Tara Group is a UK-based residential developer and construction company, and parent company of Cameron Homes, Keon Homes, and Chasetown Civil Engineering. The Group designs and builds high-quality, new-build homes, primarily in the Midlands.
We spoke with Owen Williams, Senior Land Manager, about how Searchland supports the company’s land team in identifying opportunities and reviewing sites more efficiently.
Challenges before Searchland:
- Manually sifting through local plan documents to check allocations
- Searching council portals to find the right information
- Time-consuming process to review planning constraints across multiple sources
"I use Searchland every day"
Owen uses Searchland as his go-to tool for reviewing new opportunities quickly.
"I use Searchland mostly to review site constraints like flood zones, rights of way, and heritage constraints, and check the planning applications and land ownership features to see who owns what. These speed up our reviewing process significantly".
With the key planning layers in one place, the team can assess sites in minutes rather than hours.
Manual searches that took hours now take one click
Before Searchland, checking whether a site had an allocation meant digging through local plan documents and council portals.
“When I first started, checking whether a site had an allocation meant digging through local plans and council portals to find the right documents. Now it’s literally a click with the Site Allocations Tool. It saves a huge amount of time.”
Uncovering high-potential sites has never been easier
Tara Group also uses Searchland’s Sourcing Tool to run what the team calls “saturation surveys”, systematic reviews of local planning authorities to uncover sites with development potential.
"You can put in whatever size and specifics you want into the Sourcing Tool. There's a load of parameters you can use. It's really useful for identifying sites we think may have potential."
Unlocking high-quality grey belt opportunities in minutes
With recent planning policy changes bringing more potential grey belt sites into consideration, the ability to quickly filter opportunities has become increasingly valuable.
"Although many more opportunities have recently come out, they are hard to sift through at speed. You've got to check if they're in a sustainable location, any other relevant constraints, and if the LPA lacks a 5-year housing land supply. Searchland helps us filter out the sites that lack merit so we can focus on the hidden gems, fast."
“We tried two other providers, but Searchland was the winner”
Before switching, Tara Group trialled two other sourcing platforms. Ultimately, Searchland proved to be the most effective solution for the team’s workflow. As the business continues to grow, Searchland is set to remain a core tool for the Tara Group land team.
"We really like the software. Everyone's happy with it."
— Quotes from Owen Williams, Senior Land Manager at Tara Group
Want to see how Searchland can help you source and assess sites at scale? Book a demo here with our team today.
