Key:ref:GB:uprn
 ref:GB:uprn
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| Description |
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Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), the public sector mandated unique identifier for every addressable location in the United Kingdom. 
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| Group: references |
| URL pattern |
| https://uprn.uk/$1 |
| Used on these elements |
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Status: approved
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| Tools for this tag |
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The Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) is the public sector mandated[1] unique identifier for every addressable location in the United Kingdom.[2]
Custodians working for relevant authorities assign unique identifiers – the UPRN – to individual, addressable locations. An addressable location may be any kind of Basic Land and Property Unit (BLPU), we typically think of these as buildings, with addresses, however it may be an object that might not have a 'normal' address – such as a bus shelter, post box, phone box, pond, street or an electricity substation for example. Overwhelmingly however, UPRNs are used in relation to 'normal' addresses, which can include commercial, assembly, educational and domestic - the latter may be individual houses, tenement, or apartment blocks.
UPRNs provide every BLPU with a consistent, persistent, numerical identifier (often between 8 and 12 digits, but not restricted to 12) throughout its lifecycle from planning through to demolition. Note that UPRNs can be allocated to both a building and individual units within the main building. UPRNs may be added at approximate locations initially, before being moved to the correct position. This can occur when UPRNs are allocated to new build houses, before building has commenced. UPRNs also continue to exist within OS Open UPRN after the UPRN has been decommissioned. The official states are "under construction", "In use", "Unoccupied /vacant/derelict", "No longer existing", "Planning permission granted". [3] They are not included in OS Open Data.
The relevance of UPRNs is that they can be linked to other identifiers such as Basic Land and Property Unit (BLPU), which are used in managing details of each property such as the address. Other linked identifiers that can be used are the Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) and postcode. In this way, various spatially linked data sources are used in Great Britain by Ordnance Survey to provide their address products.
Blocks of sequential UPRN values are allocated to gazetteer custodians in England and Wales by GeoPlace. In Scotland, the allocation of blocks of UPRNs is carried out by the Improvement Service. In Northern Ireland, UPRNs are the responsibility of the Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland), which are managed together with linked identifiers by Land & Property Services in conjunction with the Royal Mail and local authorities. Use of the UPRN also extends to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. This proposal is intentionally silent on those island territories, in part because no data source is known, but also because local mappers may wish to use their local ISO codes (IM, GG and JE) in place of the GB ISO code for United Kingdom.
How to Map
Map UPRNs in the same way that you map addresses or amenities (e.g. shops) on or in buildings. In practice this means:
- Where there is a one-to-one relationship between building and UPRN, then add the UPRN to the building's outline (way).
- Where there are multiple UPRN's within a single building, you may add nodes within the building and add the UPRN to the nodes. Some buildings may have multiple UPRNs that are indistinguishable from each other.
The important part is that the ref:GB:uprn tag is clearly associated with the feature it relates to in the original database of UPRN entries.
A single UPRN should only appear in OSM once. Anything listed in taginfo values with more than one occurrence is questionable https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/ref:GB:uprn#values has a link to Overpass Turbo similar to https://overpass-turbo.eu/?w=%22ref%3AGB%3Auprn%22%3D%2210023712305%22+global&R
Most counties have 'street level' UPRNs. These are often at the ends of roads, possibly used to mark the entrance to a new road on a new estate, though may be at other points in the road. They are generally well aligned with the underlying geometry of the roads. Footpaths joining highways often have UPRNs positioned at the edge of the carriageway, rather than at the centre of the carriageway. The road will have a ref:GB:usrn=*. It is not clear whether we should add these to OSM or not. If yes, then this would lead to UPRNs being on multiple sections of the road OR at a single point on the road.
Data
All data added to OSM must be licensed under a compatible license. In the case of UPRNs, this will normally be the Open Government Licence (OGL).
Unfortunately, the government has not released a mapping between UPRNs and addresses as open data, so any dataset which links a UPRN directly to an address is very likely to be derived from proprietary Ordnance Survey data and is not acceptable in OSM. If in doubt, please ask first.
- The official mapping between UPRNs and geographic locations for Great Britain is available as Open Data under the OGL.
- The ONS provides a mapping between UPRNs, postcodes, geographic locations, and regions in their National Statistics UPRN Lookup (NSUL) and ONS UPRN Directory (ONSUD). These are also OGL-licensed. Postcodes may be based on the nearest postcode for items that would not normally have a postcode.
Useful combination
building=*may have one or more UPRNs, one will relate to the building or property as a whole, others to flats, business units or other subdivisionsfhrs:local_authority_id=*may match the UPRN in the Castle Point, Fareham and Vale of White Horse local authority areasamenity=post_boxoften has a UPRN, but generally only ifpost_box:type=pillaramenity=toiletsleisure=playgroundPlaygroundsamenity=atmamenity=post_depotSorting offices and delivery officeslanduse=allotmentsAllotments (buildings may have UPRNs within the allotments)landuse=recreation_ground= Parkshighway=*Roadsnatural=waterSome bodies of water. Ponds, including very small natural ponds, are especially well covered. Locks on canals are often covered. Small canals and rivers are seldom covered.man_made=storage_tank(often found in farms, sewage treatment works, or by industrial buildings)power=substation(often, but not always, smaller distribution substations have two UPRNs, one in a corner of the substation, and one at the centre)natural=treeTrees- ...+ other objects that have UPRNs...
