How to find planning applications in England

Every English council keeps a public register of the planning applications it receives, and by law anyone can inspect it. The catch is where it lives: a search-driven portal on the council website that ordinary web searches cannot see into. If you know where to look, everything is there.

Where councils publish

There are over three hundred local planning authorities in England: district, borough, city and county-level councils, plus national park authorities for land inside a park. Each runs its own online register, usually reached from the council website under planning, with names like Public Access, Planning Explorer or Search Applications. The register holds the application form, drawings, consultation responses, the officer's report and the decision notice.

Councils also publish a weekly list of newly received and newly decided applications. Parish councils and local papers work from these lists, and they are the quickest official view of what is new in an area.

Searching a register

Portals search best on a reference number, which is why the reference is printed on every notification letter and site notice. If you have one, our reference number guide explains what it tells you. Without one, search by address or postcode, then widen to street name if nothing comes back; older records are often filed against a different form of the address.

Be aware that portal sessions expire quickly and results pages rarely have stable addresses, so a result you found yesterday can be hard to link to or return to. That is the main reason this site exists: every application indexed here has a permanent page you can bookmark, link and revisit, with the register facts laid out and a link back to the council portal for the documents. Start from the list of councils and open the one that covers the address.

Knowing when something new appears

The register only answers questions you ask it. If what you want is to hear when a new application is made near your home or in a patch you work, checking by hand does not scale. Councils notify immediate neighbours of most applications by letter, but the definition of neighbour is narrow, and a scheme on the next street can matter to you without a letter ever arriving.

A planning alert covers this: choose a point and a radius, and a daily email lists anything new inside it. One area is free.

Commenting and what follows

Most applications carry a comment window of at least 21 days from publicity, and councils accept comments up to the point a decision is made. If you plan to respond to one, read how to object to a planning application first; comments that speak to planning matters carry far more weight. For the timetable an application then follows, see how long decisions take.