Property & location intelligence · Westminster and London
What the data can tell you: and exactly where it stops.
An evidence base of 36 datasets and analytical tools spanning planning, policy, ownership, buildings, energy infrastructure, demographics and movement. This site sets out what each source contains, how current it is and where its boundaries lie: then demonstrates, through real worked examples, the intelligence it produces.
Executive summary
Three findings that changed the answer
A single extended analytical session was used to build an evidence base on how major institutional landowners appear across UK planning, ownership, demographic and infrastructure data. Three findings matter most.
Ownership can be proven, not inferred
Registered title records returned a conclusive proprietor confirmation: stronger by an order of magnitude than the address and agent signals that dominate every other dataset.
Presence on a street is not attribution
Across 69 relevant planning records on two major estates, the overwhelming majority were filed by tenants, agents and building-specific companies: not the estate itself.
Currency varies enormously, and invisibly
Applications and appeals refresh daily. Policy layers can sit frozen for two years per authority. Several dates that looked live measured crawl time, not content time.
How to read this site
Where to go next
Six ways through the evidence
Each section stands alone. Detail sits behind expandable elements so the surface stays readable.
At a glance
The strongest evidence sat in four places: planning applications, registered titles, energy certificates and substation capacity.
Ownership can be proven, not just inferred
Registered title records gave a first-party, conclusive proprietor confirmation: far stronger evidence than the address, applicant or agent signals that dominate every other dataset. Any decision that turns on who owns what should start here.
Location on an estate's street is not attribution
Across two estate searches totalling 69 relevant records, the overwhelming majority were filed by tenants, agents, leaseholders and building-specific companies. Only a handful were the estate itself. Activity tracking built on address matching overstates reality.
Currency varies enormously, and not visibly
Applications and appeals refresh daily with a one-day lag. Policy layers can sit frozen for two years or more per authority. Several dates that looked live measured crawl time, not content time: a distinction that changed the answer repeatedly.
Records are not schemes, and labels are not scale
Deduplication turned 26 records into 23 schemes, and a 'non-material amendment' carried 29 additional homes. Volume metrics taken straight from a record count will be wrong in both directions.