For paid access, see the PropTech API for UK planning data: response fields, integration requirements and plans for property software. The UK planning API covers postcode search, application lookups and captured decisions.
Six commercial uses for UK planning data
1. Construction lead discovery
Help builders, architects and materials suppliers find proposals relevant to their service area. Bring descriptions, application dates, decisions and source links into an existing CRM for review. A planning record is a research signal, not a verified contact, confirmed budget or guaranteed order. Evaluate a supplier territory.
2. Property alert tools
Give landlords, portfolio managers and property customers updates about planning activity near their properties. Use coordinate-based nearby searches for maps and council or postcode webhook filters for monitoring, then apply any additional spatial rules in your application. Explore signed webhooks.
3. Site appraisal and land sourcing
Show previous proposals and recorded decisions alongside a site assessment. Search descriptions for relevant development types and link users to the underlying council evidence. Planning history adds context; it does not establish land ownership or predict permission for a new proposal.
4. Development pipeline tracking
Build a view of applications and decisions in the councils your customers follow. Retain record IDs, dates and status changes so analysts can investigate activity over time. Related applications need review before being counted as separate developments, and permission is not a construction start.
5. Due diligence and property reports
Add planning history and nearby applications to property reports, with returned source links for checking the evidence. Where available, flood-risk and sold-price context can support the same workflow. Confirm address matches and missing fields rather than treating a postcode match as the same property. See published customer workflows.
6. Neighbourhood change products
Help homebuyers and renters inspect proposed housing, changes of use and other local development on a map. Show descriptions and recorded decisions, distinguish proposals from completed work, and link to the source. Start with postcode and radius searches.
Get a free API key for sample records, or view live-data plans. The integration steps below retain the documented search and webhook contracts.
Choose a workflow, not an entire platform
Start with a property lookup, a council monitoring feed or an area-based alert. Decide which fields your users need and how they will verify a record. Planning activity is evidence of a proposal or decision, not proof of ownership, a construction start or a confirmed materials requirement.
1. Test a sample request on your server
Create a free key to inspect sample records, with 25 requests per day. Store the key in a server environment variable. Never ship it in a public frontend bundle or query string.
curl 'https://api.planwire.io/v1/applications?council=adur&page=1&limit=5' \
-H "X-API-Key: $PLANWIRE_API_KEY"Inspect the returned data and meta objects. Store the API record ID and preserve the source evidence returned. Free responses are an evaluation sample, not a complete list of current applications. See the application schema and pagination contract before writing ingestion logic.
2. Check coverage and missing fields
Use the dataset guide and council directory to check history, source health and recent dates for your chosen area. Treat missing coordinates, UPRNs, documents and decisions as unavailable. Do not infer an address match solely from a postcode.
For a complete small implementation, follow Search UK planning applications in Python. It includes synthetic tests and a read-only Postman collection for evaluating the same API contracts.
curl 'https://api.planwire.io/v1/applications/nearby?lat=51.4975&lng=-0.1278&radius_km=1' \
-H "X-API-Key: $PLANWIRE_API_KEY"A radius query relies on usable coordinates; it is not a completeness check for every planning record in that area. Test an area against source evidence before sizing production access. Check the licence terms for your storage, display and redistribution use.
3. Add a scoped webhook
Developer includes one council/postcode-scoped webhook. Production and Business support broader workflows subject to their limits. Use the documented filter names; do not assume radius filters from the search API also apply to webhook subscriptions.
curl -X POST 'https://api.planwire.io/v1/webhooks' \
-H "X-API-Key: $PLANWIRE_API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"url":"https://your-app.example/hooks/planning","filters":{"councilId":"adur"}}'Verify the HMAC signature against the raw request body. Persist accepted event IDs and make processing idempotent. A changed document can emit application.updated when captured; the feed cannot guarantee every change made on a council portal.
4. Recover and reconcile
Store a recovery cursor only after persisting the complete page. Deduplicate by event ID. Delivery order is not proof that all earlier events arrived. Recovery begins with durable capture for the subscription, with at least 30 days of retention; it cannot recreate earlier missed changes.
Start from the recovery guide and runnable monitoring-cache example. Keep a reconciliation process and expose source limitations in your product.
For the smallest starting point, run the tested Node.js council-search example. It makes one bounded request and includes synthetic tests for empty samples, authentication failures and invalid responses.
Existing customer workflows
sitemax's published testimonial describes using PlanWire market evidence in early-stage feasibility reports. PLOTT describes using the API for planning lead discovery. These are examples of customer products built on the infrastructure, not claims that either uses the exact implementation above. Read their testimonials.
Suppliers and implementation partners
For a materials or construction-services pilot, choose one depot territory and ask the commercial team which records are useful. The Supplier Territory Evaluation exposes matches and evidence. Integrate into existing software or work with a partner; PlanWire does not supply a finished CRM or guaranteed sales leads.
Choose access after evaluation
Free access tests API shape and samples. Developer is £49/month plus VAT for 1,000 requests/day and one scoped webhook; Production is £199/month plus VAT for 10,000 requests/day and up to 100 webhooks. Review current plan and billing terms or compare providers against the same workload.