Birmingham City completes NLPG jigsaw for creation of nationwide property ID database
Written by Intelligent Addressing
26 February 2008
London, UK, 26 February 2008 - The vision of a national address database that accurately pinpoints every property type including land and buildings without postal addresses, is now a reality as Birmingham City Council became the last Local Authority to sign up to a process initiated in 1999.
Since that time the UK government’s Improvement and Development Agency, Intelligent Addressing Ltd and Local Government address managers have been working in partnership to produce a definitive index of all land parcels and buildings, including those in multiple occupation, with a nationally Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN).
With Birmingham on board, all councils with a statutory responsibility for Street Naming and Numbering are now submitting updates to the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) central hub. With over 29 million unique addresses the NLPG is set to take its place as the de facto addressing standard for England and Wales and through linkage with the National Gazetteer for Scotland, the Scottish addressing initiative, the whole of Britain.
The NLPG, defined by BS7666 is rapidly gaining in maturity. In 2007 it was chosen to underpin the new FiReControl project and is used increasingly by Police forces as the best source of address information. The constituent parts, the Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs), are already deeply integrated into the systems and processes of Local Authorities. Maintaining a single address database for referencing everything from Council Tax to planning applications introduces dramatic efficiencies and opportunities for joined up government and improved service delivery.
The NLPG is transforming local government through cross-authority initiatives. In Sussex seven boroughs and district councils, the county council, Sussex Police and the NHS, have worked collectively to overcome political, cultural and technical challenges to deliver a seamless customer information system to the 750,000 citizens of West Sussex. Whilst in Warwickshire, the NLPG is central to a scheme to migrate nearly 100 different borough and district services across the county to a central customer relationship management system.
A recent report by CEBR estimated that £55 million per annum could be saved as a result of using gazetteers in those councils responsible for creating and maintaining them. It is suspected that many hundreds of millions of pounds more could be saved with the introduction of the NLPG across the public sector as part of the need to transform the way government interacts with people and businesses.
“Until recently there wasn’t a single definitive list of all the addresses for the country, meaning that many government and private services have not been sure if addresses from differing sources refer to the same or different properties,” said Michael Nicholson, Managing Director of Intelligent Addressing. “There has always been an understanding that the NLPG could not ultimately succeed unless every authority within England and Wales was signed up to the process. The success of the initiative is however there for all to see with new applications and processes coming to light every day. Now that Birmingham is on board the future of the NLPG is assured and the possibilities are endless. We are witnessing a new era of information sharing and exchange, which will dramatically affect each and every one of us,” continued Nicholson.
The NLPG was initiated in 1999 to become the master address dataset for England and Wales and the central hub for the 376 address creating Local Authorities and their Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs). Based on unique property reference numbers (UPRNs) the underlying principle of these gazetteers is to provide a single definitive address database for all departments and systems across a local authority in order to cut costs, improve efficiency and service delivery.
The dataset enables various local authority departments – from revenue collection and environmental health, to social security, the electoral roll and education – to now offer true ‘joined up’ government. The benefits also go beyond service delivery. Fraud prevention, tax collection and disaster planning all benefit from the fact that each property is given a ‘Unique Property Reference Number’ which transcends (property) numbers, names, descriptions (such as ‘The Nursing Home’) and postcodes. UPRNs are assigned for the full life of the plot and/or building.
The project was given a significant boost in 2005 with the introduction of the Mapping Services Agreement, which committed all Local Authorities to bringing their gazetteers up to standard and to start submitting regular updates to the NLPG hub for use by national and regional organisations. Collaboration with DNA-S (Definitive National Addressing for Scotland) who use the same BS7666 processes and database schemas means that the a British addressing infrastructure is now a reality.
Intelligent Addressing is a specialist private sector consultancy (an SME) employing recognised experts in addressing. It was originally set up to help develop the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) on behalf of local government and now manages the NLPG and NSG central data hubs under the terms of the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA) with local government.
Intelligent Addressing Contact: Gayle Gander, Head of Marketing T: 0207 747 3500 E-mail:
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The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) The IDeA works in partnership with all councils, to enhance the performance of the best, accelerate the speed of improvement of the rest, and develop the sector as a whole. IDeA has brokered the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA) with Intelligent Addressing to develop the NLPG and NSG, through the Local Government Information House (LGIH), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Agency.
Working in partnership with the local government community developing national infrastructure projects that enable councils to deliver local services more effectively, LGIH acts as an intermediary between the public and the private sector enabling it to negotiate with private companies on behalf of local authorities in order to provide key parts of a technical infrastructure for improved service delivery.
The NLPG is a joint venture between the Information House and Intelligent Addressing Limited.
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