They will not spare 5 mins for a simple call once they have your money - Stay clear! PLEASE SAVE YOUR HARD-EARNED MONEY - STAY AWAY! I wanted to look at what potential my field would have of gaining planning and found this company online. From the first look of the website, it looked perfect, so I made contact and paid for a feasibility study. This all looked positive and was advised to maybe look at a mixed development. To put this work together cost my just short of 5k (this also included a 1 hr virtual appointment with the local planning which I was informed was the best way to see how the meeting was going and to redirect if they felt, so at least we can get something on the land) Which is fine as I thought this was a good company with lots of experience. I got calls and emails going through the plans and was very happy. Then the plans went in and I had to pay over 1k to the council for the pre application. This is where things started to go wrong! The council came back and stated basically they don't look favourably on anything on this land "Planning by Design (PBD)" stated I had a medium to good chance to get something on the land) I tried then to call PBD to talk to them about the next stages, KNOWBODY would pick up the phone or give me a call! eventually I got emails stating maybe to accept a £250 refund off the council. I phoned and emailed at least 5 times if someone could give me a call All I received back was emails stating they don’t have time to call me! I asked to be put through to the director "Grant Singlehurst-Ward" From the very first email Grant was rude! Again, I asked Grant for a 5 min call, again an email back after chasing saying no calls! But he did say give me more money and we can look at what they could do. At this point I knew this company doesn’t care once they have taken your money. All I got back was read your T's &C's and they have done what I had paid for. I informed Grant that I paid £300 for the virtual meeting and this was not carried out. I simply asked for this £300 to be paid back and we could go our separate ways. Again, after several emails Grant stated I was not getting anything back! I went to this company as I had no idea of the process and wanted someone to work with to guide me through the process and help me understand the steps. If the feasibility came back as Low risk, I would not have paid the extra 5K. In my opinion I was led a bit of a dream. This latter part of the process as placed me under a lot of stress, and I wanted to put something in writing to try and help people in the same situation as myself not to fall for the dream and to be made aware this company led by Grant don't care about you as a person or willing to actually pick up a phone. Even when you have said this process is making you feels ill! PBD are all about taking your money. BE VERY CAREFULL and look somewhere else. I will now be taking court proceedings to try and get at least some of my money back. On saying the above I do feel that some of the team are good and decent people but unfortunately not led by people with the same morals!
Date of experience: 22 January, 2026