PlanPath UK
A step-by-step AI guide that helps UK homeowners prepare and submit planning applications for extensions, loft conversions, and renovations without paying a planning consultant.
UK homeowners planning extensions, loft conversions, or garden buildings
- Plain-English explanation of what's likely approvable in your specific council area
- Auto-drafted planning statements, design & access statements, and cover letters
- Personalised checklist of required drawings, surveys, and biodiversity reports
- Pre-submission sanity check against local plan policies with red-flag callouts
The Tract postmortem reveals the planning permission bottleneck is real but developers aren't the paying market — homeowners stuck navigating the system are
Strong real demand: UK government just unveiled AI tools in June 2025 to slash planning decision times, citing millions of homeowners benefiting; loft/extension projects are a £40-50k expense category creating lots of anxiety around permission.Loft Conversion Cost UK 2026 - What to Expect, Planning Permission, and Best Value Ideas ↗
Crowded: PlanWiser is essentially a clone product (free, covers extensions/loft conversions/PD checks with AI advisor + property checker + mock application), Planifly.co.uk targets the same niche, plus architect/drawings services like Housey and The Extension Company compete on adjacent turf.PlanWiser | Free UK Planning Permission Advice — AI-Powered Instant Guidance ↗AI Planning Permission Assessment for UK Properties | Planifly ↗
Weak: the closest direct competitor (PlanWiser) is explicitly free-to-start and positions itself as the alternative to consultant fees; homeowners' actual spend on consultants is only £0-£2,000 per application, and £528 goes to the council, leaving a thin willingness-to-pay for a guidance-only product.PlanWiser | Free UK Planning Permission Advice — AI-Powered Instant Guidance ↗Planning Consultant Fees and Professional Costs | Housey ↗
Solid: UK planning rules (NPPF, GPDO, conservation areas, Article 4) are a deep, ever-shifting body of regulation that benefits from AI tooling, and gov.uk is itself pushing AI in this vertical — long-term tailwind.
Easily buildable: PlanWiser demonstrates a working MVP pattern (LLM + planning-policy corpus + property-constraint APIs + mock-application generator) can be shipped by a small team; main cost is curating per-LPA policy documents and keeping them current.PlanWiser | Free UK Planning Permission Advice — AI-Powered Instant Guidance ↗