AddressBase Premium support

A number of local authorities merged with effect of April 1^st 2021. As a result of these mergers a number of Local Custodians are also combined, resulting in changes within the AddressBase Premium product. The changes will be reflected in the AddressBase products from Epoch 84 due to data cut dates.

The table shows the current Local Authorities mapped against their new equivalents including their respective Authority Codes.

This will result in the following changes to AddressBase Premium:

All four products are derived from a single database, managed and maintained by GeoPlace. The source data is collated, verified and quality assured by GeoPlace. Each product has a different level of content:

AddressBase Premium provides the most detailed view of an address and its life cycle for England, Wales and Scotland. It has more records than AddressBase Plus as it provides all the information relating to an address or property from creation to retirement. The product contains Local Authority, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail addresses. This includes alternative addresses for current records where available, indicating variations on the official addresses; and provisional addresses (proposed planning developments), and historic information (demolished properties) where available. OWPA (Objects Without a Postal Address) and Cross References to VOA data and products such as OS MasterMap Topography Layer are also included. The product also enables the end-user to locate an address or property on a map using either X, Y coordinates supplied on a British National grid or Latitude and Longitude coordinates provided on an ETRS89 projection.

AddressBase Plus contains current properties including addresses sourced from Local Authorities, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail, all provided with an UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) for England, Wales and Scotland. It has more records than AddressBase as it includes objects without postal addresses and live records captured by Local Authorities but not matched to Royal Mail PAF data. The product enables the end-user to locate an address or property on a map using either X, Y coordinates supplied on a British National grid or Latitude and Longitude coordinates provided on an ETRS89 projection. The product also includes cross references to OS MasterMap products via OS MasterMap Topography Layer and OS MasterMap Integrated Transport Network Layer TOID references.

AddressBase Core contains current properties primarily sourced from local authorities and supplemented with Royal Mail information where matched to the UPRN. The file is structured in a flat file model. It has more records than AddressBase but not as many as AddressBase Plus as it does not include objects without postal addresses (OWPAs) such as ponds and electricity sub-stations. Each record has X and Y coordinates as well as classification up to a secondary level. Identifiers to OS MasterMap Topography Layer Topographic Identifiers (TOIDs), OS MasterMap Highways Layer Unique Street Reference Number (USRN), Royal Mail Unique Delivery Point Reference Number and ONS Government Statistical Services (GSS) codes are given to create links to other OS and third party products.

AddressBase is an address product containing both residential and commercial addresses where a Local Authority address has been matched to a Royal Mail PAF address. This allows users to link additional information about a property to a single address. The product also provides enhancements to the Royal Mail PAF data by assigning an X and Y coordinate on British National Grid and an ETRS89 projection, as well as a primary level classification, and a representative point code describing the positional quality.

Ordnance Survey has now created two new products: AddressBase Plus Islands and AddressBase Premium Islands. They provide coverage for Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, but the existing core AddressBase Premium product will continue to cover England, Scotland and Wales.

If you receive a Geographic Supply (tile based) Change Only Update of AddressBase Premium, if one feature is changed within a tile the whole tile will be supplied to you within your COU. This means that if a single feature changes in each tile which covers Great Britain you will receive all tiles as part of your Change Only Supply.

No. Current processes and working practices for exchange of data between local authorities and the addressing hub will continue exactly as they do now. All local authority custodians have been sent a briefing paper outlining the details.

There are currently no plans to make the AddressBase products available under OS OpenData™.

Yes. Ordnance Survey Licensed Partners under their FCP (including those who are currently NLPG resellers) will be able to license the AddressBase products under the defined use contracts.

For PSGA customers:

No. A centrally-funded PAF^® Public Sector Licence (PAF PSL) covers use of the Postcode Address File (PAF) in the delivery of public service activity for PSGA members. PAF licensing terms apply.

For commercial customers: 

Royal Mail royalties apply and are incorporated in the licence fee. A separate Royal Mail royalty fee applies if you wish to license the AddressBase data on External Transaction Solution (ETS) terms.

AddressBase products, along with legacy addressing products under notice of withdrawal (OS MasterMap Address Layer 2, OS MasterMap Address Layer, ADDRESS-POINT and the National Land and Property Gazetteer), are licensed and available to the public sector through the PSGA.