Open Property Data Association
Smart Property Data Trust Framework
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    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 T1["`**Tier 1 — Legislation & Policy** DMCC Act 2024 · DUA Act 2025 Leasehold & Freehold Reform Act 2024 UK Industrial Strategy (property = priority sector)`"]:::infra SDC["`**Smart Data Council** cross-sector engagement entity for Legislation & Policy (DBT-hosted · OPDA sits on it)`"]:::security T2["`**Tier 2 — Departments & Bodies** MHCLG · DSIT · DBT · HMLR · NTSELAT FCA · ICO`"]:::service T3["`**Tier 3 — Steering & Coordination** DPMSG (13 founding members) HBSC`"]:::service T4["`**Tier 4 — Delivery** Smart Property Data Trust Framework Sandbox (CLC + OPDA + Raidiam, RPF-funded) HMLR LLC Programme`"]:::process T5["`**Tier 5 — Standards** **PDTF** (JSON Schema · OpenAPI · SPDTF spec) W3C VC · DID · DVSTF · ToIP`"]:::data OPDA["OPDA"]:::user T1 --> T2 T1 -.engages via.-> SDC T2 --> T3 T3 --> T4 T4 --> T5 OPDA -.delivers.-> T5 OPDA -.runs WGs in.-> T3 OPDA -.represented on.-> SDC OPDA -.partner in.-> T4
    The five-tier stack, with OPDA sitting across Tiers 3, 4, and 5.

    Tier 1 — Legislation & policy backbone

    InstrumentWhat it doesEvidence
    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-to-drive-crucial-digital-transformation-in-the-land-and-property-market.html

    Tier 2 — Departments & bodies

    BodyRole
    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 DVSTF (Digital Verification Services Trust Framework, the rename of the former DIATF). Administers the Regulators' Pioneer Fund.
    DBT — Department for Business and Trade Hosts the Smart Data Council (OPDA sits on it). 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 SDC["`Smart Data Council engagement entity for Legislation & Policy (Tier 1) *DBT-hosted, cross-sector*`"]:::user HMLR[HM Land Registry]:::infra DPMSG["`DPMSG Digital Property Market Steering Group *13 founding members, formed Aug 2023*`"]:::infra HBSC["`HBSC Home Buying and Selling Council *chaired by Kate Faulkner OBE · BASPI custodian*`"]:::infra OPDA[OPDA]:::service WGs["`6 Working Groups Steering · Comms & PR · Engagement Policy · Regulator · Technical`"]:::infra HMLR -->|hosts| DPMSG DPMSG --- WGs OPDA -.leads WGs for.-> DPMSG OPDA -.represented on.-> SDC OPDA -.represented on.-> HBSC HBSC -.feeds BASPI into.-> OPDA
    DPMSG is the central convening forum. Its 13 founding members (gov.uk, 1 Aug 2023) are the Law Society, Conveyancing Association, CLC, SLC, SRA, RICS, CILEX, CILEx Regulation, CoPSO, Propertymark, BSA, UK Finance, and HMLR. OPDA, HBSC, MHCLG, DSIT, LGA, UKPA, and Geovation joined later. The Smart Data Council is not a Tier-3 forum: it is the cross-sector engagement entity for Tier-1 Legislation & Policy (shown as an offshoot above). Current priority workstreams: DPIP (Digital Property Information Protocol), Digital Identity Rules, and Digitisation & Interoperability Research.

    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 — maintains and publishes the PDTF schema package and is coordinating the collaborative SPDTF scheme draft.

    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

    LayerStandardOPDA's role
    Identity / participantsW3C DID + DVSTFImplements via did:key, did:jwk, did:web
    Trust / verificationW3C Verifiable Credentials Data ModelImplements via the SPDTF (Smart Property Data Trust Framework) specification
    Data definitionJSON Schema (PDTF v3.5.0) + overlaysOwns & publishes (BASPI v4/v5, TA6/7/10, NTS, CON29R, PIQ, RDS, LPE1, OC1, LLC1, FME1)
    APIOpenAPI (PDTF API v1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.0)Owns & publishes
    Material informationDMCC Act 2024 → MHCLG (replacing NTS)Implements via nts.json overlay
    Form coverageLaw Society TA forms, HBSC BASPIMaps via dedicated overlays

    Full detail in Standards stack.

    Provenance

    The DID identity layer above, and the "Open Banking for Property Data" framing below, derive from the legacy propdata.org.uk site — which carries OPDA copyright but was not authored or approved by OPDA (OPDA has no editing access). The use of Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs) is an exploratory approach, not yet OPDA / MHCLG / DPMSG-ratified, and still to be tested and certified against the emerging Smart Data Guidebook and aligned to the DSIT Digital Verification Services standards.

    Why this matters for the linked-data project

    Three implications worth holding in mind across every subsequent design choice:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.

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