Owen Boswarva's blog

This is the latest in a 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 describe new open address datasets released by Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council.

Background

As related in previous posts, I have been requesting Council Tax address datasets from local authorities in England, and asking for permission to re-use the data under the terms of the Open Government Licence.

I have created a landing page on my Datadaptive site with download links and other information about the Council Tax address datasets released as open data so far:

www.datadaptive.com/addr/

I recently published a progress update on that project.

Releases from Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council

The latest councils to release their Council Tax address lists are Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council in the South East of England.

The two councils are separate legal entities but have shared services for a range of functions including handling of information requests. I submitted requests to the councils separately, but in practice my correspondence with each council was almost identical except for the names of the councils.

In their initial responses the councils each disclosed a list of local property references with corresponding full addresses and postcodes. However, the councils withheld the Council Tax bands and Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) on the basis that while the councils held the missing data it was not in a format that they were able to extract in-house:

"In order to provide the specific data set you have requested, we would need our supplier, MRI, to extract the data from the system and compile it into a report. There would be a charge to the council from MRI to carry out this task which at a daily rate of £1500+VAT, would be in excess of the appropriate limits."

The councils also highlighted what they considered to be the availability of the withheld information from other sources, although they did not explicitly rely on the exemption in section 21 of the FOI Act ("information accessible to applicant by other means").

I requested internal reviews. I said I was sceptical that the councils had negotiated such a high daily rate from their supplier to carry out the basic tasks that would normally be required to extract and compile the requested information, and that in any case the councils had miscalculated the costs of compliance for purposes of the appropriate limit in section 12 in the FOI Act.

The purported charge from the councils' supplier is not relevant to calculation of the costs of complying with my request. It is clear from ICO guidance on the application of section 12 that when an external contractor spends time on permitted activities the councils must calculate their time at the fixed rate of £25 per hour, regardless of the actual commercial or contractual invoice rate charged by the contractor.

The outcomes of the internal reviews were that the councils upheld their initial decisions. However, the Council Tax service had been able to extract another dataset containing local property references with corresponding valuation bands, so the councils supplied those data files in addition to the original disclosures. The councils have continued to maintain that they cannot produce the UPRNs within the cost limit.

After further back and forth in emails, the councils have granted permission for re-use of all of the disclosed information under the terms of the Open Government Licence.

You can download my correspondence with the two councils. Adur: CT_address_list_Adur_26062231_[NO_DATA_correspondence_only].zip (4.86 MB) and Worthing: CT_address_list_Worthing_26062267_[NO_DATA_correspondence_only].zip (4.89 MB).

Thanks to staff covering both councils for facilitating the disclosure and open licensing of this data.

Access to these datasets

I am not publishing the Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council address datasets here, due to the non-specific but lingering risk of further unsubstantiated claims of infringement from Ordnance Survey and GeoPlace LLP. You can read more about that issue in my blog post from May.

However the councils have published their initial responses to my requests in their disclosure log, which means that most of the disclosed information is publicly accessible. See attachment 'ADC_Property_Reference_Table_14.07.xlsx' to Response to request 26062231 from Adur and 'WBC_Property_Reference_Table_14.07.xlsx' to Response to request 26062267. The information in those data files includes the local property references, full addresses, and postcodes but not the Council Tax bands themselves.

I don't know whether the above links are persistent. If they don't work, you should be able to locate the files by searching the disclosure log using the reference numbers for the requests.

You can also ask the councils for copies of the additional data files. For tips on submitting access to information and re-use requests see this other blog post. My requests were submitted to both councils on 15 June 2026. Adur District Council's reference is 26062231 and Worthing Borough Council's reference is 26062267.

More about Adur District Council's address dataset

Adur District Council has disclosed its Council Tax address dataset to me in the form of an Excel workbook 'ADC_Property_Reference_Table_14.07.xlsx' and a CSV file 'Council_tax_banding_with_property_ref_ADC.csv'. The combined list includes the local property reference, full address (in four fields), postcode, and Council Tax band for a domestic property in the Adur District Council area.

The list has been supplied in two data files, one of which contains 30,532 property records and the other 39,544 property records. The second file includes historical records for properties where the Council Tax band has changed, with relevant dates. As both files contain local property references, the information in the two files can be combined.

The information in the list seems to be well-maintained. As UPRNs have not been supplied, the records cannot be geocoded at property level using open data sources.

Please see the ReadMe file with the correspondence for information on attribution and additional technical details about the dataset.

More about Worthing Borough Council's address dataset

Worthing Borough Council has disclosed its Council Tax address dataset to me in the form of an Excel workbook 'WBC_Property_Reference_Table_14.07.xlsx' and a CSV file 'Council_tax_banding_Property_ref_WBC_Copy.csv'. The combined list includes the local property reference, full address (in four fields), postcode, and Council Tax band for a domestic property in the Adur District Council area.

The list has been supplied in two data files, one of which contains 55,396 property records and the other 77,376 property records. The second file includes historical records for properties where the Council Tax band has changed, with relevant dates. As both files contain local property references, the information in the two files can be combined.

The information in the list seems to be well-maintained. As UPRNs have not been supplied, the records cannot be geocoded at property level using open data sources.

Please see the ReadMe file with the correspondence for information on attribution and additional technical details about the dataset.

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

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (8 September 2026)

Hartlepool Borough Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (28 August 2026)

Borough of Broxbourne Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (26 August 2026)

Stroud District Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (24 August 2026)

Progress update: UK councils have now released more than ten million address records as open data (22 August 2026)

Derby City Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (21 August 2026)

South Hams District Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (20 August 2026)

South Gloucestershire Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (20 August 2026)

Eastbourne Council and Lewes District Council have released their Council Tax address lists as open data (19 August 2026)

Uttlesford District Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (17 August 2026)