MOSL and data solutions company, Sagacity, have discovered more than 1.1m supply point addresses that may need clarification and/or correction by wholesalers.
Sagacity has undertaken a cycle of pre-cleansing activities and analysis to fully understand the state of approximately 2.6 million supply points in the non-household market. The purpose of this phase was to complete a Data Quality Assessment, which identified several discrepancies.
Out of the 2.6m, just 58 per cent of premises were able to be confidently matched (i.e. considered Exact or Definitive) to industry recognised address data sources (e.g. Ordnance Survey Address Base Premium (ABP) and The Postcode Address File (PAF)). The rest (42 per cent) range from Probable (178k), where information broadly matches, potentially matched (510k) to Unmatched (415k), where it is not possible to attempt a match with the information available.
Invalid Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs)
UPRNs are government-mandated unique identifiers for every addressable location in the UK. UPRNs allow for properties to be correctly managed and is a core data field in CMOS.
Of the 2.6m supply points held in CMOS:
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1.7m supply points have a UPRN of which, 1.1m have been validated as being correct and 610k requiring validation. The reason for this validation varies but includes examples of where the UPRN is attached to a different address to the one records in the MOSL database
- 865k supply points did not have a UPRN. Sagacity have identified 525k new UPRNs, with the remaining 340k being unidentified.
This suggests that the importance of ongoing accuracy, completeness and validation of the data is essential in managing the eligibility and customers in the market.
Inactive Premises
Sagacity identified a number of premises that were set as occupied in CMOS but appear to be inactive. Over 35k premises were identified by Sagacity as being removed and/or demolished, with 62.2 per cent (22.2k) of those currently showing in CMOS as being occupied. Upon further investigation, examples have been identified where premises have been demolished or unoccupied for over five years, which could be resulting in incorrect retailer charges or unpaid bills on premises that are incorrect.
Residential Premises
Over 168k addresses (6.47 per cent) were identified as being potentially residential. These instances can occur when commercial properties are developed into residential housing and not classified or updated correctly.
Commenting on the high-level findings, John Davies, MOSL’s CIO said: “Accurate premises data is fundamental to the operation of the market and ensuring customers receive the service and bills they expect. Our investigation has barely scratched the surface, and yet has already uncovered a host of discrepancies and areas for improvement. This significant amount of incorrect address data is not only muddying the water in CMOS, but is increasing the associated costs for retailers to fix the data and leading to inefficiencies in the service they are able to provide to their customers. Poor quality customer and address data cost the market an estimated c£6m a year in resource costs alone, so it’s essential that we don’t approach a sixth year of the open market without taking action to resolve this key market friction.
We’re paying particular attention to the 16 per cent of premises that are unmatched, the 6.5 per cent of premises identified as potentially residential and the 33 per cent that have no UPRN – a significant volume of supply points that need to be reassessed and potentially de-registered from the market.
These findings whilst eye opening, are unsurprising. They do, however, provide us with strong evidence to continue defining what our priorities should be in developing a data cleanse solution for the market.”
MOSL will be presenting more detailed findings from the Data Quality Assessment in the coming months and issuing an industry-wide consultation which will form part of the overall case for change.
These findings were presented at the July User Forum by Matt Labrum, Market Improvement Fund at MOSL, and Johnny Rice, Senior Consultant at Sagacity. You can view the recording here (from 1:05:40).
If you have any questions on the work we are undertaking with Sagacity or the high-level findings, please email
Notes to Editors
- MOSL is the operator for the non-household water market in England.
- Sagacity is a data solutions company providing a pre-cleanse and analysis of CMOS data to understand the current data quality of the market’s supply points.
- CMOS is the central IT system that underpins the non-household market. It manages transactions between water wholesalers and retailers and holds data on meter reads, tariffs and customer data.
- A Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) is the primary reference for a premises. It allows a premises to be uniquely identified and can contain additional and valuable data, such as occupancy status and premises type.
