Owen Boswarva's blog

This is the latest in my series of blog posts about the campaign for open address data in the UK. Previous posts are listed at the bottom.

In this post I provide a progress update on my project to unlock Council Tax property lists maintained by local authorities in the UK, explain some minor changes to my approach going forward, and also give some pointers on how you can potentially obtain datasets yourself if they are no longer accessible via my project page at datadaptive.com/addr/.

Loitering in the upper atmosphere

This post is written in the aftermath of my reluctant decision last week to remove from public access downloads containing most of the Council Tax address datasets released by UK councils under the Open Government Licence (OGL). That ongoing drama is described in my previous post, but you don't necessarily need to read that one to follow this one. The gist is that Ordnance Survey and its alter ego GeoPlace LLP claim that publication of the datasets infringes their intellectual property rights. At the time of writing none of the local authorities involved have notified me of any defects in the open licences granted previously.

And so we press onward.

Update on progress

Over the past couple of years (but mostly in the last six months) I have submitted information requests to 215 local authorities in England, Wales, and Scotland. Initially I focused on council areas in England with the largest housing stocks. I've also prioritised a few councils where I understand, anecdotally, that councillors or staff may be supportive of the open data agenda.

In each case I have requested the council's current Council Tax property list with specified data attributes: full address, local property reference, UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number), and Council Tax band. I have asked for permission to re-use the disclosed data under the Open Government Licence, and also asked the council to tell me if the information contains any third party rights that the council is not authorised to license.

As a result of these efforts I have obtained and published Council Tax property lists from 74 councils, all with clear statements of permission for re-use under the OGL (or compatible open terms). Most were disclosed to me directly but a few were published first by the council or requested by others.

Following interventions from OS/GeoPlace in late January, 15 councils notified me that OGL permission had been granted in error. One of those later reverted to its original position that address data in the list was owned solely by that council. As of last week datasets from 60 councils were accessible via links at datadaptive.com/addr/. But downloads containing local address data from 57 of those councils were removed earlier this week following a claim of infringement from OS/GeoPlace. (As explained in my previous post, none of those councils have so far notified me of any error in the licensing.)

In practice that means the list at datadaptive.com/addr/ mainly contains metadata about Council Tax address datasets that have been released as open data by local authorities but are not currently available to the public. Several datasets – from councils that OS/GeoPlace aren't fussed about – are still available, and in some other cases copies of the same data remain available in council disclosure logs or from independent sources.

With regard to 34 other councils to which I have submitted requests, I have either concluded (or in a few cases abandoned) correspondence without obtaining a Council Tax list that both contains full addresses and is covered by clear permission for re-use on open terms. That includes a number of cases where the council has released some of the other data under OGL, and others where the statement of permission for re-use was not sufficiently clear for me to have confidence in it. I haven't blogged about most of those cases, and probably won't find the time to. You'll have to wait for my PhD dissertation.

In all other cases, correspondence is ongoing. Overall I have requested internal reviews in more than 120 cases, and those often take time. Some cases remain in progress even though the original requests were submitted in September or October 2025. I have made a small number of complaints to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which I don't expect to be handled until later this year. I have been very selective in my use of the ICO and have avoided referring cases where duplicate issues arise.

The above numbers are approximate. There are a few edge cases that break my metrics because in the ongoing correspondence it's not clear what the hell is going on.

I am not going to provide any breakdown of the reasons that councils have relied on when refusing my requests for Council Tax address data under the FOI Act, except to say that the range of exemptions has been very wide. In some cases exemptions have been applied for good reason, in others they have struck me as fanciful. The more unreasonable responses have often been reversed at the internal review stage, but sometimes the council will then identify another basis for withholding the data.

As I said in my previous post, I am grateful to all of the council staff who have worked to facilitate the disclosure and open licensing of their Council Tax property lists. There are clearly resourcing issues across local government, but to the extent possible the vast majority of council staff have been helpful and efficient even where they have not been able to fulfil my requests.

Refreshing my approach

It has been my practice, when I receive a Council Tax property list that has been disclosed with permission for open re-use, to publish a blog post about it with links to downloads containing the disclosed information, my correspondence (including documentation of the re-use terms), and also a geocoded version of the dataset if it contains UPRNs.

This post from December is a typical example: Wigan Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data

Screenshot of geocoded Wigan Council address data, in the Makerfield constituency, visualised in Leaflet with background mapping from OpenStreetMap

I currently have a small backlog of Council Tax property lists that have been disclosed to me recently by additional councils, with clear permission for re-use under the Open Government Licence.

For the time being I will not publish those datasets for download, because I anticipate that OS and GeoPlace may make similar unsubstantiated claims that to do so would infringe their rights.

