The UK government's Smart Property Data initiative
OPDA's work doesn't sit in isolation. It is the technical standards arm of a coherent five-tier UK government initiative — running from primary legislation and the UK Industrial Strategy at the top, down through multiple departments and steering forums, to an operational sandbox that is live today.
In one sentence
The Property Data Trust Framework is the standards layer of a Smart Data scheme created by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, co-ordinated through the Digital Property Market Steering Group (formed Aug 2023 by HM Land Registry), and delivered through a Trust Framework Sandbox operated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, OPDA, and Raidiam under the Regulators' Pioneer Fund.
The five tiers at a glance
flowchart TB
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classDef del fill:#dcfce7,stroke:#166534,color:#14532d,stroke-width:2px;
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T1["Tier 1 — Legislation & Policy
DMCC Act 2024 · DUA Act 2025
Leasehold & Freehold Reform Act 2024
UK Industrial Strategy (property = priority sector)"]:::tier T2["Tier 2 — Departments & Bodies
MHCLG · DSIT · DBT · HMLR · NTSELAT
FCA · ICO"]:::gov T3["Tier 3 — Steering & Coordination
DPMSG (14 founding members)
Smart Data Council · HBSC · HBSG"]:::gov T4["Tier 4 — Delivery
Smart Property Data Trust Framework Sandbox
(CLC + OPDA + Raidiam, RPF-funded)
Smart Data Challenge · HMLR LLC Programme"]:::del T5["Tier 5 — Standards
PDTF (JSON Schema · OpenAPI · v2.0 spec)
W3C VC · DID · DIATF · ToIP"]:::std OPDA["OPDA"]:::opda T1 --> T2 T2 --> T3 T3 --> T4 T4 --> T5 OPDA -.delivers.-> T5 OPDA -.runs WGs in.-> T3 OPDA -.partner in.-> T4
DMCC Act 2024 · DUA Act 2025
Leasehold & Freehold Reform Act 2024
UK Industrial Strategy (property = priority sector)"]:::tier T2["Tier 2 — Departments & Bodies
MHCLG · DSIT · DBT · HMLR · NTSELAT
FCA · ICO"]:::gov T3["Tier 3 — Steering & Coordination
DPMSG (14 founding members)
Smart Data Council · HBSC · HBSG"]:::gov T4["Tier 4 — Delivery
Smart Property Data Trust Framework Sandbox
(CLC + OPDA + Raidiam, RPF-funded)
Smart Data Challenge · HMLR LLC Programme"]:::del T5["Tier 5 — Standards
PDTF (JSON Schema · OpenAPI · v2.0 spec)
W3C VC · DID · DIATF · ToIP"]:::std OPDA["OPDA"]:::opda T1 --> T2 T2 --> T3 T3 --> T4 T4 --> T5 OPDA -.delivers.-> T5 OPDA -.runs WGs in.-> T3 OPDA -.partner in.-> T4
The five-tier stack, with OPDA sitting across Tiers 3, 4, and 5.
Tier 1 — Legislation & policy backbone
| Instrument | What it does | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) | Empowers government to designate sectors for Smart Data sharing. Supersedes the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 that NTS material-information guidance relied on. | source/08-external-references/nts/README.md |
| Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA) | Underpins data sharing protections; featured in OPDA's "Impact of the Data Use and Access Act 2025" YouTube video. | source/05-engagement/videos-youtube/transcripts/20250802_6_x9-Rj6sLg.txt |
| Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 | Adjacent legislative context; Right to Manage and related leaseholder reforms. | source/08-external-references/uk-government/news/home-buying-and-selling-to-become-quicker-and-cheaper.html |
| UK Industrial Strategy | Names property as a priority sector for Smart Data innovation. | source/07-website/rendered/smart-property-data-trust-framework.html |
| Land Registration Act 2002 | Original enabling legislation for e-conveyancing. The DPMSG announcement explicitly frames the new initiative as picking up unfinished business from this Act. | source/08-external-references/uk-government/news/new-digital-property-market-steering-group-formed-...html |
Tier 2 — Departments & bodies
| Body | Role |
|---|---|
| MHCLG — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government | Policy lead. Running a 12-week project to design and implement agreed rules on data for the property sector. Ran Oct 2025 consultation on replacing the withdrawn NTS material-information guidance. |
| HMLR — HM Land Registry | Operational lead. Formed DPMSG (Aug 2023). Runs the Local Land Charges Programme (200+ councils migrated). Leading 10-month pilots with councils to open up more local data. |
| DSIT — Department for Science, Innovation and Technology | Smart Data Scheme and DIATF (Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework). Administers the Regulators' Pioneer Fund. Hosts the Smart Data Council. |
| DBT — Department for Business and Trade | Smart Data Challenge sponsor (the Moverly + OPDA prototype won an SDCP). Published the Smart Data Roadmap. |
| NTS / NTSELAT — National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team | Owned the (now-withdrawn) Material Information rules that OPDA's nts.json overlay implements. Successor guidance will come from MHCLG. |
| FCA · ICO | The financial conduct and information-governance regulators whose rules the property data ecosystem operates inside. |
Full detail in Departments & bodies.
