Screen a potential development site before commissioning detailed work

A promising plot can absorb a great deal of attention before you establish whether the basics work. An initial screening process helps you compare opportunities consistently and decide where to spend money on professional investigations.

AI can organise the available documents, summarise relevant records and produce a list of unanswered questions. It cannot establish a legal right of access, inspect ground conditions or secure planning permission.

This checklist concerns residential development in England. Planning and environmental systems differ across the UK; use the relevant authorities and advisers for sites in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Begin with a defined site and proposal

Record the address, an indicative boundary, the seller's information and the development idea. For example: replace one house with two detached homes, subject to planning and detailed assessment. Keep that proposal visible throughout the review. Evidence about a neighbouring extension may have little relevance to your two-house scheme.

Create three labels for every finding: supported by a source, seller's statement or not yet confirmed. Record the document date and page, or the web link and date checked. This prevents an attractive sales description becoming an assumed fact in your appraisal.

Check five areas before commissioning the next stage

1. Planning position. Collect the site's planning history, decision notices, approved plans and relevant local plan policies from the local planning authority. Distinguish an application from a permission and check conditions and associated documents. Ask a planner to assess whether an existing consent remains usable and whether your proposal needs a fresh application. Government guidance explains the role of pre-application discussions and application information. A useful next step may be a focused question to the authority rather than a full design exercise.
2. Ownership, access and boundaries. Obtain the title register, title plan and any referenced documents that matter to the proposal. Flag rights of way, restrictive covenants, access strips and utility routes for your solicitor. HM Land Registry explains that title plans show general boundaries; they do not settle the exact boundary position. Do not infer legal access from the existence of a driveway.
3. Flooding, drainage and physical constraints. Check the Environment Agency's planning flood information and the council's strategic flood risk assessment. The official guidance for planning applicants covers when a flood risk assessment is needed and why other sources of flooding matter. Do not treat Flood Zone 1 as an all-clear. Also list unresolved questions about drainage, levels, ground conditions, utilities, trees and ecology for the appropriate specialists.
4. Sales assumptions. Assemble genuinely comparable local transactions, recording location, date, size, condition and important differences. Separate asking prices from completed sales. Ask a suitable local agent or valuer to challenge the assumed selling prices and likely sales period. AI can organise the comparison; it cannot turn incomplete listings into a reliable valuation.
5. Development costs and unknowns. Build an initial cost schedule covering the land, acquisition costs, construction, professional work, statutory requirements, finance, sales and contingency. Mark estimates clearly and avoid copying an old project's cost per square foot without adjusting its scope. Ask the relevant advisers which site-specific costs or obligations still need investigation.

Turn the information into a decision brief

Ask AI for a two-page brief: proposed scheme, evidence found, significant constraints, missing information and recommended next enquiries. Follow it with an evidence table linking every important statement to its source.

For each unresolved issue, name the person who should answer it and the document or investigation required. Rank the enquiries by whether the answer could materially change the scheme. An uncertainty about access may need attention before detailed kitchen specifications.

An illustrative example

A sales brochure describes a garden plot as suitable for two houses. The records show an earlier refusal for one dwelling, while the plan appears to use a narrow access beside the retained house.

The screening brief should flag the refusal reasons and the access arrangement, then request planning and legal advice. It should not conclude that two homes are acceptable because other houses exist nearby. The immediate output is a better brief for advisers, with the seller's claim clearly separated from verified evidence.

Start with a site you already know

Test the process using an opportunity you have previously reviewed. Check whether it finds the same material issues and keeps uncertainties visible. Once the structure is useful, reuse it for new opportunities. The aim is a quicker, more disciplined first review - followed by the professional due diligence each site needs.