Today sees the release of Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) and Unique Street Reference Numbers (USRNs) under an Open Government License, with the Government Digital Service mandating that these are to be the public sector standard for referencing and sharing property and street information.

GeoPlace - the organisation that oversees the production and maintenance of address and street gazetteers - worked closely with Ordnance Survey, the Local Government Association, and the Geospatial Commission to reach this agreement on opening up of the UPRN and USRN as part of the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA).

The UPRN, the unique identifier for each address in the AddressBase range of products from Ordnance Survey, can help link internal datasets together and share information with other organisations who use the UPRN.

Similarly, the USRN is the unique identifier for every street in the UK. It exists within the OS MasterMap Highways Network products and the National Street Gazetteer (NSG), which is the definitive source of street information used in the notification of street and road works by utilities and highways authorities needing to carry out work on or around streets in England and Wales.

Already widely used across the public sector, UPRNs are increasingly being used in the private sector for financial services, delivery and logistics, customer billing, address verification and other location-based services, linking people to places and services.

For highways authorities and statutory undertakers, the USRN is a way to ensure works on streets and roads can be planned more effectively. For the public, this means less traffic congestion, increased safety and lower levels of disruption to road users.

Minister for housing Christopher Pincher said: “This is the most powerful boost for the UK PropTech sector in a generation, unlocking new levels of digital innovation on a national scale.

"Open identifiers are crucial for tech entrepreneurs and wider industry – they will enable housing developers to find sites that have the most potential, helping deliver much-needed new homes across the country."

Nick Chapallaz, managing director of GeoPlace, welcomed the new 10-year agreement and announcement of the wide availability of UPRNs and USRNs. “We welcome the government’s commitment to supporting the wider public use of definitive address and street information, with this new government mandate, we can transform the way services are provided, resulting in better outcomes thanks to greater accuracy and immediate data sharing and matching.”

Thalia Baldwin, director of the Geospatial Commission, called UPRNs and USRNs the ‘golden thread’ of location data. "Over the past year we have worked closely with GeoPlace, the Local Government Association, the Improvement Service and Ordnance Survey to see how we can make them widely available, free of charge - opening up these identifiers will unlock economic value across the economy, including the housing and planning sectors.”

Share Story: