[Talk-GB] Ofcom consultation - Royal Mail - PAF - OSMUK Response?

[Mark Goodge]

On 22/01/2021 11:02, Nick wrote:
> Given that "the addresses are created by local authorities", surely 
> government already has some ownership? 

It's not really true that addresses are created by local authorities. 
Local authorities assign street names and building numbers, building 
names (if they exist) are assigned by the owner or builder of the 
property, and postal localities (if they exist), post towns and 
postcodes are assigned by Royal Mail. So the postal address of a 
property is a composite of data from multiple sources.

> Interestingly, the post code areas are often modified by 
> Royal Mail in response to corrections made by Local Authorities in their 
> address data. So from a systems perspective, this implies that the Local 
> Authority data is the core data?

No. Royal Mail has a policy that if the local authority renames a 
street, then they will also assign a new postcode (or set of postcodes) 
to properties on that street. That's purely an operational decision, 
though, and not something that they are required by local authorities 
(or any other authority) to do.

Mark