UK Planning Applications Monitor

Track new, pending, and decided UK planning applications in one clean, deduplicated feed, with automatic change detection between runs. This Actor aggregates planning applications (extensions, new builds, change of use, solar/PV, tree works, and more) from the official planning.data.gov.uk central register, normalizes them to a single schema, removes duplicates, and reports exactly what changed since the last run.

A new planning application near a location is a high-intent lead signal. Someone is about to build, extend, convert, or install. That is the moment construction suppliers, solar and EV installers, architects, PropTech firms, and estate agents want to reach a property owner. This Actor turns a scattered government register into a monitored feed of those signals.

Current coverage: the central register today carries four councils in full, Camden, Worthing, Adur, and Doncaster (see the Coverage table). Coverage grows automatically as the government register onboards more councils. Check the Input tab for the live list before you run.

Why use the UK Planning Applications Monitor?

• Lead generation: surface fresh applications the day they appear, filtered to the category you sell into (solar installers want solar_pv, builders want extension and new_build, sign firms want advertisement).
• Change detection built in: the first run builds a baseline, every later run reports only what is new, updated, decided, or withdrawn. No diffing on your side.
• Deduplicated and normalized: one schema across councils, one record per application, stable ids so you can join against your CRM.
• Self-healing source health: every run reports per-council health and flags a suspicious_zero (a council that returned data last run and nothing this run) so a silent upstream break is caught immediately.
• Runs on the Apify platform: schedule it, hit it via API, wire the results into your integrations, and let the platform handle retries and storage.

How to use it

1. Click Try for free.
2. (Optional) Pick which councils to include and which categories you care about. Leave both empty to get everything.
3. (Optional) Turn on Monitor mode (output only changes) and schedule the Actor (for example, daily). The first run captures a baseline, later runs return only changes.
4. Click Start. Results appear in the Dataset tab, downloadable as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML.

Coverage

This Actor reads the UK government's central planning-application register. That register is an active data programme rather than a complete national feed: today it carries four councils in full, with deep history and current pending applications.

Council	Code	Approx. applications
London Borough of Camden	CMD	77,000+
Worthing Borough Council	WOT	13,600+
Adur District Council	ADU	7,500+
Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council	DNC	1,900+

As the government register onboards more councils, they are added here. Field richness varies by council: some supply full street address, coordinates, a direct portal link, and the filed date, others supply the reference, description, and decision date only. Every enrichment field is optional and returned as null when a council does not provide it.

Input

All inputs are optional. Configure them in the Input tab or via the API.

Field	Type	Description
councils	array	Council short codes to include (e.g. ["CMD", "WOT"]). Empty = all covered councils.
includePending	boolean	Include applications with no decision yet (the highest-intent lead signal). Default true.
includeDecided	boolean	Include decided and withdrawn applications. Default true.
categories	array	Filter to derived categories (e.g. ["solar_pv", "extension"]). Empty = all.
onlyOutputChanges	boolean	Monitor mode: push only new/changed/removed applications. Default false.
maxRecordsPerSource	integer	Cap of newest records pulled per council. 0 = unlimited. Default 5000.
suppressInitialChanges	boolean	On the first run, do not emit a change for every application. Default true.
freshLeadAlertDays	array	Age-since-filed windows for the FRESH_LEADS report. Default [7, 14, 30].
webhookUrl	string	HTTPS endpoint that receives change events as a POST after each run.
testMode	boolean	Cap every council at 3 records and skip the baseline update. A free smoke test.

