This zipped file contains correspondence with Manchester City Council related to access to information and re-use requests submitted by Owen Boswarva on 01/09/2025 for a list of Council Tax bands of domestic properties in the Manchester City Council area.

The requested information was disclosed by the Council in the form of three data files on 10/09/2025, 24/10/2025, and 24/11/2025, with a clear statement that there were no restrictions on re-use, and published with documentation on 30/11/2025 at the following URL: https://www.owenboswarva.com/FOI/CT_address_list_Manchester_City_Council_FOI17432.zip

The original ReadMe file from that download is enclosed as '!ReadMe [20251130].txt'.

On 05/03/2026 the Council provided a new statement that it had granted permission to re-use the addresses in the Council Tax property list in error. The Council's revised position is that the address information in the list contains intellectual property rights of third parties (Ordnance Survey, GeoPlace, and Royal Mail) that the Council was not authorised to license.

Following that change in the Council's position, the download at https://www.owenboswarva.com/FOI/CT_address_list_Manchester_City_Council_FOI17432.zip was removed as of 05/03/2026. A geocoded version containing additional data from the ONS UPRN Directory (November 2025) (Epoch 122), published at https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1iFRYfDjfvC1EFwYmL88AZ2XxgThYpZ-B on 30/11/2025, was also removed as of 05/03/2026.

Following a request for an internal review, submitted on 05/03/2026 along with an additional request for information related to the Council's handling of the original requests, the Council has disclosed some redacted correspondence.

The Council has confirmed its position that it cannot license the address and postcode information for re-use but has said that the other disclosed information (the list of local property references, UPRNs, and Council Tax bands) may be re-used under the terms of the Open Government Licence.

There is a blog post about this matter at: https://www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-addr25.htm


DATA PRODUCT

The enclosed data file 'MANCHESTER_CTBANDS_ONSUD_202511_NO_ADDRESSES.csv' is a geocoded version of the Council Tax property list disclosed by the Council, with the address and postcode information removed.

Geographic coordinates (BNG/OSGB36 easting/northing) and postcodes have been appended from the following ONS dataset:

ONS UPRN Directory (November 2025) (Epoch 122)
https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/datasets/3ceb08e2100947409b0cb9d5ab5baf00/about

LAT/LNG (WGS84) values have been calculated using maths.


LICENSING

The geocoded data product may be re-used under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL), subject to attribution requirements from Manchester City Council, ONS, and other third parties. Follow is a recommended combined attribution statement:

"Contains public sector information from Manchester City Council licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

"Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2025.

"Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2025
"Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and Database right
"Contains GeoPlace data © Local Government Information House Limited copyright and database right
"Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0"

Information about the Open Government Licence is available on the UK National Archives website.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/re-using-public-sector-information/licensing-for-re-use/

Owen Boswarva claims no additional copyright or database rights arising from compilation of the enclosed data product. If any such rights attach to Owen Boswarva from production of the data product then Owen Boswarva waives those rights worldwide to the full extent allowed by law.


Owen Boswarva (website www.owenboswarva.com, contact owen.boswarva@gmail.com)

Version 1.0, April 2026

