Why UPRNs and USRNs matter in local government reorganisation
Gayle Gander
At the heart of successful local government reorganisation is consistent, reliable location data. Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) and Unique Street Reference Numbers (USRNs) provide stable, unique identifiers for every addressable location and street across England and Wales. By linking datasets across services, from street works and planning to council tax and waste management, they enable councils to preserve continuity, reduce duplication, and maintain service delivery during structural change.
During reorganisation, whether authorities are merging into a unitary council or splitting into new ones, UPRNs and USRNs act as indispensable anchors. They support operational integrity, protect funding and reporting processes, and ensure continuity across systems that rely on location data. Without them, reconciling legacy datasets becomes significantly more complex, time-consuming and error-prone.
The challenge of LGR
LGR often involves radical shifts, merging or splitting multiple councils into unitaries, to streamline services and achieve economies of scale. However, these transformations bring immense complexity. Case studies from Dorset, Buckinghamshire, Somerset, and Cumberland and Westmoreland highlight the pressures: deadlines, varying data qualities, staffing restructures, and the need to consolidate or split gazetteers without interrupting operations.
In Dorset, five authorities combined systems amid boundary duplicates; Buckinghamshire integrated four districts with a county during Covid lockdowns; Somerset unified five councils from scratch; and Cumbria split one authority, navigating intersecting streets. Common across all: the risk of data inaccuracies leading to funding errors or service gaps.
Common challenges
A recurring theme is data fragmentation. Legacy systems varied in quality, leading to inconsistencies in formats, cross-references, and completeness. Boundary issues were rampant: Dorset and Cumbria dealt with duplicates and intersections, while Buckinghamshire and Somerset faced network connectivity clashes and unstructured processes. External factors amplified these: Covid in Buckinghamshire disrupted in-person collaboration, and all cases noted staffing challenges, with restructures hindering expertise access. Tight timelines added pressure, demanding rapid procurement, training, and testing to meet vesting days without downtime.
Key solutions and strategies
Success hinged on proactive collaboration and structured approaches. Early planning was universal: Cumbria started nine months ahead with spatial queries; Dorset and Somerset built cross-functional teams with GeoPlace and vendors. Standardisation emerged as a core strategy—aggregating LLPGs and LSGs into unified systems, cleansing data, and using tools like SQL scripts (Cumbria) or geometry-based identification (all). External hosting in Buckinghamshire ensured reliability, while remote tools like MS Teams bridged gaps. Governance innovations, such as Buckinghamshire's procurement questionnaires mandating gazetteer use, embedded data quality from the outset. Knowledge sharing fostered resilience.
The role of UPRNs and USRNs
UPRNs and USRNs were pivotal enablers. In mergers like Dorset and Buckinghamshire, new UPRN ranges and authority codes prevented overwrites, ensuring continuity in services like council tax and waste. Somerset's consolidation relied on them for high-quality unified gazetteers, while Cumbria used USRNs to split streets accurately, creating new Type 3 references and resolving post-split errors. These identifiers provided a ‘single source of truth,’ automating boundary resolutions, linking child systems, and supporting funding accuracy—crucial for DfT allocations tied to road lengths.
Outcomes and benefits
The results were transformative: all achieved operational gazetteers by deadlines, with Buckinghamshire and Somerset reaching the highest standard post-launch. Efficiency gains included cost savings (Dorset's £108m over six years), reduced duplication, and better resident services—faster queries in Somerset, Covid surge testing in Buckinghamshire. Cumbria's split ensured minimal disruptions, preserving funding integrity. Overall, reorganisations built agile, joined-up councils with geospatial hubs, boosting data confidence and collaboration.
Lessons learned
These cases underscore that LGR success demands early stakeholder engagement, data prioritisation, and leveraging UPRNs/USRNs for resilience. Investing in gazetteer quality isn't optional—it's a strategic lever for long-term savings and service excellence. As more authorities reorganise, these threads offer a blueprint: plan proactively, standardise ruthlessly, and collaborate relentlessly to turn challenges into opportunities.
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