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What is Planning Constraints?

Planning Constraints is a tool for screening the planning constraints that apply to any address or site in England. Point it at a location — an address, a postcode, or a spot on the map — and it tells you what official datasets say about that patch of land: conservation areas, listed buildings, flood risk, tree preservation orders, green belt, SSSIs, and around fifty other categories, all in one place.

Who it's for​

  • Planning consultants and architects doing initial due diligence before taking on a project, or preparing evidence for a planning application.
  • Developers and land buyers screening sites before an offer, or checking a shortlist quickly.
  • Homeowners and small landowners who want a plain-English answer to "can I do this?" before spending money on professional advice.
  • Surveyors and agents who need a defensible, sourced summary to attach to a report or a listing.

What it checks​

Every check draws on official, open data: planning.data.gov.uk (the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government's national planning data platform), Historic England, Natural England, the Environment Agency, the Mining Remediation Authority, and HM Land Registry. Nothing here is a private dataset dressed up as authoritative — every finding traces back to a named public source, and reports state their sources.

Coverage is England only. planning.data.gov.uk itself only covers England, so Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are out of scope by design — this isn't a gap we're working to close, it's how the underlying data is published.

What it isn't​

Planning Constraints gives you screening information, not a professional search and not planning advice. It tells you what the official registers say at a point in time, with sources you can check. Before you rely on a finding for a purchase, a planning application, or any decision with money on the line, verify it with the local planning authority or a suitably qualified professional. See the in-app Terms of Use & Sale for the full position.

How it's priced​

Interactive checking — search an address, see what applies, get the nearest distance to anything nearby — is free and unlimited, with no account needed. Paid tiers add the things that leave the app: PDF and CSV reports, wider search radii, saved sites with monitoring, and (for practices) shared workspaces, branded client portals and an API. See Plans and what they unlock for the full breakdown.

Where to start​

If you haven't run a check yet, the fastest way in is Your first site check. If you already know which plan you need, jump to Plans and what they unlock.