Signal vs Barbour ABI — head to head · London

Signal vs Barbour ABI: the project, or the occupier?

Barbour ABI is the standard for construction project leads in the UK: once a scheme has a planning reference or a contract notice, it is there with the players attached. Signal does not track projects at all. It watches the occupier — every London office occupier, all the time — and reads the lease, rates, filings and hiring that move months before a project is drawn. One question decides which you need: when you win a job, does the occupier hire you, or the contractor?

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684
London occupiers showing evidence of an office decision right now
31
scoring 80+ — moving imminently
397
lease expiries & breaks inside 18 months
160,680
London companies tracked
Live figures from Signal’s London office statistics · figures update weekly · computed 6 September 2026
Side by side

Different tools, different questions.

Barbour ABI Signal
What it watches The project — planning applications, contract awards, tenders, project players. UK-wide, all construction sectors. The occupier — the company on the floor. Every London office occupier in the watched universe (the live count is above), whether or not it has a project.
When it fires When the scheme enters the planning system or a tender is announced — after the occupier has decided and appointed a design team. When the occupier’s own record moves: a lease event on the Land Registry, a rates bill naming a new occupier, a filing, sustained hiring. Before anyone has drawn anything.
Office fit-outs Sees the ones that need consent. Most London Cat B fit-outs need none, so they never appear — or appear at tender, when everyone sees them. Built for exactly those. The lease clock and the rates bill exist whether or not planning does.
Unit of record A project, with the companies attached to it. A company, scored 0–100, with every claim behind the score dated and sourced, and a decision-maker to call.
What you get on Monday A searchable database of projects to filter and qualify. A call sheet: twenty London occupiers, ranked, why now in a line, timing, and a number.
Who hires the buyer Main contractors, subcontractors and suppliers bidding visible projects — hired by the contractor or the project team. Fit-out, design, furniture, relocation, IT/AV, FM and tenant-rep agents — hired by the occupier.
Geography UK-wide. London only, deliberately.
Price Self-published “from £4,000” (their figure; we don’t verify vendor pricing). £1,000 30-day pilot; £2,500/month Call Sheet; £4,000+/month Platform. Public on this site.
Honestly, though

If the contractor hires you, buy Barbour ABI and not Signal — we have no project until the occupier’s project becomes visible, and most of ours never will. If the occupier hires you, Signal is where the conversation starts and Barbour is where the bid starts; teams that sell to both run both. What we will not claim: a measured hit rate. Our first prospective accuracy read against confirmed projects publishes in December 2026, and until then the pilot — four Monday sheets on your own patch — is the test.

Where the leads come from

Public record in, scored shortlist out.

01

Spot

HM Land Registry lease events, Companies House filings, local-authority planning, hiring and growth — read continuously across 160,680 London companies.

02

Score

Every company is ranked 0–100 by how strong, recent and combined its signals are. 60+ is in market; 80+ is imminent. Scores re-run weekly.

03

Act

Your dashboard opens on your patch: ranked companies, the why-now in one line, timing window, and a decision-maker to call.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Is Signal a replacement for Barbour ABI?+
Only if you sell to the occupier. Barbour ABI tracks construction projects once they are formally visible; Signal tracks the occupier before there is a project, and covers the London office fit-outs that never enter the planning system at all. For contractors chasing awards across the UK, Barbour is the right tool and Signal is not a substitute.
I get my leads from Barbour ABI — why would lease events interest me?+
If you are hired by the contractor, they probably won’t, and that is an honest answer. If you are hired by the occupier — a fit-out, a workplace design, furniture, a move — the lease event is the earliest public evidence that the occupier is going to spend, usually months before a project feed has anything to show. That gap is where the relationship gets built before the tender exists.
How much earlier is Signal than Barbour ABI?+
Structurally earlier, not by a measured number we can quote yet. A lease expiry is on the register years before the occupier acts on it; a rates bill names the occupier of a floor before an agent is instructed; a planning reference, when there is one, comes after the design team is appointed. We will publish a prospective read against confirmed projects in December 2026 rather than guess.
Does Signal have project or contract-award data?+
No. Signal reads occupier-side signals — leases, business rates, filings, planning applications where they exist, hiring — resolved to the company and the building. It is not a project database and does not try to be one.
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