What's New?
As we release new data enhancements and service improvements for the OS NGD, we will update this page to provide you with a high-level summary of what's launched.
2026 OS NGD enhancements
Spring 2026 – OS NGD data enhancements
Highlights of the OS NGD data enhancements released to customers in Spring 2026
Administrative and Statistical Units – retail areas
A new OS Functional Areas Collection has been added to the OS NGD Administrative and Statistical Units Theme. Functional areas are algorithmically derived notional geographies; they provide nationally consistent data for use in planning, policy and research.
Retail areas are the first feature types to be included in the new collection:
Retail Area Major features reflect high streets, shopping centres and retail parks.
Retail Area Minor features reflect smaller clusters of retail addresses.
Retail Area Aggregated features provide information on retail areas, from small local centres, through town centres to a single national centre.
The three new retail areas feature types define notional geographic extents of retail locations across Great Britain, identifying clusters of buildings with retail addresses.
Administrative and Statistical Units – postcodes
Two new collections have been added to the OS NGD Administrative and Statistical Units Theme: the OS GB Postcodes Collection and OS NI Postcodes Collection. The collections provide complete, analytical and authoritative postcode datasets for Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Postcodes for Great Britain are available via an API for the first time (OS NGD API – Features).
Postcode Unit Point Feature Types are available for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. When used together, these feature types include every postcode in the Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF) content with Ordnance Survey’s and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland's geospatial attribution for the first time. The identical schemas for these feature types enable compatibility and let you achieve full UK postcode coverage.
The Postcode Unit Area Feature Type has been designed to align with Ordnance Survey's authoritative geospatial data; therefore, a postcode polygon will include the whole building associated with a delivery point. This feature type has full Great Britain coverage.
Structures
The addition of third-party bridge information to Compound Structure features. Existing bridge data for Great Britain has now been enriched with third-party attribution (i.e. for canal bridges). Rather than creating new bridge geometries, the data ensures bridge names, numbers and the name of the expert third party who provided the information are linked to the Compound Structure features.
Transport
Full data coverage for cycle lanes and bus lanes data across Great Britain was achieved by March 2026. There was partial data coverage across Great Britain for the Bus Lane and Cycle Lane Feature Types between September 2025 (when the two feature types were launched) and March 2026, with iterative increases in coverage released monthly. There's now a consistent and maintained dataset of bus lanes and cycle lanes for the whole of Great Britain.
2025 OS NGD enhancements
Autumn 2025 – OS NGD data enhancements
Address
The OS GB Address Collection and OS Islands Collection now contain a new Royal Mail Address Feature Type, representing a major step forward in address data provision. These feature types combine the full Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) content with Ordnance Survey’s authoritative geospatial attribution for the first time.
Highlights of the new Royal Mail Address Feature Types:
Full PAF content: 100% coverage of Royal Mail’s delivery point addresses, with UDPRN (Unique Delivery Point Reference Number) as the primary key.
Multiple UDPRN to UPRN matches: Identifying where multiple addresses in PAF can be associated to a single UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number).
Enhanced attribution: Additional OS-derived metadata, including geometry, positional accuracy, geometry allocation method, relationships with local authority addresses and standard OS NGD attribution.
Buildings
Enhanced Physical State attribution is now available for Building features. The Physical State attribute classifies buildings as 'Built', 'Under Construction', or 'Derelict' to provide a clear, up-to-date view of their structural condition. Customers can use this attribute to track building construction progress and identify derelict properties; the attribute is also useful to Emergency Services and the planning and insurance sectors as it gives them accurate building lifecycle data.
Land
Intertidal areas obscured by elevated structures, such as piers and jetties, have been added to the Land Feature Type for more complete coverage of the intertidal zone.
Land Use
Enhanced Status attribution is now available for Site, Building Part, Land, Rail, Road Track Or Path, Structure and Water features. The Status attribute reflects the state of a feature in relation to either its physical condition or the activity the feature is intended to support. This value is either inherent from the nature of the topographic feature or can be inherited from the Site the feature lies within.
