Can AI strengthen strategic planning in England?

The return of strategic planning is occurring at precisely the moment local democratic capacity is being reduced.That paradox sits at the heart of England's planning reforms. On the one hand, government is rightly recognising that many of the country's biggest challenges – housing delivery, infrastructure investment, economic growth, climate resilience and environmental recovery – cannot be solved within individual local authority boundaries. Strategic planning is back on the agenda because strategic problems require strategic solutions.On the other hand, the return of strategic planning coincides with the most significant restructuring of local government for half a century. Through local government reorganisation and devolution, England is moving away from a system of numerous local planning authorities towards larger unitary councils, combined authorities and elected mayors. Decision-making is increasingly occurring at larger geographical scales, often shaped by nationally determined frameworks, targets and priorities.The result is an uncomfortable tension. Strategic planning is becoming more important just as the institutions of local democratic representation are becoming more distant from the communities they serve.The future should be different. Rather than treating SDSs as static planning documents, England should begin thinking about Digital Spatial Development Strategies: live, data-rich platforms that continuously integrate evidence, monitoring, infrastructure planning and public engagement. In this model, the SDS becomes less a document and more a strategic operating system for place.This matters because the success of strategic planning has never been determined solely by the quality of its evidence or the strength of its policies. Communities must believe that the future of their places is being shaped with them, not simply for them.The challenge for the next generation of Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs) is therefore not merely technical. It is democratic. At present, much of the debate focuses on the content of SDSs. But an equally important question is emerging beneath them: who gets to make these choices and how are local communities involved?This is where digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) could play a transformative role. The recent alliance between KPMG and Anthropic offers an important lesson. Its significance is not simply that AI can improve productivity. The more important insight is that AI becomes transformative when it is embedded within decision-making systems, connected to trusted data, governance processes and professional expertise.The planning system should take note. Too much strategic planning remains episodic. Evidence is commissioned, reports are prepared, consultations are undertaken and plans are examined. By the time much of this work is completed, the economic, political or infrastructure context may already have changed.The future should be different. Rather than treating SDSs as static planning documents, England should begin thinking about Digital Spatial Development Strategies: live, data-rich platforms that continuously integrate evidence, monitoring, infrastructure planning and public engagement. In this model, the SDS becomes less a document and more a strategic operating system for place.Housing trajectories, infrastructure programmes, environmental constraints, economic priorities and delivery monitoring could all be maintained within a shared digital environment. Artificial intelligence could help interrogate evidence, identify emerging risks, test alternative growth scenarios and automate routine monitoring.However, the greatest opportunity is not efficiency. It is transparency. One of the persistent criticisms of strategic planning is that decisions feel remote from communities. A Digital SDS offers the opportunity to reverse that trend. Citizens could access the same evidence used by decision-makers. They could explore alternative growth scenarios, understand infrastructure implications and visualise the consequences of different strategic choices. Digital twins and interactive mapping tools could make strategic planning more accessible and less abstract.AI could help analyse consultation responses, identify emerging concerns and improve the quality of engagement. Importantly, this is not about replacing democratic decision-making. It is about widening participation and improving understanding.Yet there is also a warning here. Technology can strengthen democracy, but it can also weaken it. AI-driven planning systems that rely on opaque algorithms, inaccessible datasets or highly centralised control structures risk further distancing communities from decision-making. The danger is that digital planning becomes another mechanism for concentrating power rather than distributing it.The lesson from successful AI deployment is therefore not primarily technological. It is institutional. Technology works best when combined with transparency, accountability and trust. For strategic planning, this means investing in open data standards, shared evidence platforms, clear governance arrangements and auditable decision-making processes.In the future SDS should therefore be more than a plan and more than a digital platform. It should become a democratic operating system for place: a mechanism through which growth, infrastructure and investment can be coordinated across larger geographies while maintaining a meaningful connection to local communities.The debate about strategic planning is often framed as a choice between localism and scale. That is the wrong choice. England needs both.Samer Bagaeen is a Localis policy fellow, professor of planning and independent councillor in Brighton and Hove

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Can AI strengthen strategic planning in England?

By Samer Bagaeen | 02 July 2026

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