50+ UK Councils · Updated Weekly

Find your next
instruction, automatically.

PlanningScout monitors UK planning portals every week, scores every relevant application against your brief, and delivers the best opportunities to your inbox — so you focus on winning work, not hunting for it.

100% public data No card required to start Tailored to your practice Cancel anytime
78+
Councils covered
Weekly
Automated scans
100pt
Lead scoring
8–15×
More leads found
How it works

Three steps. Zero manual searching.

We handle the monitoring, reading, and scoring. You make the calls.

01 🔍

We scan 50+ UK planning portals

Every application matching your brief — across Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, London, South East, Midlands and more — swept automatically every week.

02 📊

Each application is matched to your monitoring brief

We analyse every application against the signals you care about — whether that's winnable appeal grounds, new major applications, prior approvals, or specific site activity. Your criteria, your signals.

03 📬

Top matches arrive every Monday morning

A ranked digest of the week's best opportunities — scored, pre-qualified, with direct portal links and applicant intel. Nothing to search, nothing to open.

Use cases

Tailored for you
Any planning signal.

Different consultancies need different intelligence. PlanningScout is configured around your practice — whether you're hunting appeal leads, building an instruction pipeline, tracking prior approvals, or monitoring market activity.

During onboarding we set up your monitoring brief together — the use classes, decision types, trigger phrases, and councils that match exactly what you do.

Appeal leads

Refused applications with winnable grounds

Sequential test failures, lack of evidence, out-of-centre refusals — cases a consultant can turn around on appeal.

Retail / Class E Residential Industrial
New instructions

Major applications needing specialist input

New complex applications in your sector — transport, viability, heritage, ecology — before a consultant is appointed.

Transport Heritage Viability
Prior approvals

Permitted development & conversion work

Class MA office-to-resi, Class Q agricultural conversions — new applications and refused ones with appeal potential.

Class MA Class Q PD appeals
Market intel

Site, sector & competitor monitoring

Track applications near client land, monitor a target area, or watch competitor sites for development signals.

Site watch Area tracking Sector trends
The output

What a qualified lead looks like.

Each entry in your weekly digest is pre-read, pre-scored, and pre-qualified. Everything you need for a quick go/no-go — without opening a single portal.

  • Application reference & council — direct link to the public planning portal page.
  • Lead score 0–100 — how well it matches your brief and how strong the opportunity looks.
  • Matched signals — the exact phrases or criteria from the application that triggered your brief.
  • Estimated project value — construction value estimate based on use class and scale.
  • Companies House data — applicant company number and registered address, ready for outreach.
25/01023/FUL · Tameside MBC Score 88/100
Change of use from C3 residential to Hair & Beauty Salon (Class E)
📍 Ashton-under-Lyne · Decided: 12 Feb 2026 · REFUSED
Match type Appeal lead · Class E CoU
Signals found
Out of centre Sequential test
Est. value £40k – £120k
Appeal basis Sequential failure · High winnability
View on Portal ↗ All data is public record · planningscout.com
Coverage

Built for your practice area.

Every subscriber gets a custom monitoring brief. Below are example trigger sets for common practice types. If yours isn't listed, we'll build it together during onboarding.

🏪 Retail & Town Centre
Lack of evidenceSequential testOut of centreEdge of centreRetail impactClass E change of use
🏘 Residential Development
5-year housing supplyTilted balanceNPPF para 11dAffordable housingOverdevelopmentDesign quality
🚦 Transport & Highways
Transport assessmentHighways impactTrip generationSafe accessTravel planParking provision
🏭 Industrial & Logistics
Class B2 / B8Employment landSequential approachInsufficient evidenceHGV routingEconomic impact
🌿 Permitted Development
Prior approval refusedClass MAClass Q agriculturalFlood riskNatural lightPD appeals
🏛 Heritage & Conservation
Listed buildingConservation areaHeritage asset settingLess than substantial harmHistoric England
⚙️
Your brief, your criteria — configured together. We configure your keywords, trigger phrases, council selection, decision types, and scoring thresholds around your exact practice. Your digest is built for you — not a generic template.
"

Before using PlanningScout, our outreach was manual and inconsistent. Now, we've seen an 8–15× increase in monthly opportunities through automated UK-wide monitoring. It has reduced our manual workload significantly. We've essentially automated the 'hunt.'

