Define the question first
Each index begins with a fixed written definition: geography, eligible application types, outcome, time window and minimum evidence required.
Authority Intelligence · Data methodology
How Authority builds its market indexes and outlooks
A plain-English record of what enters each product, how outcomes are scored when a score is possible, when evidence is mature enough to publish and what the numbers do not claim.
Last updated 28 August 2026
Rules shared by every index
The publication process
Collect the full eligible public population
We use the Planning London Datahub and linked official planning records. We do not select only successful or interesting projects.
Keep one project record from becoming many outcomes
Administrative updates, consultations, condition discharges and duplicate documents are excluded or joined to the underlying application where the index rule requires it.
Give every case enough time
A case is scored only after its complete observation window. Newer cohorts are withheld rather than treated as failures.
Do not turn missing data into a negative outcome
If the public record does not establish the result, the case remains unresolved. It is not silently counted as refused or late.
Publish the denominator
Every score is accompanied by its case count, favourable count and outcome coverage where available. Small samples are clearly labelled.
Separate measurement from interpretation
The historical series measures what happened. Timeline explanations and expert commentary are labelled separately and do not alter the score.
Index-specific definitions
Exactly what each score or outlook means
London Borough Planning Certainty Index
- Scoring rule
- Count a substantive full planning application as successful when the recorded borough decision is favourable within 180 days of validation.
- Time window
- Monthly trailing 12-month validation cohorts.
- Included
- Full planning permission and specified combined full-planning consent types handled by one of London's 33 borough planning authorities.
- Publication rule
- At least 90% outcome coverage, a complete 180-day observation window and at least 100 observed cases for a borough ranking.
- Not measured
- Development corporations, Greater London Authority cases, missing outcomes, later approvals and construction delivery.
London Restaurant Planning Speed Index
- Scoring rule
- Count an eligible restaurant-related application as successful when the recorded decision is favourable within 180 days of validation.
- Time window
- Monthly trailing 12-month validation cohorts.
- Included
- Comparable full-planning cases explicitly concerning restaurants, cafés, pubs or takeaways.
- Publication rule
- At least 90% outcome coverage and a complete 180-day observation window. A dated decision makes a case observable immediately; where no usable decision is recorded, the public source must have been checked on or after day 180.
- Not measured
- Openings that require no planning application, commercial performance, restaurant survival and unresolved outcomes.
London Data Centre Planning Momentum Index
- Scoring rule
- Join related planning records into one project. Count each project's first qualifying filing and first approval once, then subtract its first refusal or withdrawal once.
- Time window
- Monthly trailing 12 months, published with a two-month maturity lag.
- Included
- Confirmed London data-centre new builds, conversions into data-centre use and material capacity expansions with a dated public planning milestone.
- Publication rule
- The average trailing-12-month net milestone count during the fixed 2021 to 2024 baseline period equals 100. A reading of 120 means net planning activity is about 20% above that norm. The scale is not a percentage and is not capped at 100.
- Not measured
- Repeat documents for the same milestone, consultations, condition discharges, minor equipment works, small refurbishments, uncertain project identities, out-of-borough schemes, construction, power connection and operational delivery.
UK Data Centre Official Evidence Outlook
- Scoring rule
- Keep every official source in its own panel. Never add numbers with different geographies, project stages or capacity definitions, and never turn selected projects into a national total.
- Time window
- Latest reproducible official snapshot for each source. Every panel carries its own evidence date; the English permit chart excludes the incomplete current calendar year.
- Included
- Great Britain colocation IT-load estimates, English industrial permission records explicitly naming data centres, scoped network-operator studies and selected projects with a direct primary source.
- Publication rule
- The page may publish sourced context only. It must display Data expansion required and cannot publish an Authority probability, expected operational MW, national project denominator or historical accuracy claim.
- Not measured
- A complete UK pipeline, delivery rates, regional rankings, cross-panel totals, implied market shares and any claim that planning or environmental permission proves construction, grid connection or operation.
Open data
Download every published series
The human-facing graph and the machine-readable files use the same source data. JSON contains index metadata; CSV provides a simple observation table.
London Borough Planning Certainty Index
The share of substantive London planning applications receiving a favourable recorded decision within 180 days.
London Restaurant Planning Speed Index
The share of comparable London restaurant, café, pub and takeaway planning applications receiving a favourable decision within 180 days.
London Data Centre Planning Momentum Index
A monthly measure of qualifying data-centre projects entering planning and gaining approval, less refusals and withdrawals.
Primary source
The current London planning indexes are derived from public Planning London Datahub records and linked borough records.
Planning London DatahubImportant limitation
These indexes measure recorded planning outcomes under fixed rules. They do not prove causation and they do not automatically measure construction or commercial delivery.