Greater adoption of the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) will deliver substantial benefits to UK society. On 12 January, a cohort of the most prominent bodies in the UK’s Residential Property Sector (RPS) sent an open letter to Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) – highlighting ways in which government can support the appetite for greater adoption of the UPRN, right across the sector.
Nick Chapallaz, CEO, GeoPlace, said:
“This is an extraordinary open letter. It marks an important shift in awareness among businesses and organisations that are determined to deliver better outcomes by making better use of location data. The signatories represent a formative cohort, and their appetite for greater adoption of the UPRN will be excellent news for the property sector, homeowners and tenants alike”.
The UPRN works much in the same way as the number plate on a car. By linking a unique number to all things property-related, such as surveys, sales and paperwork, every process can be tracked more effectively and enacted more efficiently. However, to make sure the UPRN’s potential is fully optimised, the RPS is asking government to take a number of steps and work towards a number of significant policy changes. As a result, the sector would see:
- Faster conveyancing as processes become more efficient
- More targeted, cost-effective legislation enforcement
- Greater protection for tenants and fewer rogue landlords
- An increase in productivity in the property sector overall
- Improved consumer and market safety and lower levels of fraud
The open letter details the changes required across the sector, which can be enabled through focused support from government:
- All public sector data sets relating to properties and buildings should include the UPRN and a clear roadmap is needed to get to this point
- All future government tenders and policy relating to residential properties and associated data should mandate the use of the UPRN
- There must be clear agreement about the ethical use of data in the housing market
- The UPRN must be in a clear and useable format that allows the UPRN to be widely identified, and freely used and shared
- This must include the tools, the support materials and the explanation needed by the whole sector for adoption, not just the solution providers
Andrew Bulmer, CEO of IRPM commented:
“If all the conditions in our open letter were to be met, we could work towards the wholesale adoption of the UPRN, right across the sector. Implemented effectively, this could help position the UK as the world’s leading property market”.
Back in April 2020, Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP, Minister for Housing, stated that the mandate for using UPRNs is the “most powerful boost for the UK PropTech sector in a generation”.
Theresa Wallace, Founder of The Lettings Industry Council (TLIC), noted that:
“Widespread adoption could revolutionise the property market. This is an exciting initiative that has industry support and we now need the government to add theirs”.
One Response
Gosh, if only something like this already existed. We could call it, I don’t know. a “Title Number”?
And then, we’d need some sort of register to keep track of all these new-fangled Title Numbers. Maybe we could set an organisation and call it something like “HM Land Registry”.