For lenders
A planning-risk screen before you commit the facility.
For development-finance and bridging lenders underwriting small London residential schemes of one to nine units, planning is usually the unpriced variable. Perfect Scale is an independent, data-grounded first-pass screen of a borough or a specific site, drawn from a dataset of every decided small-site application across 32 London boroughs. It tells you where the planning risk sits before credit is committed, on numbers that trace back to the underlying decision list.
Where a scheme sits matters as much as how it is designed
Across 12,451 decided applications, the spread between the most permissive and most restrictive boroughs runs to roughly forty-three percentage points, once you account for the kinds of applications each borough actually receives. That is the gap after mix-adjustment, comparing each borough's observed approval rate against the rate its own caseload mix would predict.
For a lender, the read is simple. Two structurally similar schemes in two different boroughs do not carry the same planning risk, and the difference is not visible from the deal pack alone. The screen surfaces the borough's mix-adjusted position, the area-and-type cohort where the sample clears a thirty-application gate, the determination-time bands that drive carry, and the refusal-reason taxonomy that shows what actually gets schemes refused locally. Where the sample is thin, the screen says so and falls back to the wider London rate rather than over-reading a small cell.
This screens planning risk for triage. It is descriptive, not predictive, and is not a valuation, a credit decision, or a recommended advance. Perfect Scale is not authorised by the FCA and this is not a financial promotion or regulated advice. Every figure links to the underlying decision list with reason codes; the full residual is available on request. The borough outcome differential is a descriptive pattern across decided applications, not a probability to apply to an individual deal.
What a first-pass screen covers
Borough outcome differential
The borough's observed approval rate against the rate its caseload mix predicts, mix-adjusted across all 32 boroughs. The lead signal sits at borough level, where the sample is largest, rather than on a thin area cell.
Determination-time bands
Median and worst-case time to decision for the local cohort, with the extension-of-time signal that tends to precede approval. The bands drive the finance carry you price into the facility.
Refusal-reason taxonomy
The top refusal-risk flags for the area and site type, coded into a ten-category taxonomy with verbatim references. Most planning risk on small sites is driven by scheme design, not by the lend.
Built on a council planner's dataset, not a model
Perfect Scale is run by Abre Etteh: ARB-registered architect, with experience across architecture, council planning and residential development. Author of the London Borough of Merton Small Sites Supplementary Planning Document, the policy framework councils reference when assessing the kind of schemes the dataset codes.
The methodology is open. The data comes from the GLA Planning Datahub and each council's own register. Every refusal reason is coded into a ten-category taxonomy with verbatim references. Every finding is graded into one of four evidence tiers based on sample size and statistical significance. Where the data is thin, we say so, and the screen falls back to the wider London rate rather than over-reading a small cell.
It is not a black-box scoring tool and it does not produce a probability you can apply to a deal. It is the planning pattern a chartered consultant builds in their head over thirty years, made legible at the point of underwriting a single facility.
See a redacted lender screen
A one-page Planning Risk First-Pass Screen for pre-credit triage on development and bridging finance. The sample below is redacted and uses illustrative figures; live screens populate from the decision dataset for the specific borough or site.
Or browse the free borough dashboards at /boroughs/. All 33 London boroughs, refreshed quarterly, no sign-up.