Authors
Matteo Zallio
Assistant Professor
SHIFT: AI-Enabled Surveysfor Housing Trajectories
Principal Investigator: Dr Matteo Zallio, University of Cambridge
Council Partner: Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service (Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council)
Preparing the annual Housing Trajectory is a statutory requirement for all English local authorities and is a critical evidence base for planning decisions. It involves preparation, distribution, follow-up, and analysis of around 150 site-specific questionnaires sent annually to developers, agents, and housebuilders.
While robust, the current process is manual and repetitive, needing significant staff time in administrative coordination rather than professional judgement, risk assessment, and strategic planning.
SHIFT aims to develop a human-in-the-loop AI tool that helps draft, create, and distribute surveys and questionnaires, and analyse complex structured responses by generating insights while keeping human expertise central. Potential benefits include faster more robust housing delivery evidence; reduced administrative burden on planning officers; improved experience for housebuilders, developers and agents responding to surveys, and more consistent, auditable, and reusable housing delivery data.
The approach is intentionally transferable to housing trajectories that are required nationwide. Clear documentation and open-source components will support adoption by other authorities.