How to Get Roofing Leads from Planning Applications: 2026 Data on Dormers, Re-roofs and Extension Roofs

01

Why the planning register beats shared roofing leads

Ask how roofers get jobs and you get the same four answers: word of mouth, the builder's phone book, storm call-outs and lead sites. Each one has the same flaw. By the time you hear about the job, someone else has too.

• Shared lead sites pass one enquiry to more than one firm by design. You are racing other roofers to the same phone call, usually on price.
• Storm-chasing is feast and famine. A wet, windy week fills the diary with patch repairs; a dry month empties it.
• Builder referrals are steady but they're the builder's choice, not yours. On an extension, the roof usually goes to whoever the builder already uses.
• Word of mouth is the best lead there is and the one you can't scale.

The planning register is different. Councils keep a public register of planning applications by law, and most publish it online. When a homeowner applies for a dormer, a two-storey extension or listed building consent to re-roof, the description, address, date and reference number go on that register. The owner has already paid for drawings, filed the forms and committed to the project. What they haven't done yet is pick a roofer.

That last column is the edge. You can read what's being built before you write a word. If you'd rather not read 377 council portals yourself, PlanWatch's roofing leads from planning applications service does the reading, matching and deduplication for you. The rest of this guide shows you how to do it either way.

02

What the register shows a roofer: the 2026 numbers

We ran every application validated between 1 May and 30 September 2026 through the same matcher that builds PlanWatch's trade lists. That's 244,364 applications from 377 councils. Here is what it found for roofing.

Read the two headline numbers differently. The 14,116 is implied demand: applications for work that needs a roofer, mostly extensions, dormers and new builds, even though the description never says "roof". The 346 is applications whose own words name a re-roof or roof replacement. If someone tells you there are thousands of re-roof jobs on the register every month, they're counting the first number and selling the second.

Three more figures matter for planning your outreach:

• Most get approved. 88.1% of roofing-matched applications decided between January and mid-May 2026 were approved (11,631 decisions). In the May to September window the rate was 87.1% (6,842 decisions). So mailing at the application stage, before the decision, wastes very few letters.
• Decisions take about 8 weeks. The median roofing-matched application was decided 56 days after validation, which is the statutory 8-week target. That's your head start: about two months between the application appearing and the homeowner having consent in hand.
• There's no summer rush. On a like-for-like panel of 288 councils, roofing applications ran at 523 per working day in May and 501 in September, a 4% dip. Consented roof work arrives at a steady rate, which is exactly what storm work doesn't do. (We have no winter data yet, so we can't tell you about December.)

03

Why most re-roofs never reach the register

This is the part most "roofing leads from planning" pages leave out. A straightforward re-roof almost never needs planning permission.

In England, replacing a roof covering like for like is normally either not "development" at all or is covered by permitted development, as long as the roof doesn't get any higher and nothing projects more than 150mm beyond the existing slope. No application, no register entry. Building regulations can still apply to a re-roof even when planning doesn't, but building control notices aren't on the planning register. Scotland and Wales have their own permitted development rules, so check locally.

So when does a re-roof show up? When the building has no permitted development rights for it, or extra protection:

• Listed buildings. Re-roofing a listed building often needs listed building consent. In our window, 7,605 listed-building applications were filed and 2,080 of them mentioned repair, re-roofing, repointing, render, chimneys, masonry, lead, guttering or restoration. Listed building consent was approved 90.8% of the time in our cohort, with a median of 64 days to decide. See our guide to planning permission for listed buildings.
• Conservation areas where an Article 4 direction removes the right to change roof materials. Read conservation areas and planning.
• Flats, maisonettes and commercial buildings, which don't get householder permitted development rights, so a re-roof that changes how the roof looks needs permission.
• Material changes: a new roof shape, a raised ridge, slate to something else on a protected building.

Here is what those applications look like, word for word from council registers:

• Buckinghamshire Council, July 2026: "Listed building consent for the conservation-led repair and reroofing of the existing roof covering"
• South Downs National Park, May 2026: "Re-roof to existing principle building. Replacement of existing windows. Relining and replacement of chimney trays to western end of property. Repointing and repair works to eastern gable wall."
• Derby City Council, July 2026: "Replacement of existing roof covering and roof lights"

These are rare (346 a month nationally across 377 councils is under one per council per month on average, our arithmetic) but they're valuable: heritage slate, clay tile and leadwork, where the specialist wins on skill rather than price.

