For builders, extension & loft conversion specialists
How to get planning application leads before anyone else
Every extension, loft conversion and garage conversion job starts the same way — a homeowner submits a planning application to their local council. It's public record the moment it's filed. The trades who see it first get the first conversation.
Why planning applications are the earliest signal of new work
By the time a job shows up on a lead site or the homeowner starts posting in a local Facebook group, they've usually already had two or three builders round for quotes. A planning application is earlier than that — often weeks earlier. It's the point where the project has gone from "thinking about it" to "committed enough to file paperwork," but before most trades even know it exists. Getting in touch at that stage, or the moment it's approved, is the whole advantage.
How to check for new planning applications yourself
There's no single national list you can search — each of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland's local councils runs its own planning portal, with its own search tools and its own way of describing things. If you want to do this manually, it looks like: work out which councils cover your patch, bookmark each of their weekly or daily lists, open each one, and read through the descriptions looking for extension, loft conversion, or garage conversion work buried among everything else — barn conversions, tree work, shopfronts, listed building consent, all mixed together.
That's manageable for a single council if you're disciplined about checking it. It stops being manageable once your patch spans two, three, or more council boundaries, which most builders' realistic working area does.
The options if you'd rather not do that by hand
A few services exist to solve this for builders. Broadly, they fall into two camps: pay-per-lead or pay-per-letter tools that charge each time you act on a lead, and regional data subscriptions — often priced by borough or council area — that hand you a spreadsheet export with contact details, typically running from around £50 to well over £150 a month depending on how much coverage you need.
PatchAlert takes a simpler approach: one plain email a day, telling you what's new or newly approved on your patch, for your trade. No per-lead charges, no borough-by-borough pricing, no dashboard to log into — it lands in your inbox like a message from a mate, from £4.99/month.
How PatchAlert works
1. Pick your patch
Your postcode and a radius. Only jobs near you, nothing else.
2. Pick your trade
Extensions, loft conversions, garage conversions, conservatories — your call.
3. Get the email
New applications daily, plus a flag the moment one gets approved.
Frequently asked questions
Is UK planning application data public?
Yes. Every planning application is public record, published on the relevant council's own
planning portal. PatchAlert doesn't have access to anything you couldn't find yourself — it
just checks every relevant council for you automatically.
How much does PatchAlert cost?
Plans start at £4.99/month, with a free 7-day trial and no card required to
start. See the pricing page for details.
Does PatchAlert cover my area?
PatchAlert covers the whole of the UK, not just London or a handful of boroughs.
How is this different from buying leads or paying for letter campaigns?
PatchAlert doesn't sell contact lists or run mailing campaigns for you. It's a daily email
telling you what's been submitted or approved on your patch, matching your trade — no per-lead
or per-letter fees. You decide how to follow up.