How to Find Demolition Work in Planning Applications: 2026 Data, Rules and Timing

01

Where Demolition Leads Really Come From

People search for a "demolition register" or "upcoming demolitions near me" and find nothing, because no such list exists on its own. Demolition is hiding in plain sight on the ordinary planning register, written into the first words of the description: "demolition of existing garage and erection of...". The council has to publish it, date it and decide it.

That makes the register the best source of demolition work there is, for three reasons:

• It names the job. Most trades have to infer their work from an extension. Demolition is stated outright: what is coming down, and what goes up in its place.
• It comes first. Nothing else on the site can start until the structure is gone. The demolition price is bought before the main build is tendered, and often before a builder has been chosen at all.
• It is dated. Every application has a validation date and, later, a decision. You know where the job is in its life before you spend a stamp.

The catch is volume and noise. Our register held 244,364 applications from 377 councils between May and September 2026, and the word "demolition" turns up in 20,438 of them. Some are a shed. Some are a block of flats. Some say "no demolition". Sorting that by hand across every council in your patch is a week's work every month, which is exactly what our demolition leads from planning applications service does for you: one monthly list of the addresses in your patch with live demolition applications, deduplicated and ready for your mailing house.

02

Demolition by the Numbers: 2026 Register Data

Every figure below comes from PlanWatch's planning register: 244,364 applications validated by 377 councils between 1 May and 30 September 2026, pulled on 20 October 2026. Approval rates and decision times use the applications validated between January and mid-May 2026, the cohort with the most complete decisions.

Why we quote 3,245, not 4,744

Our classifier matched 23,720 applications to demolition, but 7,497 of those matched only because they mention a new dwelling, and that rule also fires on wording such as "extension to the dwellinghouse". A new-home scheme on an occupied plot often clears something first, so some of those rows are real implied demand. But 3,185 of them are not new homes at all, just extensions caught by that wording, and none of the 7,497 say "demolition". When we say how many applications name demolition, we use the 16,223 that do, which is 3,245 a month.

Demolition is busier at the end of summer

On a like-for-like panel of 288 councils with complete data every month, measured per working day, most build trades were flat from May to September: roofing fell 4% and lofts 1%. Demolition went the other way.

That is a 13% rise from May to September. These are matched counts, so they include the implied demand above. We have no winter data yet, so we cannot say where the yearly peak falls.

03

What Is Coming Down: Three Sizes of Demolition Job

Not every demolition lead is the same job. Of the 23,720 demolition-matched applications, here is what was actually coming down.

Our demolition product page puts the money plainly: jobs run from £2,000 garden-structure removals to five-figure clearances ahead of new dwellings. The garden-structure tier is where volume lives. The whole-building tier is where one letter can pay for a year of mailing.

Strip-out work hides in the same applications

Soft strip and strip-out rarely get named on the register; councils describe the end result, not the strip. But the same applications that knock down a conservatory or outrigger also gut the room behind it, and a whole-house replacement starts with a full strip before the machine goes in. If you offer strip-out, price it in the same letter as the demolition.

04

Real Demolition Applications from the Register

These six descriptions are verbatim from council registers in our window, chosen at random from demolition matches and checked by hand. We show the council and month only, never the address or reference.

1. Bromley, May 2026: "Demolition of existing conservatory and construction of single storey rear extension". Classic tier-one job. The conservatory comes out first, so the owner needs a price for removal and disposal before the builder breaks ground.
2. Stockport, May 2026: "Demolition of existing garage and single storey outrigger. New part single part two storey rear extension with patio to rear, new single storey garage store to side." Two structures down, one of them attached to the house. That means care at the junction and probably scaffolding, so pair up with a scaffolder.
3. Highland Council, July 2026: "Demolition of house and erection of replacement house". A whole-dwelling clearance in Scotland, where the work will usually need a building warrant too. Big-ticket, one owner, one decision-maker.
4. Mid Sussex, May 2026: "Demolition of existing garages and erection of 8 new dwellings (6 x one bedroom flats and 2 x two bedroom flats)." A garage-court redevelopment. A developer and a planning agent are likely to be involved, and the demolition price is part of their build-cost appraisal.
5. Ashfield, May 2026: "Application to determine if prior approval is required for a proposed demolition of agricultural barn". The rare stand-alone Part 11 application. The owner wants the barn gone and nothing else is attached, so the demolition contractor is the main contractor.
6. Derbyshire Dales, May 2026: "Demolition of existing buildings and replace with three dormer bungalows". Several buildings down, a small residential scheme up. Expect asbestos surveys, services disconnection and a tight programme.

