Help & guides

PlanNexus turns 370+ council planning portals into one searchable stream. You don't need to write code to get value — saved searches and email digests cover most use cases. This page covers the non-developer path; for the API, see the developer docs.

Getting started without code

If you just want planning intelligence in your inbox, here's the fastest path. No code, no dashboards to babysit.

  1. Create a free account. Free includes up to 10 active saved searches; Alerts Pro (£19/month) lifts that to 50.
  2. Set up your first saved search with a name, the email you want digests to land at, and any filters you care about.
  3. Choose Daily (8 am) or Weekly (Monday 8 am) delivery. Your first digest covers the same window as the cadence — no need to backfill.
  4. Click any application in the digest to see its full record on the council's portal.

Tip: start with two or three searches. It's easier to refine them after a week of digests than to set up ten on day one.

Saved searches: every filter explained

Every filter is optional. Leave them all blank and you'll get every new application across the UK — useful for nothing. Combine two or three to get a focused stream.

Keyword

dwellings

Matches the application's description or address. Case-insensitive substring match. Useful keywords for housebuilders: 'dwellings', 'flats', 'units', 'apartments'. For commercial: 'office', 'industrial', 'warehouse', 'retail'.

Heads up: The keyword search does NOT understand numbers — 'erection of 24 dwellings' matches 'dwellings' but there's no way today to filter by unit count. See the FAQ below.

Postcode prefixes

SW1, SW3, SE1, E14

Comma-separated outward codes. A row matches if any listed prefix matches. 'SW1' matches SW1A, SW1B, SW1H, etc. Use prefixes that target the area you care about — Greater London uses 100+ prefixes if you want every borough.

Heads up: Postcodes come from the application address as published by the council. Some councils publish addresses without postcodes — those won't match a postcode filter.

Council

Westminster City Council

Limit to a single local authority. Type to search the dropdown — we cover 330+ of the UK's ~377 LPAs and the count grows weekly. Leave blank to match every council we cover.

Application status

Approved, Granted

Pick one or more from the dropdown chips. The list is pulled from live data, ranked by frequency, so you'll see council-specific spellings (e.g. 'Approved' vs 'Permission Granted' vs 'Permitted'). Tick all the ones that mean 'approved' to your workflow.

Heads up: Status terminology varies by council — some never use the word 'Approved' at all. If you only see results from a handful of councils, broaden the status set.

Application type

Full, Outline, Householder

Filter by type of application. 'Full' = a full planning permission application. 'Outline' = principle-of-development approval, details to follow. 'Householder' = small domestic works (extensions, loft conversions). Pick multiple to widen the net.

Planning constraints

In a conservation area

Tick to require ALL selected constraints. Constraint data comes from planning.data.gov.uk and is enriched on each application — the coverage is highest in England and grows with each scrape.

Heads up: Not every application has constraint enrichment yet. If you require 'In a conservation area' you'll only see applications we've successfully enriched against the conservation-area dataset. Loosen this filter first if results look thin.

Near a place

Within 25 km of Central London

Pick a city preset or enter a custom lat/lng with a radius (km). Matches applications whose location coordinates fall inside the circle. Useful when postcode prefixes don't cleanly cover your patch.

Heads up: Radius search only matches applications with known coordinates. Coverage varies by council — some publish coords on every application, others none. Combine with a postcode-prefix or council filter for a denser stream.

Frequency

Daily / Weekly

Daily digests fire at 08:00 UK time with everything new since the last digest. Weekly digests fire on Monday morning covering the previous 7 days.

Heads up: If a saved search returns no matches in a window, no email is sent. Empty digests would clutter your inbox without telling you anything new.

Recipes: ready-made saved searches

Concrete examples for common buyer profiles. Copy the filters into a new saved search and tune from there.

Mid-scale residential schemes in London & SE

Property developer, 9–50 unit schemes, post-approval

Keyword:
dwellings
Postcodes:
SW1, SW3, SE1, SE10, E1, E14, N1, NW1, GU, RH, KT, BN, ME
Statuses:
Approved, Granted, Permitted
Application type:
Full, Outline
Frequency:
Daily

The keyword 'dwellings' is the most reliable proxy for residential schemes. Scan each digest entry to confirm unit count — see the FAQ for why we don't filter on it directly.