One tip if you search the register yourself: search the descriptions for "reroof", "re-roof" and "roof covering", and include listed building consent applications. When we checked, 1,668 applications in the window mentioned re-roofing or replacing a roof covering, and 632 of them (38%) didn't reach roofing in our own matcher, because they were listed-building, commercial or excluded application types. Keyword filters miss these. A human reading the list won't.

04

The four roofing jobs the register does show

If re-roofs are the rare prize, where do the 14,116 a month come from? Four kinds of application.

1. Dormers and loft conversions: the roof is the job

A dormer is a roofing job from the first cut: opening the slope, new covering, flashings, lead cheeks, often rooflights to the front. 81.9% of the 14,496 loft applications in our window included a dormer, 41.7% mentioned rooflights or Velux windows, and 16.4% were hip-to-gable conversions, which rebuild a whole section of roof.

• Croydon, May 2026: "Erection of rear dormer with Juliet balcony and two rooflights to front and side roof slopes."
• Three Rivers District Council, May 2026: "Loft conversion including construction of new roof with increased ridge height with front and rear dormer windows."

Not every dormer needs planning permission. In England many rear dormers are permitted development within volume limits (40 cubic metres of extra roof space on a terraced house, 50 on others), so they mostly reach the register when the owner asks for a lawful development certificate (11% of loft applications in our window were exactly that), when the dormer goes over those limits, when the house is in a conservation area or other protected area, or when the dormer faces the street. Our guide to planning permission for a dormer explains the limits.

The upsell roofers miss: once the scaffold is up for a dormer, the condition of the main roof is right in front of the homeowner. A letter that offers to quote both is quoting for a bigger job.

2. Extensions: the roof follows the shell

This is where most implied roofing demand comes from. Every single-storey extension needs a flat or pitched roof, and every two-storey extension ties a new roof into the old one.

• Leicester City Council, May 2026: "Construction of two storey side extension, single storey rear extension; removal of two chimneys; alterations to dwelling house (Class C3)"

The roof lands 2 to 5 months after consent, and that gap is your opportunity. The builder is chosen first, and the builder normally brings their own roofer. A letter that's already on the homeowner's kitchen table when they're asked "who's doing the roof?" changes that.

3. Listed and protected re-roofs: the high-margin minority

Covered above. Fewer, slower to decide (median 64 days for listed building consent), but the application is the roofing job itself, and the homeowner is looking for someone who knows lime, lead and natural slate.

4. New houses, garages and outbuildings

New dwellings need a whole roof, but on a longer programme: 4 to 9 months after consent in our timing model. Detached garages, annexes and outbuildings need a small roof quickly, 1 to 4 months after consent. One caution if you're reading raw counts: our new-dwelling trigger also fires on some extensions described as works "to the dwellinghouse", which inflated roofing matches by 1,880 in the window. We say so in the methodology below.

05

When the roof goes on: timing by application type

A planning lead is only useful if your letter lands before the roof is booked. These are the demand windows PlanWatch uses to time roofing lists, measured from the date of consent. They're our working estimates from typical build programmes, not measured completion dates.

Add the decision time. These windows start at consent. The median roofing-matched application was decided 56 days after validation, so from the day an application appears on the register, a dormer roof is typically 2 to 5 months away and a two-storey extension roof 5 to 7 months away (our arithmetic, adding about two months to each window). That's why mailing early isn't too early: it's the only way to be the name they already have.

06

Where the roofing work is: top 10 councils

Roofing demand follows housing stock and household budgets. Six of the top ten councils are London boroughs, where loft and dormer work is concentrated.

Enfield is the standout for dormer work. It had 567 loft applications in five months, 113.4 a month, nearly twice the next council (Barnet, 323). Say you're a roofer covering Enfield: that's more than 25 loft applications a week to read (our arithmetic), and nationally four in five loft applications include a dormer.

