The short answer
Construction leads in the UK come from three places: planning application data, tender platforms and homeowner job boards. Planning data starts at about £45 a month, letter services run £50 to £500 a month, and the big tender platforms will not publish a price at all.
Construction leads are sold three different ways in the UK, and the price gap between them is wide. Planning application data starts at about £45 a month. A letter service that writes to people who have just been granted permission runs from £50 to £500 a month. The tender and market intelligence platforms that dominate this search will not tell you what they charge without a phone call.
Every figure below was read from the company's own page on 17 September 2026. Where a company publishes no price, the page says so rather than guessing.
One thing to be straight about first: we sell websites and SEO to trades, so we have an interest in the last section of this guide. That is not a reason to be unfair to the platforms. Plenty of builders use both.
The three kinds of construction lead
| Kind | What you are buying | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Planning application data | Names and contact details of people whose planning application has just been submitted or approved, usually with the architect or agent | Builders doing extensions, loft conversions and renovations who are willing to make the first approach |
| Tender and market intelligence | Feeds of commercial projects, invitations to tender and early packages, with decision-maker contacts | Subcontractors and contractors chasing commercial and public work |
| Homeowner job boards | Enquiries from people actively looking for a builder, shared with several firms | Domestic work, smaller jobs, firms with time to answer fast |
Google's own summary of this search recommends five platforms, all in the first two rows. The third row is where most small building firms actually get their work, and it is covered in our Checkatrade alternatives guide.
What the platforms charge
Prices published on the platform's own site
| Platform | Price on 17 September 2026 | What you get | Terms it states |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planning Pipe | From £44.95 a month regional, from £89.95 a month national | Planning application data with client, developer, architect and agent contact details, filtered by sector, value, postcode or keyword | "No long term commitment". Ten free leads to try it. VAT not stated |
| BuildAlert | £50 a month including 25 letters, rising through £100, £150, £200 and £300 to £500 a month including 250 letters. Extra letters £2.00, postcards £2.50 | Planning alerts plus a print and post service that writes to the applicant for you. Applicant addresses and planning agent details included | "Cancel anytime". Unused letters carry over. VAT not stated |
| Buildscout | Standard £2,998 plus VAT a year, or £249 plus VAT a month. Growth £3,588 plus VAT. Pro £4,118 plus VAT | Planning data with outreach tooling and reporting. Letters £1 plus VAT, postcards 90p plus VAT | The monthly prices are shown as "exclusively for FMB & FCA members only" |
Platforms that publish no price
| Platform | What the page says instead |
|---|---|
| Constructionline (Premium Leads) | No price. It states it verified and published over £200bn in construction opportunities in 2025, and asks you to get in touch |
| Glenigan | It has a pricing page. The pricing page contains no prices. The button says "Take a free demo" |
| Barbour ABI | No price. "Book a demo" |
| Houzz Pro | No price on its construction leads page |
That second table is the finding most worth acting on. Four of the biggest names in this market treat the price as something you discuss after a sales call, which usually means it varies by what they think you will pay and comes with an annual contract. Ask for the figure, the term length and the notice period in writing before any demo.
What planning data actually gets you
A planning lead is early. The homeowner has drawings and permission, and often has not yet chosen a builder. That is the appeal, and every platform selling it says so.
The part that is easy to miss is what you have to do next. You are making the first approach to someone who did not contact you, usually by letter. Response rates are yours to find out, and none of the platforms we read published one. If you take a £50 a month plan with 25 letters, the real cost is not £50: it is £50 plus the hours spent writing, following up and quoting for people who were never going to use you.
So do the sum before you subscribe:
- Take the monthly fee, plus anything per letter.
- Decide how many letters you will genuinely send each month, and who will send them.
- Guess a response rate, then halve it.
- Work out how many of those responses you would win, and what the profit on one job is.
An example, using our numbers rather than any platform's: £100 a month including 50 letters. If 3 people reply, you quote 3, and you win 1 every other month, each job is costing you £200 in subscription plus your quoting time. On a £30,000 extension that is nothing. On a £2,000 job it is most of the margin.
