Hedley Planning is a North East planning consultancy with offices in Newcastle and Hexham, delivering expert planning advice across residential, commercial, and regeneration schemes of all sizes throughout the UK.
In 2025, Director Sean Hedley brought Searchland into the workflow, replacing a manual process that relied on trawling local authority websites, the planning portal, and Environment Agency data.
Challenges before Searchland:
- Background research on a single site could take half a day
- Data was scattered across multiple government platforms with no guarantee of accuracy
- Responding to client enquiries quickly enough to support time-sensitive acquisitions
From half a day to ten minutes
When a client asks Hedley Planning to assess a site for development potential, the team first needs to pull planning policy, constraints, and local context. Before Searchland, pulling that information together meant navigating multiple platforms and cross-referencing manually. Now, the team has access to this information instantly via our Planning Applications and Constraints data.
"Before Searchland, it would take somebody half a day just to go into all the different platforms. Now we can do it in 5-10 minutes."
That speed has a direct commercial impact. The firm uses Searchland data to scope fees more accurately using planning data and constraints, identifying early whether a site is complex or straightforward, and pricing accordingly. This also means more value delivered to clients, faster.
Giving clients an industry-leading experience
In land acquisition, timing is everything. Clients in bidding wars need fast answers on development potential. Previously, the turnaround on a site assessment could take weeks, risking lost opportunities.
"Now we can do a ten-minute look, and you've got lots of information at your fingertips. You can give a lot more confidence in the development potential of sites."
Same-day responses to quick-look requests used to eat into the team's productive time. Searchland has turned those half-day tasks into genuine ten-minute checks.
Staying ahead with AI-powered reports
Most property professionals are now using AI as part of their daily workflow. Hedley Planning is among those at the forefront, using Searchland's MCP tool to generate instant site reports that cover planning policy, heritage considerations, flood risk, and recommended development strategy.
"It brings up a lot of information that we wouldn't necessarily have found ourselves."
For Sean and his team, AI is a starting point, not a shortcut. Reports are reviewed and sense-checked before going to clients, but the speed of that first pass has transformed what's possible.
On a recent project involving a listed building in Norwich, the AI-generated report surfaced detailed heritage impact considerations, including internal historic fabric and protected features, before an architect had even picked up a pen. The report was produced in around 10 minutes and saved the client considerable time and money.
What's next for Hedley Planning?
The firm is expanding, with a new office in Hexham, additional floor space in Newcastle, and more staff joining through the summer. As the team grows, Searchland will continue to underpin the firm's site assessment and client advisory work.
"Shanice from the customer success team has been brilliant. She engages with the team directly, which makes a real difference."
We look forward to supporting Hedley Planning as they scale and continuing to build tools that make their work faster and more informed.
— Quotes from Sean Hedley, Director, Hedley Planning
Want to see how Searchland can help you source and assess sites at scale? Book a demo here with our team today.
