Data, coverage and method
Where everything on LandSleuth comes from, how current it is, what it covers, how each check is made, and what it can’t tell you. When a check finds nothing, we say “nothing found in the checked data” rather than “none”; where coverage is incomplete or a source doesn’t answer, we say so instead of showing it as clear.
| Data | Source and licence | How current | Covers | How we use it | What it can’t tell you |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Registered title outlines | HM Land Registry INSPIRE Index Polygons, via the Planning Data platform HM Land Registry conditions of use (Crown copyright) | Live for Who owns this land?; the site finder's copy was built 6 November 2026 | Registered freehold land in England | The outline at the spot you click. The site finder holds outlines of a quarter of an acre and up. | Indicative outlines, not legal boundaries (title plans show general boundaries). Leasehold and unregistered land aren't outlined. A missing outline means none was found in the index, not that land is ownerless. |
| Company and organisation owners | HM Land Registry UK and overseas companies data (CCOD/OCOD) HM Land Registry licence | Refreshed monthly | England and Wales | Titles listed against a company name and number, searched by name or number. | Never includes private individuals. Addresses are as registered and may not match the map outline. |
| Planning designations | MHCLG Planning Data platform (Green Belt, flood zones, conservation areas, Article 4, listed buildings, tree orders, National Parks and Landscapes, SSSIs, ancient woodland, nutrient neutrality, brownfield) Open Government Licence v3.0 | Live | England | Whether the spot falls in each area. In the site finder, the share of each outline in each area, from the copy built 6 November 2026. | Councils supply conservation areas, Article 4 directions, tree orders and listed building outlines, and some haven't yet: no record isn't proof of none. We show those as “incomplete coverage”. |
| Planning applications | Greater London Authority Planning London Datahub Open Government Licence v3.0 | Live | London only (checked 6 November 2026 for other councils publishing openly) | Applications whose site area overlaps the title outline, or whose point falls inside it; and those within 100 m. | Councils send their own records, so recent and some older applications can be missing and locations can be approximate. Elsewhere we link to the council's register. |
| Housing Delivery Test and local plans | MHCLG Housing Delivery Test 2025; Planning Data platform local plan records Open Government Licence v3.0 | Built 6 November 2026 | English councils | The council's published result and consequence; the newest adopted plan and any emerging plan recorded. | Local plan records are councils' own entries and some are out of date. Five-year land supply isn't included. |
| Brownfield land registers | Councils' brownfield land registers, via the Planning Data platform Open Government Licence v3.0 | Built 6 November 2026 | England | Each register entry at the point the council gave. | A point, not a surveyed boundary. Being on the register isn't planning permission. |
| Farmland grades | Natural England Provisional Agricultural Land Classification Open Government Licence v3.0 (© Natural England; contains OS data) | Static national map | England | The grade at the outline's centre point. | A 1:250,000 map: the general picture, not individual fields, and grade 3 isn't split into 3a and 3b. A field survey is needed. |
| Slope and aspect | Ordnance Survey Terrain 50 Open Government Licence v3.0 | Static | Great Britain | Gradient from 50 m heights, smoothed over 150 m, at the outline's centre point. | Misses small banks and steps; not a topographic survey. |
| Electricity network | OpenStreetMap substations and lines Open Database Licence (© OpenStreetMap contributors) | Built 5 November 2026 | England and Wales | Straight-line distance to the nearest primary or grid substation. | OpenStreetMap is volunteer-mapped: transmission is complete, local networks patchy. Distance says nothing about capacity. |
| Published demand headroom | Network operators' open data: SSEN, Northern Powergrid, NGED, UK Power Networks, SP Energy Networks, Electricity North West Each operator's open licence (CC BY 4.0 or their open data licence) | Built 6 November 2026; operators' own dates: SSEN March 2026, Northern Powergrid July 2026, NGED July 2026, UK Power Networks October 2026, SP Energy Networks 2026, Electricity North West October 2026 | England | The most published demand (import) headroom at an operator substation within 5 km, excluding red-rated substations. | The operators' estimates, which change as connections are offered. Generation (export) headroom is different and not shown. Only the operator can confirm a connection. |
| Data centre scores | The grid, capacity, water, planning and data centre data above; Environment Agency water resource availability As each source | Built 5 November 2026 | England, in 2 km squares | Points for power (45), water (30), planning (15) and nearby data centres (10). See the data centre page. | A screening aid for broad areas, not an assessment of any piece of land. |
| Solar yield | PVGIS, European Commission Joint Research Centre CC BY 4.0 | Built 5 November 2026 | England, on a 0.2° grid | Yearly output of 1 kWp of well-angled fixed panels, with 14% losses, at the nearest grid point. | Regional, not site-specific: ignores shading and the site's own slope. |
| Sales | HM Land Registry Price Paid Data Open Government Licence v3.0 | Live | England and Wales | Sales linked to the outline, and recent sales nearby. | Residential sales mostly; land-only sales are rarely included. |
Spotted something wrong?
Tell us through the suggestions page with the place and what’s wrong. Where the error is in the source data, we’ll tell you who publishes it so it can be corrected at source.