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Every score is built from published, open data, plus what promoters and the local press publish. Every reason in a deep report links to where it came from, and every report lists its datasets and their licences under Data and sources.

The sources

Fields are HM Land Registry’s INSPIRE Index Polygons: the boundaries of registered land, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Land that is leasehold or has never been registered has no polygon.
OS OpenData: OS Open Roads, OS OpenMap Local and Code-Point Open (postcodes), under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Used for road frontage, towns and villages, and postcode searches.
Flood Map for Planning (Flood Zones), and the Rivers and Sea 3.3% defended flood risk extents, used for functional floodplain.
Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, ancient woodland, National Landscapes and farmland quality (the agricultural land classification) from Natural England; registered battlefields from Historic England; Green Belt, National Parks and built-up areas from the government’s planning data platform (planning.data.gov.uk), with data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Office for National Statistics.
Each council’s own planning register, read every day; its Local Plan allocations and the sites put forward to it, from its published plans and maps; and its housing land supply statements. Every application links to the council’s own page, which is the official record. See Planning applications.
The Housing Delivery Test from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Schools from the Department for Education, GP practices from NHS England, and rail stations and bus stops from the Department for Transport.
Appeal decisions on planning applications, credited to the Planning Inspectorate.
A search for land promoters, land deals and local news. A finding counts towards the score only when it clearly matches the field and cites a page we actually found.

Required attributions

HM Land Registry’s INSPIRE polygons carry two attribution statements, which we reproduce wherever the boundaries are shown:
This information is subject to Crown copyright and database rights [year] and is reproduced with the permission of HM Land Registry.
The polygons (including the associated geometry, namely x, y co-ordinates) are subject to Crown copyright and database rights [year] Ordnance Survey AC0000851063.
Other datasets carry their own lines, for example:
  • Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right [year]. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right [year].
  • © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right [year]. All rights reserved.
  • Contains Environment Agency, Natural England and Office for National Statistics data, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
A report credits every national dataset, and a council’s own datasets only for the councils its fields are in.

How fresh it is

We read councils’ planning registers every day. A report is scored with the data held on the day it was checked, which it shows at the top; see Check again. Live counts of councils read and applications held are at public metrics.