How do I find UK companies opening new premises or sites?

The most reliable way to find UK companies opening new premises is to read the planning registers, where a new site, change of use or operating centre appears as a public record before the doors open. Lockley recorded 2,421 new premises or operating centres across 2,069 UK companies in September 2026. A company with a new site has a date, an address and a project, which is a better reason to call than a job title in a database.

Why a new site is a useful reason to call

A new site usually means spending in the next few months: fit-out, furniture, security, cleaning, insurance, telecoms, waste collection, recruitment and legal work. The buyer is also likely to be reviewing suppliers, because the old arrangements may not stretch to a second address. That makes the timing concrete, which is what separates a useful call from a cold one.

The record also tells you who to ask for. A planning application names an applicant, and the company is usually traceable on Companies House, where you can see the directors and any recent change of registered office.

Where the records live

Planning applications are held by local planning authorities, so there is no single national search that covers every council. Each authority publishes its own register, and the formats differ. Operating centres for road haulage are recorded separately by the traffic commissioners. This fragmentation is the main reason few small teams monitor them by hand.

Companies House, by contrast, is one national register. It is free to search, and its free API exposes company profiles, officers, filings and charges (see sources). It will not show a planning application, but it will confirm whether the applicant is a live company and who runs it.

A manual method

Pick the five or six councils where your best customers are. Check each planning register weekly for applications by commercial occupiers rather than householders. Note the applicant, address and type of use. Look the applicant up on Companies House to confirm it is active and to find a director. Then write one line explaining why you are calling: the site, the date and what it implies for your service.

This works, but it takes hours each week and misses everything outside your chosen councils. Sellers who adopt it tend to drop it within a month.

Doing it at scale

Lockley reads planning registers every night alongside Companies House, Contracts Finder and Find a Tender, job postings and each company's own website. Each finding links to the record it came from, so a seller can check it before calling. Lockley does not sell contact lists or bulk email data; it gives a short list of companies to call each morning, each with the record that says why now.

Reading the weekly numbers with care

New-site records are lumpy. The week to 5 October 2026 shows 24 against 177 the week before, and that gap says more about when registers are updated and read than about any real collapse in expansion. Judge the signal over a month, as the September figure does, not over a single week.

What to say on the call

Lead with the fact, not the pitch: you saw the planning application for the new address, and you help companies in that position with one specific thing. Keep it to two sentences. If the contact does not own the project, ask who does. A date and an address make the question easy to answer.

Questions