Metropolitan Borough Council
Local Government • London
How intelligent document processing transformed planning application handling, saving 4 hours per application and £320,000 annually.
Key Results
The Challenge
The council's planning department was processing over 3,000 applications annually, each with an average of 40+ supporting documents—from design statements to environmental assessments, tree surveys to flood risk reports.
Qualified planners were spending the majority of their time on document review and data extraction rather than assessment and decision-making. The backlog was growing, developers were frustrated, and costs were unsustainable.
Key challenges identified:
The Solution
We deployed Azure AI Document Intelligence with custom extraction models trained specifically for planning documents. The system automatically identifies document types, extracts key information, validates against policy requirements, and populates the case management system.
14 weeks
Discovery to go-live
Power Platform
Azure AI integration
UK Gov Cloud
Data sovereignty
Project Timeline
Document type analysis, extraction requirements, integration mapping
Custom model development, accuracy testing, threshold calibration
Power Platform build, portal integration, workflow automation
Phased deployment, staff training, monitoring setup
The Results
“Our planners are now spending their time on planning decisions rather than document admin. The AI handles the extraction, they handle the judgement—exactly as it should be.”Head of Planning Services
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