Tender platforms, and who they are really for
Constructionline, Glenigan and Barbour ABI sell to firms with someone whose job is finding work. They cover commercial and public projects, invitations to tender, and early package information, and they are priced for companies where one won contract pays for years of subscription.
If you are a small domestic builder doing extensions and refurbishments, this tier is usually the wrong shape: the projects are bigger than your typical job, the process is slower, and the subscription is an annual commitment you cannot judge without a demo.
The route nobody on this search sells
Every platform above rents you access to work that someone else found. The alternative is to be the firm people find when they search, which is the same thing the homeowner does before ringing anyone.
For a builder that means three things:
- A Google Business Profile that is properly filled in, because the map results sit above the ordinary results on a phone. It costs nothing to claim.
- Reviews that keep arriving, on that profile rather than on a platform you might leave.
- A website with a page for each kind of work you want, so that "loft conversion" plus your town has something to land on.
It is slower than buying a lead, and it does not work in a week. What it does is compound: the enquiries do not stop when you cancel a subscription, and nobody can raise the price of your own website. Most builders we work with end up with both, using the paid channels to fill gaps and the owned ones to carry the baseline.
Which one suits your firm
- Extensions, loft conversions, renovations, domestic: planning data can work if you are comfortable with cold outreach, alongside search and reviews for the people who come looking.
- Commercial packages and subcontracting: the tender platforms are built for you, but get the price and the contract length in writing first. If you are paid under CIS, the CIS tax calculator shows what a package pays you after the deduction, and the CIS tax rebate calculator estimates what comes back at the end of the year. Main contractors will usually want a method statement and risk assessment before you start, and if one pays late, the late payment interest calculator works out the interest and compensation you can add.
- Repairs, smaller jobs and fast work: job boards and search, because those customers are looking now and go with whoever answers.
- Anyone signing anything: write down what a job is worth to you and what you are prepared to pay to win one, before the sales call rather than during it. The day rate calculator and the markup calculator give you both numbers.
Questions people ask
How do I get leads for my construction company?
There are three routes and most firms end up using two. You can buy planning application data, which tells you who has just been granted permission near you, from about £45 a month. You can subscribe to a tender or market intelligence platform, which suits subcontractors chasing commercial packages, though the main ones will not quote a price without a sales call. Or you can be found directly, through your own website, your Google Business Profile and reviews, which costs time or a monthly fee rather than a price per lead. Word of mouth still wins most domestic building work, and a website is what turns a recommendation into an enquiry.
How much do construction leads cost in the UK?
It depends which kind you buy. On 17 September 2026, Planning Pipe published regional planning data from £44.95 a month and national coverage from £89.95 a month. BuildAlert, which posts letters to people who have just applied for planning permission, ran from £50 a month including 25 letters up to £500 a month including 250, with extra letters at £2.00 each. Buildscout listed £2,998 plus VAT a year, or £249 plus VAT a month. Constructionline, Glenigan, Barbour ABI and Houzz Pro publish no price.
Are free construction leads worth having?
Free leads are usually a sample or a shared enquiry. Planning Pipe offers ten free leads to new users, which is enough to judge whether the data suits your area and job size. Homeowner job boards give you enquiries at no charge until you pay to respond, and those enquiries usually go to several firms at once. The genuinely free route is the slow one: a Google Business Profile, reviews from customers you already have, and a website that ranks for the work you want. It costs time instead of money, and nobody can switch it off.
Is planning application data better than a job board?
They suit different work. Planning data reaches a homeowner or developer early, before they have asked three builders to quote, which is why it is sold on the promise of less competition. It also means cold outreach: a letter or a call to someone who did not ask to hear from you. Job boards send warm enquiries from people actively looking, but usually to several firms at once, and you pay per lead or per membership. Bigger, planned work tends to reward planning data; repairs and smaller jobs tend to reward being findable in search.
Written by Janusz Wozniak, Founder & Lead Developer. Guides are updated when prices or platforms change; the dates above say when.