Notice what each description gives you before you visit: the structure, the scale, what follows, and who is likely to be paying. That is enough to write a letter that reads like you have already looked at the job, because you have.

05

The Best Councils for Demolition Work

These are the ten councils with the most demolition-matched applications between May and September 2026. They are matched counts, so they include new-home schemes with implied demolition; councils with lots of rural new-build can rank high on that rule.

Outer London is the standout: Brent, Ealing, Bromley and Barnet together logged 1,337 in five months (our sum of the four rows). That is suburban housing stock being extended and rebuilt, with garages, conservatories and outriggers coming down first. Two Scottish councils make the top ten, a reminder that demolition leads are not just an English story.

The median council validates 102 applications a month of every kind, so even an average patch of two or three councils turns up demolition work every week.

06

The Rules That Decide When Demolition Can Start

You do not need to be a planning lawyer, but knowing the consent route tells you how soon the job can start and who you are really dealing with. This is general information for England unless we say otherwise, not legal advice.

Planning permission or prior approval?

Demolition counts as "building operations" under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, so it is development. Then three things cut that down:

• Small buildings are not development at all. Under the Demolition Direction 2021, a building of 50 cubic metres or less, measured externally, can come down without any planning process. So can most gates, fences and walls outside conservation areas.
• Demolition inside a wider scheme is covered by that scheme's permission. "Demolition of existing garage and erection of extension" is decided as one application. This is why 97.8% of demolition mentions on the register are not Part 11 prior approval applications (our arithmetic: 100% minus 2.2%).
• Everything else uses Part 11 Class B of the GPDO 2015, the prior approval route. The developer applies to the council, describes the work, and displays a site notice for at least 21 days. The council decides whether it needs to approve the method of demolition and any restoration of the site. If it says nothing within 28 days, work can start. Some buildings are excluded from Class B, including pubs and some statues and memorials, and an Article 4 direction can remove the right.

Learn more in our guide to prior approval and planning permission.

Conservation areas and listed buildings

• Conservation areas: "relevant demolition" of an unlisted building in a conservation area in England needs planning permission. Conservation area consent was folded into planning permission in 2013, and demolishing without it is a criminal offence under section 196D. Small structures are exempt, broadly buildings under 115 cubic metres and low walls and fences. See conservation areas and planning.
• Listed buildings: demolishing all or part of a listed building needs listed building consent, and unauthorised works are a criminal offence. Expect slower decisions and specialist method statements. See planning permission for listed buildings.

Wales and Scotland

Wales has its own prior approval route for demolition in the Welsh GPDO and still uses conservation area consent. Scotland also keeps conservation area consent, and demolition there generally needs a building warrant from the council. Northern Ireland has its own planning and building control system, which this guide does not cover.

Before the machine goes in: the jobs you can sell

These are the duties that sit with the demolition contractor or the client, and they are the reason an owner wants a professional rather than a man with a digger:

• Building Act 1984 section 80 notice (England and Wales). Before demolition starts, notice goes to the council's building control, with copies to the occupiers of adjacent buildings and to the gas and electricity suppliers. Work cannot begin until building control has replied with a section 81 notice or six weeks have passed. That notice can set conditions: shoring adjoining buildings, weatherproofing exposed walls, disconnecting services, clearing the site. Exemptions include buildings of no more than 1,750 cubic feet (about 50 cubic metres), a greenhouse, conservatory, shed or prefab garage that forms part of a larger building, most agricultural buildings, and internal demolition in a building that stays occupied.
• Asbestos survey. The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 require asbestos to be found before work that could disturb it, which for demolition means a refurbishment and demolition survey. Older garages, outbuildings and soffits are classic sources. Licensable asbestos work needs a licensed contractor.
• CDM 2015. Demolition arrangements must be set out in writing before work begins. On domestic jobs the client's CDM duties pass to the contractor (or to the principal contractor where there is more than one), so you may well carry them.
• Party walls and wildlife. Taking down an attached garage or outrigger can engage the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, and councils often want a bat survey before roof voids come down.

A letter that says "we handle the section 80 notice, the asbestos survey and the paperwork" answers the owner's real worry in one line.

07

Timing: When to Get Your Price In

Demolition is a fast-window trade. Our product guidance for demolition is blunt: actionable immediately, demolition happens first, usually 0 to 1 months after consent. Here is how that lines up with the register data.

