Planning Application Data for Solar & EV Charge Point Surveyors

When solar and EV installations need planning permission

Most residential solar panel installations fall under permitted development rights — they don't need a planning application. But this changes quickly in specific circumstances:

• Listed buildings — all external works require listed building consent; some PD rights don't apply
• Conservation areas — panels visible from a highway require permission
• Flat roofs exceeding 200m² — often tipped into formal application territory
• Ground-mounted arrays — more than 9m² ground coverage requires planning permission in most cases
• Commercial/industrial installations — generally require full planning or prior approval depending on scale

EV charge points have their own rules: domestic charge points are generally PD, but public charging infrastructure, car park canopies, and larger commercial installations usually require a full application or prior approval notification.

How solar surveyors use planning history

1. Quickly establish constraints before site visit

Before quoting or scheduling a survey, you want to know: is this property listed? In a conservation area? Has any previous solar application been refused here? All of this is surfaced through the planning application history.

A PlanWire lookup against the address returns every application submitted at that property — including any previous solar or renewable energy applications, their outcome, and a link to the decision notice. This takes seconds via API and can be built into your quoting tool or CRM.

curl "https://api.planwire.io/v1/applications\
?q=solar&postcode=SW1A+2AA&limit=20" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key"

# Or search by description keyword across a council
curl "https://api.planwire.io/v1/applications\
?q=solar+panel&council_id=richmond&status=Refused&days=365" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key"

2. Benchmark council attitudes on solar

Some LPAs are significantly more permissive on solar and renewable energy applications than others. Before investing in a pipeline in a new area, it's worth understanding the local authority's track record.

You can pull all solar-related applications for a council over the past 2–3 years and calculate an approval rate. High refusal rates on conservation area installations, for instance, should change how you price and qualify leads in that area.

# Fetch all solar applications for a council (last 2 years)
curl "https://api.planwire.io/v1/applications\
?q=solar&council_id=bath-and-north-east-somerset\
&days=730&limit=100" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key"

# Calculate: count Approved vs Refused from response
# applications[].status === 'Approved' | 'Refused'

3. Find commercial sites actively seeking planning for large-scale solar

Pending full planning applications for "solar farm", "ground-mounted solar", or "EV charging hub" represent active commercial opportunities. These sites are already in the planning process — they need surveyors, DNO liaison, connection assessments, and installation contractors.

Monitoring for new pending applications matching these keywords gives you a lead list of sites that have self-declared their intent to install before any tender or procurement process has started.

4. Identify neighbouring approvals for canvassing

When a householder solar application is approved in a street, the neighbours are warm leads. They've seen the process work nearby and may have been considering it themselves. Monitor for approvals in your target postcodes and follow up with letters to neighbouring properties within 2–3 houses.

EV charge point specific uses

Monitoring planning applications for car parks and retail sites

Applications for car park upgrades, retail development, and superstore refurbishments frequently include or enable EV charging infrastructure. Monitoring for these applications lets charge point operators and installers identify sites early in the development process, before the main contractor is appointed.

Prior approval notifications

Many public EV charge point installations in England proceed via prior approval rather than full planning permission. These applications are typically quicker (28 days) and have a narrower set of grounds for refusal. Tracking prior approval submissions for EV-related works can surface installation sites in your operational area.

curl "https://api.planwire.io/v1/applications\
?q=electric+vehicle+charging\
&application_type=Prior+Approval\
&days=30&limit=50" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key"

Building this into your workflow

The most practical implementation is a daily digest: a scheduled script that pulls new solar and EV applications in your service area each morning and drops a summary into your team's Slack or CRM. You don't need to build a complex system — a 50-line script running on a cron job covers the majority of the use case.

For a more integrated approach, PlanWire's webhook feature pushes matching applications to your endpoint in real time — no polling required. See the webhook tutorial for the setup guide.