Don't write off a quieter patch. The median council handles 102 applications of all kinds a month, and roofing-matched applications are 28.88% of the total nationally, so a typical council still turns up a steady weekly list of extension and loft roofs. For the bigger picture across every trade, see our UK planning application statistics for 2026.

08

A roofing letter that wins the survey: sample outline

A good planning-lead letter is short, specific and honest about where the address came from. Here is the outline we'd use for a dormer application. Swap the details for your own.

To: The Owner/Occupier

Re: Your planning application [council] [reference]: rear dormer and rooflights

We noticed your application on [council]'s public planning register. Dormers are our main work: we've built [number] in [area] in the last [period], including the leadwork and the tie-in to the main roof.

While the scaffold is up for the dormer, it's the cheapest moment you'll ever have to sort the rest of the roof. We'll survey both and give you one price for the dormer roof and one for the main roof, so you can decide.

[Guarantee, insurance, trade body membership if you have them. Two photos of local dormers.]

Call [number] or scan the code to book a free survey. Quote reference [batch number].

About this letter: we're [business name, address]. We got your address from the council's public planning register. If you'd rather not hear from us again, write to us at [address] or [opt-out route] and we won't contact you again.

Three rules make the difference between a letter that works and a letter that gets you a complaint:

1. Cite the planning reference. It shows the letter is relevant, not junk mail, and it's the reason you can write at all.
2. Say where the address came from and how to opt out, on the first letter. UK GDPR gives people an absolute right to object to direct marketing, and it has to be brought to their attention at the first communication. If you use a PlanWatch list, each address comes with a notice code for the letter's privacy box, the household can opt out of every PlanWatch subscriber's future lists at /stop-mail, and the full notice for the household is at /letter-notice.
3. Honour every opt-out, for good. Keep your own stop list and check it before every mailing.

For the full legal picture, including legitimate interests, the Mailing Preference Service and the rules in Scotland and Wales, read is it legal to write to homeowners about planning applications? This is general information, not legal advice.

Want the list without the legwork? Demand Radar for roofers is £149 a month: a monthly, deduplicated, mailing-house-ready list of addresses with roofing-relevant planning applications in your patch, refused and withdrawn applications already dropped, each household once. With exclusive cover, only one roofing firm gets your patch, and we check it's free before you pay. PlanWatch doesn't print or post the letters; your printer or mailing house runs the file as it is. See roofing leads from planning applications in your area. Scaffolders, see the sister guide to how to find scaffolding work in planning applications; every trade's version is on PlanWatch for trades.

09

How we counted

• Source: PlanWatch's own planning register, pulled on 20 October 2026. Main window: applications validated between 1 May and 30 September 2026, 244,364 applications from 377 councils. Council coverage grew to its current size only in May 2026, which is why the window starts there.
• Matching: the same classifier that builds Demand Radar lists, counting only high and medium confidence matches. "Roofing-matched" (70,580) means the application implies roofing work. "Names a re-roof" (1,729) means it matched through the re-roof trigger itself; that's a lower bound, because when another trigger fires first it takes the credit.
• Known over-count: the new-dwelling trigger also fires on some extensions described as works "to the dwellinghouse". 1,880 roofing matches came only from such a hit, so the implied-demand figure is slightly high. Without them it would be 68,700 (our subtraction).
• Approval rates are approved ÷ (approved + refused). Most applications in the window were still pending, so the main rate uses applications validated from January to mid-May 2026, checked on 13 August 2026 (11,631 roofing decisions).
• Days to decision come from that same harvest (10,158 roofing applications with dates), so they're censored at both ends: quick decisions recorded before the check and slow ones still open after it are missing.
• Application type is often inferred from the description rather than supplied by the council.
• Seasonality uses a strict panel of 288 councils with data in every month, divided by working days (England and Wales bank holidays).
• Timing windows are PlanWatch's demand-window estimates from typical build programmes, not measured completions.
• "Our arithmetic" marks figures we derived by simple division or addition from the counts above: dormers a month (11,871 ÷ 5), re-roofs per council (346 ÷ 377), Enfield lofts a week, and the validation-to-roof ranges.
• Example descriptions are verbatim council text, chosen from random samples. We show the council and month only, never an address, reference or name.