Planning data is public. Most people aren't doing anything with it.

Word of mouth is fine. It’s also uncontrollable, inconsistent, and entirely dependent on other people thinking of you at the right time.

Every extension, loft and new build in your area is a planning application before it’s a job. Pick the project types and add a rule for each council you work in, and the new applications are in the app every morning – the site address on every one, the applicant’s name where the council publishes it – with the top ones in the morning email. They’ve just decided to build. They don’t have a builder yet. You got there before the leaflet companies, because nobody else was looking.

Save the ones you want, move them New → Site visit → Quoted → Won, and the lead updates itself when the decision comes through – which is when homeowners go from “thinking about it” to “let’s get quotes in”.

Large schemes go through planning before they go out to tender. That gap – between permission and procurement – is when cost consultants should be in the room. Most aren’t, because most don’t hear about the project until the client calls.

Monitor new build and change-of-use applications above a value floor in each council you cover. Every new match is in the app the next morning, valued, with the applicant and agent where the council publishes them; the email carries the top matches by value. That’s the conversation to start now, not when the developer has already shortlisted.

Once you’re appointed, the Project Workspace tracks the full lifecycle – parent permission, discharge applications, amendments, the decision record. When a discharge application lands on a scheme you’re tracking, it’s on the workspace the morning after the council publishes it. Council decision times and approval rates on each council’s profile (Pro and above) set programme expectations from day one.

There’s a 3–6 month gap between planning permission and a site start. That’s your window: the developer hasn’t committed to a supply chain, the main contractor hasn’t tendered, and nobody else is calling yet.

Set a value floor, filter to new build, and add a rule for each council in your delivery area. For plant and groundworks, add keywords – basement, excavation, piling – and you’re in the conversation months before the main contractor is appointed.

You’re running a live site. You need to know what’s happening around you – adjacent schemes that affect access, applications on neighbouring plots – and when your own scheme’s status changes. Metis watches all of it and puts it in the morning email.

On Idox, Ocella and Assure councils the conditions tracker reads every condition on your scheme from the decision notice – materials, drainage, landscaping, contamination. Pre-commencement conditions are split from the rest, because those are the ones that stop a site. Each shows its milestone trigger and whether its discharge application is under review or approved.

The workspace is shared with your whole team on Team and Enterprise: your QS tags the architect on a materials condition; your commercial manager checks the drainage discharge before signing off the groundworks date. The council’s average decision time is right there – so when the consultant says “four to six weeks”, you can see what that council actually does.