For architects
An architect’s tool for getting more schemes through.
Perfect Scale is the planning dataset that fell out of an unusual exercise: an ARB-registered architect who had authored a London council’s Small Sites SPD reading rather a lot of decision notices in his own time. Patterns turned up that aren’t in any policy document. Structured, those patterns are now available to architect practices at the brief stage of a project.
The gap between top-decile and bottom-quartile firms is wider than most architects expect
We coded every named agent firm in our dataset by approval rate. The distribution is uncomfortable.
Most of the difference between the top and bottom of that distribution is structural. The top firms file schemes that match the borough’s approved patterns: density, height, plot ratio, fenestration, materials. The bottom firms repeat the same refusal-triggering choices. The gap is around thirty percentage points of approval rate, and on a ten-scheme practice that is three more approvals a year, three fewer client conversations of the wrong sort, and three more case studies for the portfolio.
Three ways architect practices use Perfect Scale
Calibrate the client without losing the commission
The developer arrives with an eight-unit brief. Local pattern suggests five or six is more realistic. Saying so puts the commission at risk. A Site Assessment moves the calibration onto the dataset, where it is harder to argue with. The £1,250 cost recharges to the developer as a disbursement.
Differentiate from cheaper competitors
The lower end of the architect market undercuts on price. A Site Assessment bundled into the fee proposal signals a level of borough-specific risk analysis that £15,000 design-and-build firms cannot match.
Buy your home borough once
A Borough Intelligence Report covers the borough’s full approved-and-refused pattern set: density matrices, refusal taxonomy, decision routes, case studies. £1,500 per borough, or £3,500 for three. A practice doing ten or more small-site schemes a year in one borough recovers the cost on the first scheme.
Built by an architect, for architects
Perfect Scale is run by Abre Etteh: ARB-registered architect, fourteen years across architecture, council planning and residential development. Author of the London Borough of Merton Small Sites Supplementary Planning Document, the policy framework councils now reference when assessing the kind of schemes Perfect Scale 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.
It is not a black-box AI tool. It is the dataset every chartered planning consultant builds in their head over thirty years of practice, made available at the brief stage of a single scheme.
Partnership pilot for high-performing firms
If your practice has a track record of consistent small-site approval, we are running a twelve-week partnership pilot. The next five small-site instructions get a free Site Assessment, fully white-labelled and on your timeline. You recharge the £1,250 to the developer client as a disbursement. We feature your work in our published case studies. Limited to four firms in the first cohort.
Start with a £125 sample
A real anonymised Site Assessment from a recent London project, delivered to your inbox within 24 hours. Inspect the format and depth before commissioning your own. The £125 credits against your first full Site Assessment within thirty days.
Or browse the free borough dashboards at /boroughs/. All 33 London boroughs, refreshed quarterly, no sign-up.