Bespoke analysis
Some questions a planning search won't answer.
Tell us what you need to know: how national and local policy, designations, development detail and inspector reasoning play out at appeal, for any authority in England. We find the pattern and trace each finding back to the decisions, so you can put your name to it.
Built for
What you can ask
The kind of thing people bring us
If it’s in the decisions, we can find the pattern. A few examples:
How are inspectors treating grey belt arguments since the December 2024 framework, and which ones are landing?
Arguing a live appeal
How does my authority's allow rate compare to the national pattern, for my scheme type?
Advising on prospects
Across appeals that turned on a named local plan policy, how often did inspectors find it carried weight, and what reasoning recurred?
Local plan review
We submit on a major residential scheme in eight weeks. Where have schemes like ours failed at appeal, and why?
Before a major submission
Ask once, or make it a regular report: early warning when the pattern shifts.
Have a different question? Tell us →
Worked example
What a bespoke analysis looks like.
The short version of a session presented at the Digital Task Force for Planning's Show and Tell on AI in planning practice, July 2026, to 284 attendees from central and local government. Watch the full session →
The question
Does the tilted balance change outcomes at appeal?
% of appeals allowed, 0 to 100 scale
The finding
At appeal, the tilted balance decides less than its reputation suggests. In every hundred appeals where the inspector applied it, 31 were allowed. Where it was not applied, 29.
Applied means the inspector used the paragraph 11(d) test to decide the appeal, not just mentioned it. England, s78 planning appeals, last five years. And appeals only: we do not see decisions on planning applications, where the balance may carry more weight.
The depth
The full analysis went further: when use of the balance jumped, how often it is applied region by region, and whether the kinds of cases each region hears explain the differences (they do not). A bespoke report gives you that depth on your question, each figure traced to the decisions behind it. No plan turns on a single policy: the same analysis runs on any combination of policies, national or local, for any authority in England.
Also in the record
Use of the tilted balance nearly doubled after the December 2024 NPPF revision, visible within weeks.
Nine in ten appeal decisions turn on local plan policy. Just over half cite the NPPF.
What does the appeal record say about your plan?
How it works
From question to findings
You ask
Send your question. The more specific, the sharper the answer.
We find the pattern
Statistical analysis across the whole record: 219,000+ appeals, not a sample.
You get findings
A clear write-up you can act on, with the figures and the decisions behind each finding, so you can stand it up yourself. Most findings land within 10 working days, quicker if you need it.
Why it holds up
Confidence that holds up under scrutiny
Analysis that used to mean weeks of reading, or couldn’t be done at all. Built to be checked.
Traceable to the decision letter
Each finding traces back to decisions you can open and read. If it's in the write-up, it's in a decision letter.
Built by people who understand planning
Co-founded by a chartered architect (ARB, RIBA). The analysis is shaped by someone who knows planning from the inside, not just the data.
Depth a search can't reach
219,000+ appeals across all four UK jurisdictions, updated daily. Development detail, designations, policy and inspector reasoning behind England decisions.
We find the pattern. You take it into the room.
Tell us what you need to know
We reply with what’s possible, how long it takes and what it costs. Nothing starts until you say so.
Prefer to talk it through? Book a call →
Prefer to dig into the data yourself? The platform gives you the full database, the search and the insights tools. 7-day free trial, no credit card required.