The report, commissioned by GeoPlace LLP and conducted by location strategy consultants ConsultingWhere, provides a case study of Nottingham City Council’s investment in geocoded address and street data, and the use of that data across the organisation.
The study examines Nottingham City Council’s use of Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) and Unique Street Reference Number (USRNs) to join different council systems together in order to gain valuable insights needed to deliver services effectively and efficiently.
The study draws on a previous national Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) undertaken in 2022 that established the breadth and depth of benefits already achieved. As the facilitator of accurate addressing for local government in England and Wales, GeoPlace recognised it would be useful to demonstrate these benefits through a case study that focused on the achievements of one local authority in detail.
Additional insights supporting decision making in key council strategic initiatives were identified but not quantified at the time of the study including:
Electoral registration – in Nottingham, an interface has been setup which enables automatic background exchanges of information between the electoral system and address gazetteer. As access to electoral data is restricted, data cannot be directly cross matched with other systems within the council, so this link is particularly important in checking eligibility and bringing about efficiencies. Another significant benefit of having geocoded addresses is being able to allocate voters to their nearest polling stations. A lookup tool has also been developed by the GIS team to assist people in finding their polling stations using address data, reducing the need for frontline contact through enabling citizens to self-serve.
Planning – the UPRN acts as a comprehensive, complete and consistent identifier throughout the planning lifecycle. It is intrinsic in ensuring a comprehensive view of a property to underpin development management, building control, searches and street naming and numbering, with all relevant documentation and planning status information linked via the UPRN and available to relevant officers. Fundamentally, this removes errors in data exchange and communication, and delivers efficiency gains in operational processes.
Climate change – in the United Kingdom, most of the energy consumed in buildings is used for heating, which is directly linked with their energy efficiency. Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) are the only information available publicly to analyse and compare the energy drive efforts towards energy efficiency and decarbonisation. However, EPCs are not available for all properties and the EPC databases have inconsistencies.
In Nottingham, work has been undertaken between the Carbon Neutral Policy Team and the GIS Team to look at how the use of the UPRN, as an essential link in bringing disparate datasets together, can aid the decarbonisation agenda and help to meet the 2028 carbon neutral target. This has resulted in the production of an EPC model, linking to other property datasets which has wide ranging use cases for insight and project development and has been integral in allowing for the identification of spatial clusters of domestic properties that have similar retrofit needs and criteria for grant funding, informing bids submitted to central government.
Results of the analysis show the council generated an estimated RoI of over 4:1 between 2018 and 2022. That indicates a Net Present Value (NPV) of an estimated GBP 4.1 million – the difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows.
Over the whole study period from 2018 – 2026, the total net benefits after applying the Treasury Discount Rate are predicted to be just over GBP 9.8 million representing an overall RoI of just over 6:1.
As a step-change in functionality, by integrating UPRNs and USRNs this study shows the value of different departments utilising authoritative address and street data. The report examined 6 specific areas:
Data integration – the total impact of integrating addressing data from 2018 to 2026 using the UPRN is estimated to be around GBP 2.4 million
Collection of business rates – with an impact at an estimated uplift of GBP 6.2 million in newly-identified business rates
Children’s social care and early help services – the total impact of investing in better addressing will be an estimated increase of GBP 0.4 million
Safer housing – the overall efficiency gain to the council for licensing and enforcement is in the range of GBP 215,000 per annum
Waste management – the total impact over the period 2018 – 2026 is estimated at GBP 0.6 million
Workplace parking levy – a conservative estimate suggests that the direct savings would be at least GBP 5,000 per annum.