Please note that Status attribute values are only recorded against a subset of over 100 Site types, including Railway Stations, Schools, Sports Grounds, Power Stations and Quarries; the full list of Site types is available in a table on the OS Land Use Features Collection page.
National Land Use Database (NLUD) values are now populated for 'Derelict Land'.
The Site Description Value Code List now includes a new value of 'Derelict'.
Transport
New Cycle Lane Feature Type added to the OS Transport Network Collection to identify the location of cycle lanes, either segregated by a physical feature or identified by painted or other signage. The new data will support local authorities, regional transport bodies and central government to undertake planning, asset management and road safety analysis, plus understand connectivity and gap analysis for active travel networks.
New attribution supplied against the Path Link Feature Type to indicate the presence of cycle lanes.
New Bus Lane Feature Type added to the OS Transport Network Collection to identify the location of bus lanes that are segregated by a physical feature or painted section of road only for buses or shared usage. The new data will support local authorities, regional transport bodies and central government to plan street works and conduct connectivity and gap analysis for public transport networks.
New attribution supplied against the Road Link Feature Type to indicate the presence of bus lanes and cycle lanes.
Water
Continuous tidelines are now available in the OS Water Features Collection through the addition of two new feature types: Tidal Boundary Continuous High and Tidal Boundary Continuous Low. The latest update delivers automated, continuous mean high water and mean low water tidelines by dissolving existing Tidal Boundary features into seamless lines that are topologically coincident with their source water features. The two new feature types will help customers to conduct environmental management and accurately model coastal change and flooding.
New attribution is supplied against Water Link features describing the average width of the watercourse and the width derivation method. Minimum and maximum widths of watercourses are also supplied where a Water Link feature has been captured as a topographic polygon. The new watercourse width attribution will support ecological and flood modelling, infrastructure planning and situational awareness for emergency services.
June 2025 – OS NGD access enhancements in OS Select+Build
You can now edit a recipe in OS Select+Build to add or remove themes / feature types, or change attribute filtering or data schema versions. Please see the Editing OS Select+Build recipes and Getting started with attribute filtering pages for more details.
March 2025 – OS NGD data enhancements
Buildings
New Building Access Location Feature Type added to the OS Building Features Collection. Building Access Location features identify access points to key public buildings for vehicles and pedestrians, enhancing urban planning, emergency response, and accessibility.
New attribution provided for Building features:
Roof Shape: Identifies the predominant geometric shape of a building's roof, aiding in visualisation and architectural analysis.
Roof Aspect: Provides information on the orientation of a roof, which is useful for solar energy planning and environmental studies.
Green Roof Presence: Indicates whether a building has a green roof, supporting sustainability and urban greening initiatives.
Solar Panel Presence: Shows if solar panels are installed on a building's roof, helping in renewable energy assessments and planning.
Roof Material: Details the type of predominant material used for a roof, which is important for construction, maintenance, and environmental impact studies.
Building Height: A comprehensive set of five attributes detailing the heights of various parts of a building, including both absolute and relative measurements. This enhancement supports urban planning and Emergency Services.
These buildings enhancements aim to improve visualisation, urban development planning, emergency response, and sustainability initiatives. More information on the March 2025 buildings enhancements is available from the OS NGD Buildings pages in the 'Using OS NGD Data' section.
Geographical Names
New Crowd Sourced Name Point Feature Type added to the OS Named Features Collection, which includes names submitted by expert third parties via the Vernacular Names Tool in the OS Data Hub. Where possible, the crowd sourced names are linked to other OS NGD features, allowing the use of both official and colloquial names together.
Land Use
Three new types of site added to Land Use Sites descriptions: Beach, Military Training Area, and Wind Farm. Over 2 600 new sites have been added to the dataset for this enhancement (1 927 beaches, 90 Military Training Areas and 604 Wind Farms). These are sites that may not be spatially coincident with existing topographic areas (i.e. they may not align with topographic features like field boundaries), unlike other types of site. Beaches will include Site Access Locations with attribution that highlights the nearest public Road Node and the direct distance to that node from the access point on the edge of the beach feature. Military Training Areas and Wind Farms will not include Site Access Locations.
