When you’re tracing assets, confirming addresses, or identifying risk exposure, most investigators start with property ownership data.
But what if your subject doesn’t appear on the electoral roll?
What if there’s no company tie, no land registry trail, no formal record connecting them to a high-value property?
That’s where planning applications can make the difference.
They’re not just about bricks and blueprints. They’re a record of intent, a sign that someone is connected to a property, even if you don’t already know if they own it.
What You’ll Find in Planning Portals
Planning applications are submitted for everything from loft conversions to new-build developments. Across 300+ local council portals, you’ll find:
- Full (or partial) names and addresses
- Application types (extensions, change of use, listed building works)
- Plans and blueprints
- Dates of submission and approval
- Appeals and refusals
In many cases, the applicant is the homeowner or someone with a financial or personal stake in the property.
That’s what makes these records so valuable, they reveal who’s connected, and how.
Why It Matters
Planning data can help you:
- Uncover properties linked to a subject - Even when the electoral roll comes up blank and you don’t have an address to search in the land registry, planning records may list the subject as the applicant, linking them to an address.
- Locate hidden addresses - Especially when electoral roll results are empty or outdated. You might find a countryside home or an investment flat in a city centre, locations that aren’t visible anywhere else.
- Flag wealth and lifestyle indicators - Major renovations and new builds often suggest financial capacity or investment activity, often useful in fraud, due diligence, or divorce investigations.
- Detect unlicensed rental setups - A change-of-use application from residential to HMO (house in multiple occupation), or the addition of bedrooms or en-suites can signal income-generating properties that haven’t been registered correctly.
- Spot red flags in due diligence - Planning appeals, enforcement notices, and repeated applications can signal disputes, irregularities, or reputational risks.
Common Use Cases
- Asset Tracing - Look for investment properties not declared elsewhere. Planning records might show applications for second homes, buy-to-lets, or large-scale developments.
- Executive Protection - Planning applications can unintentionally expose high-profile individuals or their families by listing personal addresses.
- Surveillance Planning - Identify the best locations to observe from or flag buildings of interest linked to your subject.
- Environmental or Investigative Journalism - Uncover land use trends, conflicts of interest, or improper developments hidden in plain sight.
How to Search (and What to Watch For)
There’s no central database - Most councils run their own portals. Name-based searches are rare, you’ll often need an address or postcode to start with.
Names can be inconsistent - Applicants might appear as “J. Smith” instead of “John Smith.” Some records only appear in PDFs attached to the application.
Omissions are common - Not all applications list a person’s name on the public portal, but attached documents often do.
Cross-reference with other sources - Use land registry, electoral roll, and rental licensing records to validate your findings and confirm ownership or legal responsibility.
The Bottom Line
Planning records are one of the most overlooked OSINT sources in the UK.
But when investigated properly, they reveal:
- People connected to properties
- Properties not visible on the electoral roll
- Financial signals and lifestyle indicators
- Risks hidden from surface-level due diligence
We’ve built planning records directly into Public Insights because they’re essential for high-quality investigations and because no other platform brings them together at scale.
You can try it today at cradle.publicinsights.uk.