April 2025

The April 2025 release note for the OS MasterMap Topography Layer – Building Height Attribute product

Building Height Attribute (BHA) is an enhancement to, and forms part of, OS MasterMap Topography Layer. It provides a set of height attributes with a buildings theme within OS MasterMap Topography Layer.

Building Height Attribute tiles

• Total tiles: 9 986

• New tiles: 2 [HU3085 and NN1545]

• Deleted tiles: 1 [ND0025]

Extent

The April 2025 BHA release contains building heights for 47 854 360 unique buildings, tanks, chimneys, and glasshouses across the entirety of Great Britain.

The total number of features is 48 036 981, including duplicate TOIDs. These are recorded when features overlap at tile edges.

Limitations

Some building TOIDs (Topographic Identifiers) in OS MasterMap Topography Layer will have no corresponding height values in the BHA data in areas of coverage. This can occur because of different update cycles or in instances when a building was constructed after the capture of the source BHA data. This is also the case when a building has failed quality validation checks and there is no existing data to replace it.

Building height values are generated from a fully automated process and, as such, the accuracy of the values is subject to tolerances governed by the process. Ordnance Survey specifically disclaims any warranty that OS MasterMap Topography Layer – BHA is of satisfactory quality or fitness for a particular purpose. We further disclaim any warranty that OS MasterMap Topography Layer – BHA is error free or accurate.

Next release

The next release of OS MasterMap Topography Layer – BHA is scheduled for October 2025.

Upcoming improvements

As part of our ongoing work to improve the data, the October 2025 release of BHA will include several key updates:

• An updated BHA_ProcessDate for each OS_TOPO_TOID.

• Enhanced height validation rules will be introduced, resulting in two small changes that may be noticeable in the product:

  • Building features with a geometry area less than 8m² will be filtered out of the product.

  • The AbsHMax will always be greater than the AbsH2, whereas previously it could be the case that the roof edge was higher than the roof maximum.

• Enhancements to the calculation and population of the Confidence Level attribute. This will provide new, clearer definitions for each confidence level to facilitate more informed data-driven decisions. These definitions will be consistent with the height data already being published in the OS NGD Buildings Theme.