Planning applications: the lead source most builders ignore

Every council in the UK publishes its planning register. Every application lists the address, the description of the work, the applicant and often the agent, the drawings, and the decision. When an application for a two-storey side extension is approved, that homeowner is about to start asking builders for prices. They just have not asked you yet.

This is the cheapest, most predictable lead source in domestic construction, and almost nobody uses it properly.

Why planning data works

A planning approval is intent you can see. The client has paid an architect, waited eight weeks for a decision and now has drawings in hand. Compared with a Checkatrade lead that has been sold to five other builders, a planning lead is early, exclusive if you move first, and already qualified by the fact that the drawings exist.

It also tells you the size of the job. "Single-storey rear extension" and "demolition of existing dwelling and erection of replacement dwelling" are very different enquiries, and you can choose which to chase.

How to read a register

The useful fields are the description of development, the decision and decision date, the applicant's name and address, and the agent. Applications move through validated, pending, decided. For lettering purposes, decided-and-approved in the last four to six weeks is the sweet spot: late enough that the client is thinking about builders, early enough that they have not signed with one.

Commercial work is in there too: change of use to a cafe, office fit-out shown as internal alterations, new shopfronts, care home extensions, and industrial units. Those applicants are businesses and developers who tender regularly.

The letter that gets replies

Keep it short, specific and human. Name the application and the work. Say that you build exactly this kind of project nearby, give one recent example with a street name, say what you would do next (a visit and a fixed-price quote within ten days), and sign it from a person, not a company. Add a QR code to a page showing that project.

Do not sell the company in paragraph one. Do not mention price. Do not say you noticed their planning application in a way that sounds like surveillance; say you follow local approvals because that is where your work comes from, which is true.

Follow up, once

A second touch two weeks later doubles response rates. A phone call works if you have a number from the agent. A single follow-up card works too. More than two touches and you become the builder who pesters.

Expected results

From firms that do this consistently, a well-targeted batch of 50 letters to approved domestic applications produces two to five enquiries. On extensions worth £80,000 to £200,000 that is an extraordinary return on a morning's work and a book of stamps. The key word is consistently: a batch every fortnight, not one heroic mail-out.

Doing it in minutes rather than hours

Pulling this from thirty council websites by hand is the reason most builders give up. TenderPilot's Local applications searches every council's register live, lets you pick a radius from your postcode or a list of councils, filters by the kinds of work you want, scores each lead by likely value, and writes the letters with your logo and a QR code. Shortlisted leads run as a campaign so you can see who you wrote to and when, and when the enquiry lands you hand it straight to EstiMate to price.

Searching is free with an account. Members open the council record, the drawings and the applicant details, and get the letters.

Combine it with your quoting

The point of a lead is the quote that follows. When the enquiry comes in, the walk-round, the AI-drafted scope and the branded PDF quote all live in EstiMate, so the prospect who got your letter on Tuesday gets a professional quote by the following week. That speed, more than anything, is what wins the job.