The work you will never see in a planning search

Why this matters before anything else

A planning search finds applications. It cannot find work that never needed one, and a great deal of domestic work does not. If you fit kitchens, replace windows, convert a loft within the roofline or build a modest rear extension, a large share of that market never appears in a planning register at any price.

That is worth saying plainly on a product that sells planning leads. Tradecue will show you the extension that needed permission. It will not show you the identical extension next door that fell inside permitted development, because no council was ever told about it.

What falls inside permitted development

Permitted development rights are set out in the General Permitted Development Order, Schedule 2, Part 1 for houses. The headline limits for a single-storey rear extension are:

• Up to 3 metres beyond the original rear wall on a terraced or semi-detached house, or 4 metres on a detached house, with no application at all.
• Up to 6 metres or 8 metres respectively under the larger home extension route — which does need a prior approval, so it does appear in the register, usually as a "Prior Approval" application type.
• Loft conversions within volume limits, most rooflights, and a great deal of internal work.

The exceptions that put work back on the register

Permitted development rights are narrower or absent in conservation areas, on listed buildings, in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and on flats and maisonettes — which have almost no householder permitted development at all. Councils can also remove rights across an area with an Article 4 direction.

For you that cuts both ways. In a conservation area far more work needs consent, so a planning search finds far more of the market. In a 1990s estate with full rights intact, it finds much less of it.

How to use that

Treat the register as a strong signal rather than a complete market. An application tells you a household has decided to spend money and has a timetable. That is a good lead precisely because it is documented. Just do not conclude that the areas showing few applications are areas with little work.

Sources

• Planning Portal — permitted development rights for householders
• GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 1 (legislation.gov.uk)

General explanation, not legal or planning advice. Anything that turns on the detail of a particular site is worth a free phone call to the council’s planning department. Something here wrong or out of date? Tell us.