Rushcliffe Borough Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data

Update 17 March 2026

Good news – following an internal review, Rushcliffe Borough Council has mostly reverted to its original position on re-use of the Council Tax address dataset disclosed to me in September 2025. In a letter received yesterday, the Council confirms that all of the disclosed information, with the exception of the postcodes, may be re-used under the terms of the Open Government Licence.

The Council's review is methodical and sets out the Council's position in relation to the disclosure and re-use of each data attribute in the Council Tax list. The Council considers that it is the sole owner of intellectual property in the address data, local property references, and Council Tax bands in the disclosed information, and is also permitted to license the UPRNs under the OGL (in line with Ordnance Survey's Open Identifiers policy).

With respect to the address data, the Council says:

"We have assessed the rights in the Address Data that we disclosed to you and believe that the correct legal position is that the Address Data provided in the original response contains IP rights which belong solely to the Council. This is because the Council maintains an entirely separate list of addresses in the Council Tax database, which is not linked or otherwise related to the data contained in the Council's LLPG [Local Land and Property Gazetteer] and LSG [Local Streets Gazetteer] databases. It is our view that we do not believe the release of this dataset will prejudice the commercial interests of any third parties given that this data is separate from and unrelated to any data processed as part of the DCA with GeoPlace."

However, the Council considers that Royal Mail has copyright in the postcodes data and that the postcodes were disclosed in error by the Council. The Council requests that anybody who has received a copy of the previously published version of the disclosed information should delete the postcodes.

You can download my correspondence with the Council to date, including the information as disclosed except for the postcodes: CT_address_list_Rushcliffe_BC_FOI3804039_v2.zip (1.94 MB).

I have also written a new blog post from which you can download a repackaged geocoded version of the Council Tax address list. That geocoded version does not contain the postcodes supplied by the Council but does contain postcodes appended from a separate ONS dataset.

Update 4 February 2026

The download of Council Tax address data disclosed by Rushcliffe Borough Council in September 2025 and originally linked in the post below has been removed as of today, following receipt of further correspondence from the Council. A second download containing collated and geocoded versions of the data has also been removed.

The Council's new position is that it made an error when it granted permission for re-use of the addresses in the Council Tax list under the Open Government Licence, because the addresses contain third party rights that the Council was not authorised to license.

You can download my correspondence with the Council to date: CT_address_list_Rushcliffe_BC_FOI3804039_[NO_DATA_correspondence_only].zip (0.95 MB).

It seems likely that this change in the Council's position follows an intervention from Ordnance Survey and/or GeoPlace LLP as anticipated in my recent post.

I am seeking clarification and an internal review from the Council in further correspondence, and some or all of the data may be republished at a later date.

The remainder of this post is as originally published in September, with the exception of the download links and removal of a screenshot.

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 Rushcliffe Borough Council.

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 have subsequently requested equivalent datasets from a small number of other English councils.

Release from Rushcliffe Borough Council

The latest council to release its Council Tax address list is Rushcliffe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire. The Council disclosed the requested data under the FOI Act and granted permission for re-use under the terms of the OGL, without any difficulties other than some back and forth to confirm the licensing.

You can download my correspondence with the Council, including the information as disclosed: CT_address_list_Rushcliffe_BC_FOI3804039.zip (0.9 MB) [link removed].

Geocoded open version of Rushcliffe address dataset

I have created a geocoded version of the Rushcliffe Borough Council address dataset, which you can also download: RUSHCLIFFE_CTBANDS_ONSUD_202509.zip (3.7 MB) [link removed].

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 (August 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.

[screenshot of geocoded Rushcliffe address data visualised in Google Earth – removed]

Previous posts related to the campaign for open address data in the UK

It took seven months but Hackney Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (5 August 2025)

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)