New data source for Housing Associations and NROSH

19 April 2010, 4:00pm

A new source of high quality address data is now available to Housing Associations across England that enables compatibility with the National Register of Social Housing (NROSH).

Through address management specialists Aligned Assets, data from the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) can now be quickly and easily purchased in subsets right down to District and Borough Council level.

This will enable all Housing Associations to attribute Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) from the NLPG to each of their housing stock records and thereby fulfil one of the core requirements for submissions to NROSH.

In addition to easy access to the UPRNs, the NLPG data gives a precise, standardise method of address recording, which is in line with all Local Authorities, and enables the regular updating of the data.

With the increasing importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Housing Associations, the NLPG data has another key advantage in that each record contains an accurate geographic reference, which allows for precise plotting of housing stock in GIS.

Speaking of the geographic component, Mike Smith, Sales & Marketing Manager at Aligned Assets said, “The use of GIS opens up a wealth of information to Housing Associations such as flood risk, housing need against supply, the mapping of energy efficiency and decent homes standards, analysis of rent arrears and the dispersal of dwelling size/type.”

He concluded by saying, “Using data from the NLPG allows for each property to be mapped individually, which gives a far higher level of value to the use of GIS. With regards the analysis of flood risk for example, mapping by postcode will lead to huge inaccuracies since two properties could be mapped together, yet one is at the top of a hill, the other at the bottom. The NLPG completely removes this.”

Whilst other commercially-available address data can only be purchased in large, regional areas, the NLPG prices start from as little as £660 per District Council. What this means is that the NLPG data is not only the best available, but through Aligned Assets, is now the most cost effective.

www.aligned-assets.co.uk/housing

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