Which engineering and planning consultancies in Godalming do AI assistants actually recommend?

We put the 14 questions a person in Godalming asks before choosing engineering and planning consultancie — cost, specialism, who to use, how to check them — to Claude, 5 times each, 70 answers in all, and recorded every firm the answers named. 21 firms in Godalming were checked against those answers. 2 of them were named at least once. The rest were not recommended in a single answer.

The league table

Firms are ranked by the number of answers that named them, then by how many different questions. The assistants do not give identical answers twice, so a difference of one or two mentions is noise; being named on questions a rival is absent from is not.

The questions we asked

1. Do I need a planning consultant or a structural engineer for a loft conversion in Godalming?
2. How much does a pre-application planning consultation cost near Godalming?
3. Which is better value for a small extension project, an independent planning consultant or a larger multi-disciplinary firm near Farncombe?
4. What accreditations should I look for in a local engineering consultancy around Godalming before trusting them with a drainage report?
5. I'm converting a barn near Busbridge and need both planning advice and a structural survey - should I hire one firm or two separate specialists?
6. What's the difference between a chartered engineer and a planning consultant for a council application?
7. How can I check if an independent planning consultancy near Guildford has a good track record with Waverley Borough Council?
8. Is it cheaper to hire a consultancy on a fixed-fee basis or pay hourly for ad hoc engineering advice in Surrey?
9. Should I use a small local firm or a national chain for flood risk assessments near the A3100 route through Godalming?
10. We're a small developer looking at a site near Milford and need someone to handle both drainage design and planning submission - what should we ask them?
11. What questions should I ask to verify a planning consultant's reliability before signing a contract?
12. Which type of consultancy handles listed building planning applications near Godalming town centre?
13. Which independent engineering consultancy would you recommend between Godalming and Haslemere for a structural survey on an older property?
14. What's a realistic budget for a transport assessment as part of a planning application near Cranleigh?

How this was measured

• Date: 1 October 2026. This is one day, not a trend; the index is re-measured monthly.
• Sample: 14 questions × 1 assistant × 5 runs = 70 answers. 21 firms checked.
• Assistants used: Claude (Anthropic’s Sonnet model, through its API, with web search). Answers from these programming interfaces can differ from what the consumer apps show.
• Counting: a firm is counted when its name appears in an answer. Names are picked out of the answer text automatically, then matched to the firm list.
• Limits: the assistants vary between runs, so small gaps are noise. Firms that were not named may still be recommended by an assistant or a question we did not ask. National chains are left off the list.