This is the latest in an occasional 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 make available a new open address dataset released by London Borough of Hackney.
Background
As described in previous posts, last year at my request Leeds City Council published a new list of all domestic properties in its area, including full addresses and Council Tax bands, with notice of permission to re-use the data under the terms of the Open Government Licence. I subsequently requested equivalent datasets from four other English councils: Birmingham City Council, Lichfield District Council, Nottingham City Council, and London Borough of Hackney.
You can download a geocoded version of the Leeds address dataset from my November 2024 post and geocoded versions of the Birmingham and Lichfield address datasets from the February 2025 update to my January 2025 post. Nottingham City Council disclosed a list of reference numbers and Council Tax bands, but refused to disclose its address data.
Resolution of request to London Borough of Hackney
Unlocking Hackney's Council Tax address list took rather longer.
In its initial response in January, Hackney did not disclose any of the requested information, and gave reasons that seemed to be unrelated to the contents of my request:
"We have applied Section 31(1)(a) ['law enforcement'] to your request because of the risk of increased crime that would likely occur if a list of empty properties was released to the wider public under a freedomof information request."
and
"The Council has applied section 41(1) ['information provided in confidence'] to the part of your request that asks for specific account details, account-holder name, occupancy information and information relating to reliefs."
I asked the Council to carry out an internal review of its handling of my request.
The Council acknowledged my request for an internal review but did not respond further. After 40 working days had passed I complained to the Information Commissioner's Office.
The ICO took four months to assign an officer to my case. However, following the ICO's intervention last month, Hackney disclosed its latest Council Tax address list to me and confirmed permission to re-use the information as open data.
You can download my correspondence with the Council, including the information as disclosed: CT_address_list_Hackney_LB_30494858.zip (5.18 MB).
[Update 25 September 2025: the ICO has published decision notices on Hackney's failure to handle my requests within the statutory timeframe: IC-369919-B0R1 and IC-424951-T3D5].
Geocoded open version of Hackney address dataset
I have created a geocoded version of the London Borough of Hackney address dataset, which you can also download: HACKNEY_CTBANDS_ONSUD_202507.zip (8.25 MB).
This dataset contains all of the information from the underlying Council dataset, other than the postcodes. Geographic coordinates and postcodes have been appended from the latest edition of the ONS UPRN Directory (May 2025). I have prepared the data in CSV and GeoJSON formats, suitable for re-use under the terms of the Open Government Licence. Please see the enclosed ReadMe file for additional information.
Previous posts related to the campaign for open address data in the UK
More open address datasets released by councils in England (30 January 2025)
Open data: are ONS's address data products legal? (7 January 2025)
Open address data published by Leeds City Council – Ordnance Survey intervenes to protect Royal Mail IP (24 November 2024)
Open address data published by Leeds City Council shows the way to a national open address file (16 October 2024)
Whatever happened to the UK Government's Open Address Register programme? (1 October 2024)
FOI release: Royal Mail's view on a House of Lords proposal for open address data in the UK (15 August 2024)
Open addresses in the House of Lords – what happened? (28 March 2024)
Thoughts on campaigning for open address data in the UK (30 June 2023)
UK address data: a primer and bibliography (last updated 30 November 2022)