An Open Letter to the Government
Transforming the Property Sector Using UPRN
An Open Letter
TO: Rachel Reeves MP - Chancellor of the Exchequer, HM Treasury
Darren Jones MP – Chief Secretary, HM Treasury
Angela Rayner MP - Deputy Prime Minister & Secretary of State, Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government
Matthew Pennycook MP - Minister of State, Housing, Planning and Building Safety
Rushanara Ali MP – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government
Jeremy Hunt MP - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Kemi Badenoch MP – Shadow Housing Minister, Housing, Planning and Building Safety
CC Sarah Hodgetts, Interim Director, Geospatial Commission
The undersigned organisations are publishing this open letter to call on the Government to take concrete steps to put the UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number) at the heart of the property market in this Parliament.Doing so will have minimal cost, but significant impact on transparency, efficiency and speed of the market.
With regards to the UPRN, we are calling on the Government to:
Embed for Public sector use – Ensure that the UPRN is included in all public sector projects andlegislation where it relates to buildings. This should go beyond aspirational statements and should include a proactive campaign for the public sector to be aware of the data already available to them under thePublic Sector Geospatial Agreement and a clear roadmap for sector wide adoption.
Enable Market Adoption - Engage with the private sector to identify and overcome barriers to adoption. These include market awareness of the UPRN and the cost of adoption – mass adoption of the UPRN, including a limited amount of associated attributes to enable this, should be available to the market at no cost for the data.
Ensure an ethical approach to data – define a clear agreement about the ethical use of data in the housing market.
On the 12th January 2021, a collection of organisations representing the majority of the UK residential property sector sent an open letter to the Housing Minister highlighting the benefits of using the UPRN and calling on the Government to take steps to ensure its adoption across the sector.
Strong progress has been made by both the public and the private sector. However against the backdrop of the intention to abolish Section 21’s and the introduction of the Leasehold & Freehold Reform Bill, the Building Safety Act, the short-term letting register and planned changes to both the home buying and selling process and the planning system – all of which have data at the heart of them – we believe that further action is needed for the benefit of the public sector, the private sector and the consumer.
We believe that the mass adoption of the UPRN will:
Increase income for the Treasury from increased transactions and market activity.
Improve building, consumer and market safety.
Increase protection for tenants and a reduction of rogue landlords.
Create more targeted and cost-effective enforcement of legislation.
Speed up and make more certain the home buying and selling process.
Reduce waste, save time and empower the consumer (e.g. by creating a central register of Gas Safe certificates built around UPRNs).
Link in Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICRs) in the PRS and low-carbon installations suchas Solar-PV, BESS, for visibility to potential purchasers, and Distribution Network Operators (DNO).
Enable data collection around accessibility and inclusion, and create effective routes to find accessible properties.
We believe that the wide market adoption of the UPRN will be a significant step forward with numerous benefitsto the UK economy, residential market and society.
Progress has been made in recent years around the use of the UPRN, itself being made open and with it being built into several public data sets, but more robust action is required, and we call on the new government to putthe UPRN in the centre stage of its property policy.
This letter is drafted by the Real Estate Data Foundation (RED Foundation) & The Letting Industry Council (TLIC) – the authors would be delighted to meet to discuss this topic further. The letter is signed by:
Full list of signatories:
Accessible PRS
Advice for Renters
Alpha Property Insight
Anthony Lettings
Barbon Insurance Group
Belvoir
British Property Federation
CBRE
Centre for Public Data
Chartered Institute of Housing
CJ Hole
Conveyancing Association
Conveyancing Information Executive
Cooper Adams
Country Properties
Drainage and Water Searches Network (DWSN)
EA Compliance
Eden
Electrical Safety First
Electrical Safety Roundtable
Ellis & Co
Elmhurst Energy
EweMove
Fidler & Pepper Lawyers
Fine Country
Goodlord
Guild of Letting & Management
Hamptons
Haslams Estate Agents
Henley Business School - University of Reading
HomeLets Bath
HomeOwners Alliance
Hunters
ihowz
JLL
Kamma
Kaptur
Kinley Folkard & Hayward
Knight Frank
Kotini
Land Data
Landmark
LandTech
Legal for Lettings
Marks out of Tenancy
Martin & Co
Mr and Mrs Clarke
Mullucks
NAPIT
Newton Fallowell
Nicholas Humphreys
No Letting Go
Northwood
NRLA
Onthemarket Software
Open Property Data Association
OpenBrix
Parkers
PLACEMAKE.IO
Property Logbook
Property Redress Scheme
Propertychecklists.co.uk
Propertymark
RED Foundation
Residential Property Surveyors Association
RICS
Rightmove
RLBA
SafeMove
Savills
Simon & Simon Property Services
SIOR, Society of Industrial and Office Realtors
SME Professional
Society of Licensed Conveyancer (SLC)
SQRx Ltd
Squires Estates
Sunshine Rentals Ltd
Tenancy Deposit Scheme
The Guild Property Professionals
The Lettings Hub
The Lettings Industry Council
The Property Booth
The Property Institute
The Property Ombudsman
TrustMark
UK Proptech Association
UK Association of Letting Agents
University College of Estate Management
Whitegates
Yuno