An Access Purpose attribute has been added to Site Access Location features for key public sites to identify what the Site Access Location is being used for (Primary Public, Public, Private, or Emergency). The new data will enhance and support situational awareness for emergency responses, hazard planning, and policing operations at key public sites; the data will also support travel modelling and make it easier to assess accessibility to services for the public.
Structures
The addition of nine different types of tunnel to the Compound Structure Feature Type. These were added to v2.0 of the schema on 28 March 2025 and v1.0 on 09 April 2025.
Transport
New Street Light Feature Type added to the OS Transport Features Collection to identify the location of pole-mounted street lights and provide a reference to the nearest Road Link or Path Link. This is the first consistent GB-wide dataset of street lights that is updated monthly and maintained to defined quality levels.
2024 OS NGD enhancements
September 2024 – OS NGD data enhancements
Buildings
New number of floors attribution added to Building features to identify the maximum number of occupiable floors at or above ground level within a residential or office building. Over 23.5 million office or residential buildings in Great Britain now have a number of floors value, and a total of nearly 47 million floors have been added to the OS NGD. Among other uses, the new attribution will provide emergency services with more information when responding to real-time incidents, such as a fire in a high-rise building, and will help support insurers to improve their risk profiling and underwriting.
Land Use – Enhanced land use attribution, increased coverage for Sites, and more Site Access Location points
New land use attribution will be provided for the OS NGD ‘Features’ Collections for Buildings, Land, Land Use, Structures, Transport and Water. The new attribution maps the OS land use classifications to the National Land Use Database (NLUD) schema and the land use information derived from OS Addressing. The new attribution helps to give more detail about what is contained within a Site – for example, the total number of addresses contained within a single Site and what number of those addresses are defined as commercial, residential, or other.
Greater coverage for land use Sites, particularly non-residential sites, with over 1.5 million Sites added to the OS NGD gradually over the last two years. This has brought the total number of Sites contained within the OS NGD to 26 million.
An additional 180 000 Site Access Location points have been added to the OS NGD. These features show where vehicles and / or pedestrians can access Sites and, among other uses, help the emergency services to identify the most efficient routes for reaching an incident.
Structures
Additional bridge interaction attribution added to Compound Structure features to identify the type of network (road, path, railway, canal, water or multiple) passing over and / or under bridges. Over 660 000 bridge interactions have been added to the OS NGD.
March 2024 – OS NGD data enhancements
Buildings
New attribution provided for Buildings:
Building Age: The age of the main building in a site, created using Verisk data and OS data.
Construction Material: The primary construction material of the building, created using Verisk data and OS data.
Basement Presence: An indicator to show whether a basement or a self-contained basement flat are present at the building, created using Verisk data and OS data.
Building Description: A new description attribute to describe the nature of the building, derived from its use and relation to surrounding buildings, created using OS data.
More information on the buildings enhancements is available from the OS NGD Buildings pages in the 'Using OS NGD Data' section.
Land cover – Enhanced land cover attribution
Enhanced land cover attribution to ‘natural’ topographic area features across the OS NGD ‘Features’ Collections for Land, Structures, Transport and Water.
Improved consistency and accuracy for specific land features by reducing the minimum capture size criteria in rural and moorland geographies.
Mapping OS land cover classification to recognised habitat classification schemes (EUNIS and UK BAP Broad Habitats) in a new cross reference table.
Assigning a percentage cover value to topographic areas in a new cross reference table.
More information on the land cover enhancements is available from the OS NGD Land cover enhancements pages in the 'Using OS NGD Data' section.
Structures – Field Boundary
New Field Boundary Feature Type added to the Structure Features Collection to identify the location, nature and properties of a field boundary in rural and moorland areas.