Discussions
- On Talk-GB mailing list at several points during 2020
- At a State of the Map 2020 online workshop
Identifying OSM objects with UPRNs
The currently available open data on UPRNs does not typically identify the type of UPRN, but does link it to a postcode, USRN and position. Some other sources may link a UPRN back to a specific item, such as where UPRNs are included in council datasets. It is therefore important to determine which OSM object, if any, a UPRN relates to.
Roads and Highways
Roads will have at least one USRN assigned to cover all parts of them. In addition they will have at least one UPRN, a "street record" assigned.
Street Record UPRNs are commonly found:
- At junctions
- At the end of roads
- At a position along the road, aligned to the centre of the road. UPRNs to the side of a road are more likely to relate to other objects, such as post-boxes or other street furniture.
- At the boundary between local authorities on roads
- At the edge of the carriageway, where a footpath joins a road.
UPRNs on roads may also relate to the structures such as bridges.
Buildings
Buildings typically have a UPRN at the centre of the building.
Ancillary buildings, for example on a farm, may not have their own UPRN.
A building footprint may contain multiple UPRNs. This is typically when:
- Multiple floors of the building have different UPRNs, for example a flat over a shop. In these cases, the UPRNs often share the same location.
- Part of a building has been carved out for a specific new purpose such as a business or a new flat.
- A UPRN is needed to represent something in the building, such as a business.
Care is needed with buildings that have multiple UPRNs at different positions. UPRNs along a street often have sequential UPRNs, which may allow the UPRN relating to the building to be determined. Other UPRNs may happen to fall within a building, for example if they represent a parcel of land for development.
Care is needed when a building has been demolished, as these UPRNs still appear in open data.
Where buildings have been built over previously demolished buildings, several approaches can be taken to identify the UPRNs for the new building:
- The sequence of nearby (not rebuilt) buildings will typically be close, or sequential, with the buildings built at the same time (which have been demolished).
- Open UPRN only includes postcodes in Code Point Open. UPRNs without a postcode may therefore relate to an old expired postcode (when an entire area is demolished), or a new postcode that has not yet been assigned.
- If buildings do not share the same geometry as previously, the new UPRNs will typically be in the centres of the new buildings.
Water Bodies
Ponds and similar areas of water (though not typically rivers or canals) typically have a UPRN. UPRNs are usually positions at the centre. If a large water body crosses multiple local authorities, it may have multiple UPRNs positions for their part of the water body - this is more common for large reservoirs.
Items on waterways such as weirs and locks may have UPRNs.
Playground
Playgrounds often have a distinct UPRN. If the playground sits within a park, the park may also have a UPRN. Care is needed where there is only one UPRN and this is in the centre of both the playground and the park.
Graveyards
Graveyards typically have a UPRN positioned roughly at the centre, but aligned with paths to be a more natural centre. Care is needed to determine that this point doesn't represent another item, such as a monument or pond.
Graveyards may also have other buildings, which may have their own UPRNs. Care is needed to determine that a UPRN does not relate to a building near the centre of the site.
Allotments
Allotments typically have one UPRN to cover the allotment, but some allotments are split into multiple parts (potentially with different names).
Allotments may also have other buildings with their own UPRNs, or highways through them with their own UPRN.
Substations and similar facilities often encroach into allotments, so UPRNs towards the edge of an allotment may relate to other features.
Substations
Substations typically have at least one UPRN, but having exactly two UPRNs is common, especially in smaller distribution substations. These UPRNs are located at the centre of the substation, and along one edge of the site. The site of a substation may extend beyond the immediate compound, as they are often set back from a road and accessed by land that is part of the site.
Tools
These maps show UPRNs:
at higher zooms.
Use Cases for UPRNs in OSM
This is a sample of potential uses of UPRNs to improve OSM data, including direct assignment of UPRNs to OSM elements.
- Identification of farms which have been converted to residential usage. Usually farms will have one (rarely 2-3) UPRN whereas when a farm is converted for residential usage UPRNs will appear over older style farm buildings (typically forming a courtyard). Some farms will always have had more than one residential property on the farmyard site (often occupied by different generations of the farming family), but the associated buildings and distribution of UPRNs will be different.
- Assignment of postcodes to houses where this is not possible through other open data. Although it is often possible to guess sensible break points where postcodes change on a street, when the break occurs in a single run of houses this is much harder. The availability of UPRN-Postcode mapping can resolve this. A specific example is Southwold Drive in Nottingham where the break between NG8 1PA and NG8 1PB could not be originally ascertained.
- More precise mapping of small objects. Individual telephone kiosks and pillar postboxes (but not apparently other types) have UPRNs and the location is given to the nearest metre. These uprns can thus be used to locate these objects more accurately. No doubt there are other classes of objects where this applies. Caution is needed when phone boxes & pillar boxes are close together.
- Adding uprns to the above object types (phone & pillar boxes) in OSM provides an easy way of evaluating positional accuracy of their mapping. See attached image.
OSM Post-box jitter cf. UPRN location
- UPRNs added to streets may be used to identify all elements making up a single street. USRNs are probably better suited to this purpose.
- Checking that all addresses have been added. Using UPRNs can form a useful cross-check when mapping addresses.
- Identifying maisonettes and other small apartment buildings. These can be difficult to identify from aerial imagery. Modern maisonettes are only slightly larger than houses (slightly deeper and higher roof line). Pre-WW1 ones (London) are indistinguishable from terraced houses (example Darwin Road, Ealing).
- Detecting new developments in existing well-mapped areas
- Detecting un-mapped small features such as postboxes, phone booths and phone/lighting towers