However, I will continue to blog about each of those datasets to highlight their disclosure by the relevant councils. I will continue to make available my correspondence with the councils, and perhaps describe each dataset a little.

You will understand that each of those local address datasets would be available to you for re-use as open data, were it not for the chilling effect of action by Ordnance Survey and GeoPlace LLP.

I will continue to update and maintain the list of Council Tax address datasets at datadaptive.com/addr/. This week I have added metadata fields for the date of request and the council's reference number. I will also add links to any copies of the datasets that are published in council disclosure logs or by other requesters elsewhere, if I know about them.

You can request a copy of any of the missing datasets yourself (just not from me)

Disclosure under the FOI Act is "to the world at large" even if the public authority itself only supplies the information to a particular requester. RPSI includes a regulation that prevents a public sector body from imposing any condition on re-use that discriminate between applicants who make a request for re-use for comparable purposes.

In theory, those principles mean that if a council has disclosed a Council Tax address dataset under the FOI Act, and granted permission for re-use of all of the disclosed information under the terms of the Open Government Licence (following a RPSI request), then a second requester should be able to obtain a copy of the same dataset on the same terms for re-use for the same purpose.

In other words, you might be able to get a copy of any of the local address datasets that are listed on datadaptive.com/addr/, but no longer available, by asking the originating council for it in the right manner.

I have provided a template wording below to help you do that.

This is not an attempt to start a campaign. The current unfortunate situation is not the fault of the relevant councils, and I don't want to inundate them with requests. But if you particularly think you have a need or purpose for any of these datasets, you have statutory rights under which you can request them.

It is possible that (unknown to me) some individual councils may have changed their stance on either disclosure or re-use of the data since our most recent correspondence. The only way to find that out is to ask.

You could also request an updated version of any of the datasets, as Council Tax lists change regularly. But to do so would break the link with the original request and the council will be more likely to take a different approach or fresh look – if only because the requests might be assessed by different staff.

You can usually find an email address for submitted information requests on each council's website. Most councils encourage submission of requests through a webform. Personally I avoid those because I think emails are better for documentation of the handling process and of any statement of permission for re-use.

You could also consider submitting you access and re-use request through WhatDoTheyKnow (WDTK), a site that facilitates information requests to councils and other authorities in the UK. One advantage of that approach is that any data file disclosed by the council will normally be published automatically on the site. There are numerous local address datasets available on WDTK already, including a Council Tax property list disclosed as open data by Isle of Wight Council.

It is of course likely that if OS and GeoPlace consider that my publication of address data in any of the relevant datasets infringes their rights, they will take the same view of re-use by any other requester to whom to council might disclose the dataset directly. You should bear that in mind if you plan to use or re-use the data for any purpose that places reliance on the licensing.

Suggested text for an email requesting a Council Tax property list disclosed previously:

Dear [NAME OF COUNCIL],

I understand that on [DATE OF ORGINAL REQUEST] the Council received an access to information request for the Council's current list of all domestic properties within the [NAME OF COUNCIL] area, including the full address, the assigned Council Tax band, the Council's local property reference, and the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) for each property on the list.

I think the Council's reference for that original request was [REFERENCE FOR ORIGINAL REQUEST].

Please provide me with a copy of any of the requested information that the Council disclosed to the original requester in response to that request.

I do not require copies of the Council's correspondence with the original requester.

My preference is to receive the above information electronically in a re-usable file format such as Excel or CSV.

I would also like the Council's permission to re-use any information disclosed to me in response to this request. My formal re-use request is as follows, and is intended to be identical to or substantively the same as the re-use request submitted by the original requester.

I further request, in accordance with regulation 6 of the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015, permission to re-use all information provided in response to the above access to information request for the purpose of combining that information with data from other public datasets and making the outputs available to others in a re-usable electronic form under an open licence. I request that [NAME OF COUNCIL] grants permission to re-use the information for this purpose either without restriction or under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3 (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/) or an equally permissive licence. Given my intended use, any more restrictive licensing terms would be likely to "unnecessarily restrict" the way in which the information can be re-used, contrary to RoPSIR regulation 12.

If any third party owns intellectual property rights in any of the above requested information which the Council is not authorised to license, please specify the relevant information and the name of the third party. My re-use request relates to the remaining part of the requested information.

Thank you for your attention to the above requests.

Kind regards,

[YOUR NAME AND CONTACT DETAILS]

Peace out

Happy hunting.

Previous posts related to the campaign for open address data in the UK

Ordnance Survey demands removal of nearly all Council Tax address datasets previously released as open data (12 May 2025)

Gedling Borough Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (1 May 2025)

North Tyneside Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (1 May 2025)

Tewkesbury Borough Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (1 May 2025)

Norwich City Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (30 April 2025)

South Norfolk District Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (29 April 2025)