So for a typical demolition application you have about two months between the application appearing and the decision, and then a month or so before the machine arrives (our arithmetic on the medians above). Mail in the first month and the owner reads your letter while they are waiting on the council, with nothing to do but think about costs.

Compare that with glazing or kitchens on the same extension, which land months after consent. Our full guide to getting leads from planning applications explains why each trade should "mail the window, not the consent date". For demolition, the window opens almost as soon as the application does.

08

How to Win Demolition and Strip-Out Work: Step-by-Step

Here is the process we would run as a demolition or strip-out contractor, step by step.

1. Draw your patch around your plant. Pick the councils or postcode districts you can reach with a machine and a grab lorry on the same day. With Demand Radar's exclusive cover, only one firm per trade gets each area, checked before you pay, so the patch you choose is yours while you hold it.
2. Get the list monthly, not daily. Every month you get the addresses in your patch with live demolition applications, deduplicated so each household appears once, with refused and withdrawn applications dropped. Get started on our demolition leads page.
3. Sort by job size. Split the list into the three sizes above. A conservatory removal and a whole-house clearance need different letters.
4. Write to The Owner/Occupier, citing the reference. PlanWatch does not store or supply applicant names, and you do not need them. Open with the job: "Your application to demolish the existing garage and build a side extension". Then give your price range, what you handle (section 80 notice, asbestos survey, disconnections, waste), your insurance and a simple way to reply. Put the planning reference on every letter.
5. Give an opt-out on every letter. Our rule for every Radar list is: mail only, no email, no SMS, no cold calls, and every letter should cite the planning reference and carry an opt-out address. A household that opts out at PlanWatch's stop list is removed from every firm's future lists, and our letter notice tells recipients where their address came from.
6. Treat redevelopment sites as business jobs. Garage courts and "demolition of existing buildings and erection of three bungalows" are usually run by a small developer through a planning agent. Your letter still goes to the site address, so write it to be forwarded: lead with programme, insurance, waste transfer notes and a fixed price for the clearance.
7. Follow up with a second letter, not a phone call. If you have not heard back in a few weeks, send one short follow-up as the decision date approaches. PECR covers marketing calls, texts and emails, and calls must also respect the Telephone Preference Service. A household found on the register should be written to, not rung. The full picture is in is it legal to write to homeowners about planning applications?
8. Team up with the trades that follow you. Every demolition is followed by a skip, a scaffold or a roof. Swapping referrals with a local scaffolding firm or roofer who mails the same applications later in their life is free work in both directions.

PlanWatch's own reported case study on the landing page: 500 letters posted across Hillingdon to homes just approved for building work, with 35 jobs traced back to them. That was not a demolition campaign, and your numbers will be your own, but it shows the shape of the method: the right households, at the right time, by post.

Beyond the register: demolition contracts in the UK

Larger and public-sector demolition contracts are tendered rather than mailed. Public bodies advertise them on Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, and main contractors keep approved-subcontractor lists. Those routes suit firms with the accreditations and plant for commercial work. The planning register is where the domestic and small-developer jobs are, and that is where most of the 3,245 a month sit.

09

How We Counted

• Source: PlanWatch's own planning register, built from council planning portals. Main window: applications validated 1 May to 30 September 2026, 244,364 applications from 377 councils, pulled 20 October 2026. Council coverage reached 377 only in May 2026, so we do not compare with earlier months.
• Matching: our live trade classifier, counting HIGH and MEDIUM confidence matches only. "Names demolition" means the match came through the demolition trigger itself (16,223). "Matched" adds applications that reach demolition only through the new-dwelling rule (7,497), which over-counts because it also fires on some extensions.
• Mentions: 20,438 applications contain the word demolition. We do not use the scraper's "Demolition" application-type label, because for most councils it is applied to any description containing the word, not supplied by the council.
• Prior approval: 456 applications are prior approval or notification for demolition, identified from type and description.
• Job sizes: keyword rules on the 23,720 matched descriptions. The 1,638 figure for whole-building clearances that also build homes is a lower bound.
• Approval and timing: approval rate is approved divided by approved plus refused, on 3,255 decided applications validated January to mid-May 2026; "Prior Approval Not Required" counts as approved. Median days to decision is from 2,918 applications with a harvested decision date. Most applications have no recorded outcome yet, so these rest on the decided ones.
• Seasonality: a strict panel of 288 councils with complete data each month, divided by England and Wales working days. Scottish bank holidays differ slightly.
• Examples: verbatim council descriptions drawn at random from demolition matches, filtered to remove names, addresses, references and personal details.