The same data is inconsistent across publishers

Often the same specific types of data are defined or formatted differently depending on the publisher. This inconsistency exists even where a standard is in place.

For example, among the 330 lists made available to meet the [brownfield register] (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/brownfield-land-registers-data-standard) standard we found 31 different file formats and a wide range of character encoding, blank lines, blank column names, incorrect formatting, incompatibility and other useability issues.

This widespread inconsistency across publishers is problematic for anyone developing data-based products that serve the housing market nationwide.