Throughout its lifecycle, information on an address of a property can change. This may be due to a change of name or number, a sub-division or aggregation of an address within a building, changes of use, for example from single occupancy to multiple occupancy, both for domestic and business properties or the eventual demolition of the property. Information on the timing and nature of the change will be known first by the local authority as part of their normal processes before being passed onto a third party such as Royal Mail, which will add a postcode if it delivers mail to the address.

Having access to the most up-to-date information on every property type, including multi-occupied premises is not only vital to the Council itself for services such as community safety, local taxation and voting, but also for its partners such as the emergency services.

Local authorities have many statutory duties that involve managing property addresses. The NLPG process underpins this by linking key datasets such as council tax, NNDR, planning and electoral roll to the NLPG data. Information is sourced from other operational data, the best source for reference data. Multiple cross-reference sources help to ensure completeness