Home » News » Extraordinary industry coalition urges government to adopt UPRNs
Regulation & Law

Extraordinary industry coalition urges government to adopt UPRNs

Over 50 organisations and estate agencies have written to Minister to introduce a nationwide system of identifying homes with a 12-digit number.

Nigel Lewis

Over 50 key industry bodies and estate agencies have written to the government to urge Ministers to adopt Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNS) across the housing market.

The Lettings Industry Council (TLIC) and the Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM) have with 51 other organisations jointly written an open letter to housing secretary Robert Jenrick and Thalia Baldwin, the government’s geospatial chief.

Supported by many estate agent names including Foxtons, Countrywide, JLL, Savills, Knight Frank and Hunters, the letter claims that UPRNs will improve building safety, help enforcement, weed out rogue landlords, speed up the home buying process, empower the consumer and increase income for the Treasury.

Andrew Bulmer, RICS, imageAndrew Bulmer (pictured), CEO of the IRPM says: “The UPRN is like attaching a number plate to a car, instead we [will] attach a unique number to all things related to properties so that each property can be uniquely identified with unparalleled accuracy.”

But wary of many agent’s suspicions that UPRNs could increase bureaucracy within the housing market, the letter sets out clear conditions for the system being introduced.

This includes ensuring UPRNs are simple and easy to use, that local and national government adopts them in all their housing operations and that a clear set of rules is established to ensure their ethical use.

“If all the conditions outlined in the letter were to be met, we could proactively work towards the wholesale adoption of the UPRN,” says Bulmer.

“Implemented effectively, this could help position the UK as the world’s leading property market.”

Theresa Wallace (pictured) founder of TLIC, says: “widespread adoption of UPRNs could revolutionise the property market, this is a really exciting initiative which has industry support and we now need the Government to add theirs.”

Read the open letter in full.

January 12, 2021

4 comments

  1. Widescale adoption of the Unique Property Reference Number system will speed digitisation, enhance clarity, and make the identification of the property asset far easier. There is no downside to its adoption.

  2. Very proud to support this and welcome any other suppliers and agents getting behind this. Please help share posts re UPRNs now and going forwards so we can keep pressure on Robert Jenrick & Co to drive wider (and mandated) adoption of this.

  3. Great to see this letter and in full support of the industry adoption of the UPRN. We’ve been attaching the UPRN to our Property Log Book® since the UPRNs were released earlier last year.

  4. The UPRN is certainly part of the core data set for the Residential Logbook Association.

What's your opinion?

Please note: This is a site for professional discussion. Comments will carry your full name and company.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.