M
Mark
MAPlanning Consultancy · RTPI Chartered Planner
Pricing

Try free for a month.
Then choose what fits.

Start with a full month free — no card, no commitment. If PlanningScout finds you one instruction, it pays for itself many times over. Then pick the plan that matches your practice.

1 month free on all plans · No credit card required · Cancel anytime
Practitioner
£99
per month after free trial
1 month free to start
Solo consultant or agent building their pipeline.
  • Weekly email digest
  • Up to 10 councils of your choice
  • Custom keyword & trigger set
  • Score + signal breakdown per lead
  • Live Google Sheets dashboard
  • 4-week rolling history
Start Free Trial →
Most Popular
Professional
£149
per month after free trial
1 month free to start
Active consultancy needing full UK-wide coverage.
  • Everything in Practitioner
  • All 50+ UK councils
  • Instant alerts for high-score matches
  • Companies House enrichment
  • Estimated project value per lead
  • 12-week rolling history
Start Free Trial →
Practice
£299
per month · up to 5 users
1 month free to start
Multi-person team or multi-sector specialist practice.
  • Everything in Professional
  • Up to 5 team members
  • Multiple monitoring briefs (sectors)
  • CSV export & API access
  • Onboarding call included
  • Priority support
Start Free Trial →

A single planning instruction typically generates £5,000–£50,000 in fees.
Annual billing saves 2 months · All prices exclude VAT

FAQ

Common questions.

How does the free trial work?

You get one full month free — no credit card required. We set up your monitoring brief, run the first scan, and you receive a real digest. After the trial, choose the plan that fits. If PlanningScout isn't delivering value, you simply don't subscribe. No awkward cancellations.

Is this only useful for appeal work?

No. While appeal leads are a core use case, PlanningScout can be configured for any planning intelligence need: tracking new major applications for instruction leads, monitoring prior approvals, watching specific sites or areas, or following competitor and market activity in your sector.

Which councils are covered?

50+ councils across England — Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, London boroughs, South East, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, South West, and North East. Coverage expands regularly. The Practitioner plan covers up to 10 councils; Professional and Practice plans cover all available councils.

How is the lead score calculated?

Each application is scored based on how strongly it matches your monitoring brief. For appeal leads, the score weights the strength of the refusal grounds — "lack of evidence" refusals score highest (easiest win on appeal), sequential test failures score strongly, and generic boilerplate is filtered out. Scoring logic is fully configurable per client.

Where does the data come from?

Entirely from public UK planning portals — the same pages any member of the public can access. Application details, decision notices, and applicant names are all publicly available. We read and process that data automatically, at scale, every week. No private systems, no GDPR concerns.

What format does the digest come in?

A formatted email every Monday morning, plus a live Google Sheet updated weekly with your full lead history. The sheet is searchable, sortable, and has a column for your own notes and status. Practice plan subscribers also get CSV and API export for integration into their own tools.

Can I change my monitoring brief later?

Yes — your brief is a living configuration, not a one-time setup. If you expand into new sectors, add councils, or want to refine your trigger set based on what's coming through, just get in touch. We update it within 48 hours and it takes effect on the next weekly run.

What if a council I need isn't covered?

Let us know during onboarding — we prioritise adding councils our users need. Most UK councils use Idox planning software, which we support. If a council uses a different system, we'll tell you honestly whether it's feasible and give you a timeline.

See it before you commit.

Enter your email and we'll send you a real sample digest — the same format your practice would receive every Monday. Free. No card.