Firm loses information access bid

24 Mar 2010

York City Council has won a High Court battle against a property search company over access to information on for-sale houses.

OneSearch, which was founded in Scotland in 1992 and expanded into England a decade later, argued that the local authority had unlawfully blocked competition by selling on data about properties rather than providing it for free.

But Mr Justice Hickinbottom, sitting in London, declared: "I do not consider that the council is obliged to allow open access to all of its unrefined property information."

The test case, which the council said was the culmination of a concerted campaign by OneSearch, has importance to all local councils, especially in light of new rules on home information packs.

Much of the data to be contained in the packs comes from local authority records on water, drainage and nearby planning proposals, which OneSearch had hoped to gain access to.

The judge was told that some councils had already agreed to the company's demands, although most had not.