Height and width values provided for vegetated field boundary features.
More information on this enhancement is available from the Field Boundary pages in the 'Using OS NGD Data' section.
Transport
New Tram On Road Feature Type added to the Transport Network Collection to locate where trams are present against the OS road network.
Tram track attribution added indicating the presence of tram tracks on a road. Supplied as new attribution against Road Link features.
More information on these enhancements is available from the OS NGD Transport pages in the 'Using OS NGD Data' section.
Geographical Names
New Named Road Junction Feature Type added to the OS NGD Named Features Collection, which provides enhanced names and the numbers of junctions. Includes both intersects without an official name or number and officially named or numbered junctions.
2023 OS NGD enhancements
September 2023 – OS NGD data enhancements
Buildings
New Building Feature Type added to the OS NGD Building Features Collection.
Attribution provided on a building's use, how it is connected to other buildings, additional details on addresses contained within a building, and whether a building is considered to be the main one within a site.
Cross references added between the new Building Feature Type and the Building Part, Site, and Built Address Feature Types.
Transport
New rail feature types added to the OS NGD Transport Network Collection, giving information about the topologically connected rail network:
Available rail network attribution now includes track representation (single / multitrack, siding) and use (freight / passenger / mixed).
New Pavement Link Feature Type added to the OS NGD Transport Network Collection, giving information on the presence of pavements on the Road Network. More information on this enhancement is available from the OS NGD Transport pages in the Using OS NGD Data section.
New attribution added to the Road Link Feature Type, giving details about pavement presence: left or right side of road, coverage, and minimum and average width. More information on this enhancement is available from the OS NGD Transport pages in the 'Using OS NGD Data' section.
August 2023 – OS NGD data enhancements
Transport
Path network coverage extended to all of Great Britain (it was previously just available for urban areas). The road and path networks have been topologically structured together, which has increased the number of features present in the Paths feature types (i.e. Path, Path Link, Path Node, Connecting Link, and Connecting Node Feature Types).
March 2023 – OS NGD access enhancements
APIs
Launch of the new vector tiles API: OS NGD API – Tiles.
OS Select+Build
Option to select which data schema version you want to access for certain address feature types (see the Addressing 'Versioning information' page and the 'Data schema versioning' page for more information).
Ability to select a preference for the coordinate reference system you receive your OS NGD data in (see the 'Downloading with OS Select+Build' page and 'Coordinate reference systems' page for more details).
New ability to share your created recipes with other organisations so that they can use exactly the same selections as you (see the 'Downloading with OS Select+Build' page for more details).
A new 'Order Summary' file will now be provided with your data packages to aid data validation when loading and using OS NGD data.
Enhanced search capability now available in both the Recipe Builder and your OS Select+Build Recipe Library, helping you locate feature types and your existing recipes quicker than before.
March 2023 – OS NGD data enhancements
Address
New attributes added to existing address feature types and improvements made for addressing floor-level information as part of the release of data schema version 2.0 (see the Addressing 'Versioning information' page for more information).
Improvements made to address data regarding the consistency of address positioning, usage classifications, business names and lifecycle.
Transport
New Average and Indicative Speed Feature Type added to the OS NGD RAMI Collection, giving full Great Britain coverage for speed data.
Speed data is now included in the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA), so it is free for PSGA Members for the first time.
Increased number of daily time periods now available for average speed data.
COUs (change-only updates) available for speed data for the first time.
Improved completeness of the Road Width attribute in the Road Link Feature Type, which extends coverage for road width data from just urban areas to urban areas, rural areas and mountain and moorland areas.
Water
Two new feature types added to the OS NGD Water Features Collection:
OS NGD delivery roadmap up to Spring 2027
The OS NGD delivery roadmap can be seen in the following image; the roadmap details what was delivered in the Spring 2026 data enhancements release and what is planned for delivery in upcoming data enhancement releases over the next year:
Please see the 'Future OS NGD Data Enhancements' page for information on planned future data enhancements.
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