of Europe’s biggest coastal parks.

Following this visit the delegation travelled to the Scottish Government’s Victoria Quay office for a presentation and informal discussion on the work the Scottish Government are undertaking to deliver renewable energy development in line with NPF4 (National Planning Framework 4). 

In 2024, the work sector visited Leeds as part of their focus on town and city revitalisation to consider the development of the Leeds Local Plan 2040 and how the council works with multiple stakeholders to deliver its regeneration ambitions and create a coherent approach across the city.

The visit included a walking tour of Leeds, looking at key regeneration sites, recent development projects and how the city’s heritage, architecture, transport and green & blue infrastructure are being used to enhance the experience of living in the city. 

Leeds City Council gave a presentation showing the city’s appetite for growth and transformation to unlock productivity and develop former industrial sites and brownfield land, with the help of government funding to realise the city’s 10 year vision (launched in March 2024).  Completed and proposed projects include the replacement of inner city surface car parking with new public open space, demolishing post-war systems built homes that fail housing decency standards, replacing them with a pipeline of 5,000 new homes (including 30% affordable); cultural regeneration projects such as the redevelopment of the National Armouries into a national conference centre; proposals to reuse existing distinctive historical buildings to create a new British Library North facility. 

The walking tour showed the range of new housing and mixed use developments in and near the city centre, including regeneration projects in Holbeck, such as 250 Build to Rent apartments at Tower Works, drawing architectural inspiration from the Italianate details of the retained chimneys from the now demolished 19^th century pin factory on the site.  The nearby Ironworks also showed careful knitting together of new residential buildings alongside former industrial uses, creating a network of interconnecting public squares following the grain of the historic buildings.  In contrast, the first phase (300 homes) of the Climate Innovation District next to the River Aire showed how terraced houses could be attractive to those who might otherwise have moved out of the city centre: with car-free streets (due to an underground car park), factory built cross-laminated timber homes, built to Passivhaus standards, and generous shared garden spaces instead of private gardens.