PermitPulse
An AI planning permission tracker for UK small builders and tradespeople managing multiple applications across different councils at once.
Small building firms and tradespeople submitting multiple planning applications per month
- Dashboard of all live applications with status pulled from council portals where available
- Deadline alerts for consultation responses, validation requests, and decision dates
- Template library of approved statements from your own past applications
- Outcome analytics showing which council areas approve fastest
Tract's failure to monetise from developers hints at a different buyer: tradespeople who submit applications regularly but lack admin tooling
~80k applications/quarter in England (gov.uk stats) but the bulk are filed by architects, planning consultants and developers — not small tradespeople managing their own portfolios; the 'multiple apps per month' persona is a narrow sub-niche.Planning applications statistics - GOV.UK ↗Planning Application Statistics - April to June 2025 - factsheet ↗
trackanapp.co.uk already offers multi-council planning application tracking across 300+ councils for architects/developers/consultants — directly adjacent. Opti-Plan and BuildSpotter already serve tradespeople around planning data (lead-gen, not self-tracking), shrinking the truly open space.trackanapp | UK Planning Application Tracker & Management Software ↗BuildSpotter - Planning Application Leads for UK Builders & Trades ↗
Tract's own postmortem explicitly cites 'low willingness to pay' and 'no revenue or committed paying customers' after nearly two years in the British planning-software market; tradespeople are notoriously price-sensitive and would only pay for tracking (not lead-gen) if it clearly saved admin hours.Tract Postmortem ↗Tract co-founders release postmortem after startup collapses ↗
Planning permission process won't be simplified soon; admin burden persists
Competitor trackanapp already demonstrates multi-council aggregation across 300+ councils and planning.data.gov.uk provides a national standardised feed, so the data plumbing is proven rather than novel.trackanapp | UK Planning Application Tracker & Management Software ↗Planning Data ↗