Planning application leads for builders, architects, glazing and solar firms

Approved planning applications are the earliest public signal that a household is about to spend on building work. How to use them as leads, what the register does and does not tell you, and how Curtilage delivers a daily feed by council.

The register is a lead list hiding in plain sight

Every extension, loft conversion, garage conversion, new dwelling, solar array and replacement window scheme that needs permission goes through the council register, and the moment it is approved the household has a decision to make about who builds it. The approval is public, dated, and tied to an address. For a builder, architect, glazier or solar installer working a patch, the list of approvals in the last fortnight is the warmest cold list there is.

What the register tells you, and what it does not

It tells you the address, the proposal, the decision and its date, and usually the agent who drew it up. Where the council publishes it, it tells you the applicant's name. It does not tell you whether a builder has already been appointed, so the earlier you see it the better. It never gives you neighbour details, and neither does Curtilage.

Approaching people who have just been approved

Householders are wary of unsolicited contact, so the approach that works is short, specific and useful: you saw the approval for a single storey rear extension at their address, you have built four of them within a mile in the past year, and here are two you can point to. Agents and architects are a better route where the applicant used one: they often recommend builders and they see every scheme.

What Curtilage gives you

A feed of approved applications by council and job type, newest first, decided in the last 7 to 60 days, with the council record link, and applicant and agent names where the council publishes them. Choose up to five councils for £19 a month or every council for £39 a month, with CSV download for your own system. It covers all 391 UK planning authorities and is refreshed from the registers daily.

Compared with the alternatives

The established planning-lead services charge from about £30 to £90 a month and add contact details from other sources. Curtilage is the cheaper, cleaner option: public register data only, a link to the plans for every job, and no names that the council itself has not published.

Updated 2026-09-14. Curtilage is not legal advice.