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AddressBase

A Lightning Talk

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Product Overview

  • AddressBase is part of the AddressBase Product range, and provides Royal Mail postal address data with unique property reference numbers (UPRNs)​

  • It has approximately 29 million address records covering England, Wales and Scotland​

  • AddressBase is made of records from Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File​

  • AddressBase is available in CSV or GML data formats​ and is published every 6 weeks

diagram of how AddressBase relates to the other AddressBase products
How AddressBase relates to the other AddressBase products
diagram of unique identifiers in AddressBase
Unique identifiers in AddressBase

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Where does AddressBase come from?

diagram of Addressbase sources
AddressBase source (click to enlarge the image)

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AddressBase attribution

Attribution for AddressBase and example of the number of features in an area
Attribution for AddressBase and example of the number of features in an area

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AddressBase Local Authority data

A Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) is a database created and managed by Local Authorities where the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) is created and assigned to land and property within their district​.

UPRNs can be assigned a hierarchal Parent or Child status if there are multiple UPRNs that share a relationship with each other (e.g. The whole block of flats (Parent UPRN), each flat within the block (Child UPRN)​.

AddressBase includes all Postcode Address File (PAF) addresses matched to a UPRN and their primary classification type​.

diagram of how a Local Authority holds data against a property
How a Local Authority holds data against a property

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AddressBase Royal Mail data​

The Postcode Address File (PAF) database is managed by Royal Mail​. A Unique Delivery Point Reference Number (UDPRN) is created for each PAF and references a specific delivery point​.

The PAF has its own Delivery Point Address which may differ from the address held in the LLPG, because it specifically identifies the location in where the property will receive mail.

AddressBase only includes records from the LLPG that have a corresponding UDPRN​.

diagram of royal mail data in AddressBase

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Lifecycle of a UPRN

Flow diagram of the address lifecycle and which organisation is involved at each stage

UPRNs can be created for lots of different reasons. There is no one set trigger, other than there is a need to reference the pin-pointed location. However, the UPRN is a critical component to the planning process, and are most commonly created for this purpose​ during the Outline Planning stage of the image above.

There can be varying data quality across UPRN data because their level of management is dependent on their Local Authority. GeoPlace set certain standards for Local Authorities to follow to ensure a good level of data management, and to achieve consistency​.

A UPRN will be made historic when the building no longer exists. For example if two flats are made in to one. The two existing UPRNs of the flats will be made historic, and a new UPRN given to the new merged property. The historic UPRNs still exist in the dataset as archived records​.

However, in the OS NGD data it is being published at the original, more granular level

This content has been developed from what was originally a Lightning Talk PowerPoint slide set. These slides are available to PSGA members to view and download from the PSGA members area of the OS websitearrow-up-right

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