Output

Each record is one planning application:

{
  "id": "pa_382_awdm-0898-25",
  "sources": ["planning-data-gov"],
  "recordType": "planning_application",
  "reference": "AWDM/0898/25",
  "council": "Worthing Borough Council",
  "councilId": 382,
  "councilWebsite": "https://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk",
  "description": "Application for consent under Worthing Tree Preservation Order No.5 of 1991 to fell and replace 17 diseased Ash trees of group A1.",
  "appCategory": "trees",
  "status": "pending",
  "statusRaw": null,
  "decisionType": null,
  "receivedDate": "2025-07-08",
  "decisionDate": null,
  "registerDate": "2025-09-07",
  "address": { "text": "Moonraker 20 Gorse Lane Worthing West Sussex BN13 3BX", "postcode": "BN13 3BX", "country": "GB" },
  "coordinates": { "lat": 50.851179, "lng": -0.406692 },
  "url": "http://planning.adur-worthing.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=SZ271DCBIHN00",
  "entity": 10000100631,
  "typology": "geography",
  "lastScraped": "2026-07-22T00:00:00.000Z"
}

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

Data fields

Field	Description
reference	The council's own application reference.
council / councilId	Council name and its register organisation id.
description	The proposal text as filed.
appCategory	Derived category: extension, new_build, change_of_use, solar_pv, trees, listed_building, advertisement, demolition, or other.
status	pending, decided, or withdrawn.
receivedDate / decisionDate / registerDate	When filed, when decided, and when the register first listed it.
address	Free-text address plus extracted UK postcode, where the council supplies it.
coordinates	{ lat, lng } where the council supplies a location.
url	Direct link to the council portal page, or the register entry as a fallback.

Extra outputs (key-value store)

• CHANGES: the full change set for the run plus a summary count.
• RUN_HEALTH: per-council status, including the suspicious_zero silent-break flag.
• FRESH_LEADS: applications bucketed by how recently they were filed.
• COVERAGE: a check of whether the central register has started carrying a council not yet built in. If it has, the new council ids are listed here (and sent to your webhook), so you know the moment more coverage becomes available.

How change detection works

The Actor stores a compact fingerprint of every application in a named, cross-run store. On each run it compares the current data to that baseline and emits typed events: new_application, decision_made (pending to decided), status_changed, updated, and removed. Run it on a schedule with Monitor mode on and each run returns only what moved. Point webhookUrl at your endpoint to be notified the moment there are changes.

Pricing

This Actor is pay-per-result: you pay for the applications it returns. Planning data is high volume, so the price per result is set low. In Monitor mode you pay only for the handful of applications that actually changed on each scheduled run, which keeps ongoing monitoring inexpensive. Use testMode for a free smoke test before a full run.

Tips

• For lead generation, keep includePending on and set categories to your niche so you only pay for relevant applications.
• For a monitoring workflow, turn on onlyOutputChanges and schedule daily. The first run is your baseline; later runs are small and cheap.
• Raise maxRecordsPerSource to 0 when you want the full historical backfill for a council; leave it capped for fast, current-focused runs.

FAQ

Where can I get UK planning application data? This Actor. It aggregates planning applications from UK councils into one structured feed and detects new and changed applications between runs.

Which councils are covered? It launches with the councils available through the planning.data.gov.uk central dataset and expands over time. Check the input for the current list.

How do I find new planning applications (solar, extensions, change of use)? Turn on monitor mode and add a webhookUrl. Each new application is emitted as an event, with a category classifier (solar_pv, extension, change_of_use, and more).

What data does each record include? Application reference, description, category, status (pending, decided, or withdrawn), council, dates, and location where the source publishes it.

Is this official and legal data? It uses public UK planning data published under the Open Government Licence. It accesses no private data.

Disclaimers and support

Where does the data come from? The official UK government planning-application register at planning.data.gov.uk. This Actor does not scrape behind logins or bypass access controls.

Is scraping this legal? The register is published as open government data. As with any data product, you are responsible for using the output in line with the source's terms and applicable law, including how you contact any individuals.

Why are some fields empty? The central register carries different fields for different councils. Missing fields are returned as null rather than omitted, so your schema stays stable.

A council I need is not covered. Coverage tracks the government register as it onboards councils. Use the Issues tab to request a council, and to report anything that looks wrong.