Heat-pump install opportunities

Heat-pump installer; targeting recently-approved domestic projects

Keyword:
extension
Postcodes:
Your service-area outward codes, comma-separated
Statuses:
Approved, Granted
Application type:
Householder, Full
Frequency:
Weekly

Householder extensions often retrofit heating at the same time. Weekly cadence keeps your inbox clean; daily for hotter patches.

Estate agent: new homes coming to market

Estate agent, knowing what's about to be sellable

Keyword:
dwellings
Council:
Your borough(s)
Statuses:
Approved, Granted
Frequency:
Weekly

An approval today means homes on the market in 18–36 months. Tracking approvals weekly is a leading indicator your competitors don't have.

Builder: kitchen / bathroom refurbishment leads

Local builder targeting domestic renovation work

Keyword:
extension
Near a place:
Your business HQ + 25 km radius
Application type:
Householder
Frequency:
Daily

Radius search beats postcode prefixes for a tradesman's catchment area — you don't have to hand-list every postcode in the patch.

Heritage consultant: listed-building work

Heritage / conservation consultant tracking work in protected stock

Constraints:
Listed building, In a conservation area
Council:
Your patch
Frequency:
Daily

Constraint filters are AND — both must apply. If results look thin, drop one constraint.

Flood-zone watch

Insurance underwriter, surveyor, or risk analyst

Constraints:
Flood risk zone
Postcodes:
Areas where you write policy
Frequency:
Weekly

FAQ & limitations

Can I filter by number of units?

Not directly — councils don't publish unit counts in a structured machine-readable way. The unit count lives inside the application's description text (e.g. “Erection of 24 dwellings…”), which our keyword search can match against, but you'll need to scan each result to confirm the exact number.

We're working on NLP-based unit extraction. Drop us a line if this is critical for your workflow — early adopters shape what we ship first.

How fresh is the data?

We re-scrape every active council on a rolling schedule — most are checked within 24 hours of new applications appearing on the council portal. Coverage freshness is shown live on the /coverage page (green = ≤48 h; amber = ≤7 d; red = older). If a council goes red, our scraper has a problem on that authority — we usually fix within 48 hours.

What's covered?

330+ of the UK's ~377 local planning authorities at the time of writing — see /coverage for the live list and what's missing. We add new authorities most weeks. National Park Authorities, the Broads, and crown-dependency councils are also covered where they publish online.

What if my saved search misses something?
Two common causes: (1) the council in question hasn't published the application yet — councils vary from same-day to two-week publishing lag; (2) your filters are too narrow. Try removing one filter at a time and re-running. If you suspect the scraper is missing data, drop us a line via the contact form — we'll investigate within 24 hours.
What if I don't want to set up a saved search?
Use the search page directly — same filters, same data, but you pull on demand rather than getting digests. Good for one-off research.
Can I export results to CSV / Excel?

Not from the UI yet — coming soon. Today, the API returns JSON which most spreadsheet tools can import. Email support if you'd like a CSV export prioritised.

What's Alerts Pro for?

Alerts Pro (£19/month) is for non-developers who want planning intelligence delivered: 50 saved searches (vs 10 on free), priority email support, and the same daily/weekly digest format. It's the right tier for builders, agents, consultants, and anyone who doesn't want to code against the API.

How do I cancel?
One click from /dashboard/billing. You'll keep access until the end of your current billing period.

For developers

Building an integration? PlanNexus is REST-first with typed SDKs for Python and TypeScript. See:

  • API reference — endpoints, auth, rate limits, response shape.
  • Webhooks — push notifications for new applications, status changes, and decisions.
  • plannexus on PyPI and plannexus on npm — the official SDKs. pip install plannexus / npm install plannexus.

Stuck? Want a feature?

We reply to every email within one working day. Tell us what you're trying to do — we often build features for the first person who asks.

Get in touch