Tier 3 — Steering & coordination forums
flowchart LR
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HMLR[HM Land Registry]:::body
DPMSG[DPMSG
Digital Property Market
Steering Group
14 founding members, formed Aug 2023]:::body SDC[Smart Data Council
DSIT, cross-sector]:::body HBSC["Home Buying & Selling Council"]:::body HBSG["HBSG
Home Buying & Selling Group
BASPI custodian"]:::body OPDA[OPDA]:::opda WGs["6 Working Groups
Steering · Comms & PR · Engagement
Policy · Regulator · Technical"]:::body HMLR -->|hosts| DPMSG DPMSG --- WGs OPDA -.leads WGs for.-> DPMSG OPDA -.represented on.-> SDC OPDA -.represented on.-> HBSC HBSG -.feeds BASPI into.-> OPDA
Digital Property Market
Steering Group
14 founding members, formed Aug 2023]:::body SDC[Smart Data Council
DSIT, cross-sector]:::body HBSC["Home Buying & Selling Council"]:::body HBSG["HBSG
Home Buying & Selling Group
BASPI custodian"]:::body OPDA[OPDA]:::opda WGs["6 Working Groups
Steering · Comms & PR · Engagement
Policy · Regulator · Technical"]:::body HMLR -->|hosts| DPMSG DPMSG --- WGs OPDA -.leads WGs for.-> DPMSG OPDA -.represented on.-> SDC OPDA -.represented on.-> HBSC HBSG -.feeds BASPI into.-> OPDA
DPMSG is the central convening forum. Its 14 founding members include the Law Society, RICS, UK Finance, BSA, Conveyancing Association, Council for Licensed Conveyancers, Society of Licensed Conveyancers, SRA, CILEX, CILEx Regulation, COPSO, Propertymark, and HMLR.
Full detail in Steering & coordination.
Tier 4 — Delivery: the Trust Framework Sandbox
From OPDA's own website, smart-property-data-trust-framework.html:
Delivered in partnership by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), the Open Property Data Association (OPDA), and Raidiam, funded through the Regulators' Pioneer Fund... governed by the Digital Property Market Steering Group, with active engagement from regulators, government departments, industry bodies and market participants. This is not a pilot. It is operational today.
Partner
CLC
Council for Licensed Conveyancers — brings the conveyancing-profession regulatory authority.
Partner
OPDA
Open Property Data Association — owns and publishes the PDTF standard.
Partner
Raidiam
Trust-framework operations specialist (same firm behind UK and Brazil Open Banking infrastructure).
Funding
Regulators' Pioneer Fund
UK government innovation fund (administered by DSIT).
Other delivery streams in the same orbit:
- Smart Data Challenge — DBT-sponsored; the Moverly+OPDA entry won the SDCP Innovators prize (Vimeo video referenced in our archive).
- HMLR Local Land Charges Programme — migrating 200+ council registers to a national HMLR-run digital service.
- MHCLG 12-week design project — newly announced rules-on-data design.
- HMLR 10-month council pilots — opening up more local-authority data.
Full detail in Trust Framework Sandbox.
Tier 5 — Standards stack
| Layer | Standard | OPDA's role |
|---|---|---|
| Identity / participants | W3C DID + DIATF | Implements via did:key, did:jwk, did:web |
| Trust / verification | W3C Verifiable Credentials Data Model | Implements via PDTF v2.0 specification |
| Data definition | JSON Schema (PDTF v3.6) + overlays | Owns & publishes (BASPI v4/v5, TA6/7/10, NTS, CON29R, PIQ, RDS, LPE1, OC1, LLC1, FME1) |
| API | OpenAPI (PDTF API v1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.0) | Owns & publishes |
| Material information | DMCC Act 2024 → MHCLG (replacing NTS) | Implements via nts.json overlay |
| Form coverage | Law Society TA forms, HBSG BASPI | Maps via dedicated overlays |
Full detail in Standards stack.
Why this matters for the linked-data project
Three implications worth holding in mind across every subsequent design choice:
- The governance framework is largely already chosen. PDTF has publicly committed to Trust Over IP. Our job is to codify what's informally adopted into proper documents per layer — not to invent a framework. See ToIP governance.
- Every artefact has a government counterpart. If we design a glossary, an ontology, a SHACL shape — it must be intelligible to MHCLG, DSIT, HMLR, and the regulators we share the ecosystem with. Plain language alongside formal definitions.
- The Open Banking precedent is the closest analogue. propdata.org.uk literally calls itself "Open Banking for Property Data". Borrow the governance patterns that have proven workable there: cost-recovery funding, conformance + certification, public consultation for changes, standards-body / regulator separation.