United Kingdom · England and Wales · October 24, 2026

INSPIRE Index Polygons Explained (England and Wales)

What HM Land Registry INSPIRE Index Polygons are, how to download and view them free, what an INSPIRE ID is, and why the outline is not the legal boundary.

If you have ever seen a map of land ownership outlines across England and Wales, it was almost certainly built from HM Land Registry's INSPIRE Index Polygons. They are the closest thing England and Wales have to a free, open parcel map. They are also widely misunderstood. This guide explains what they are, how to get them, and what they can and cannot tell you.

What the INSPIRE Index Polygons are

The INSPIRE Index Polygons are a dataset published by HM Land Registry showing the indicative position and extent of registered freehold properties in England and Wales. Each polygon is the outline of a registered freehold title, as drawn on HMLR's index map.

Key facts:

Free. The data is free to download and reuse under the Open Government Licence, with attribution to HMLR and Ordnance Survey for the geometry.
Freehold only. Leasehold titles are not included. A block of flats shows as the freehold of the building, not the individual leases.
Registered land only. Land that has never been registered has no polygon.
Monthly updates. HMLR publishes a fresh set every month, as GML files by local authority.
Indicative. HMLR describes the polygons as indicative. They are not a statement of the legal boundary.

The name comes from the EU INSPIRE Directive on spatial data, which the UK implemented in the INSPIRE Regulations 2009. The dataset has continued to be published since the UK left the EU.

What an INSPIRE ID is

Each polygon has an INSPIRE ID, a number that identifies that polygon in the dataset. It is not the title number. You can't take an INSPIRE ID to HMLR and expect to get the title register from it directly, and the dataset does not include owners' names.

To go from a polygon to a title, look the property up in HMLR's Search for land and property information service, where the map search shows title numbers, then buy the title register (£7) if you need the owner.

How to get the data

Go to HMLR's Use land and property data service, INSPIRE dataset page.
Choose download and pick the local authority you want.
You get a zipped GML file. GML is a standard GIS format.
Open it in GIS software. QGIS is free and opens GML directly.
Add a base map (an aerial or OpenStreetMap layer) to see the polygons in context.

INSPIRE Index Polygons on Use land and property data

Viewing without GIS software

If you don't want to install QGIS, the HMLR map search in Search for land and property information shows the same registered outlines, with title numbers, in a browser. GOV.UK says you need to sign in to use that service. Several private websites also display the INSPIRE polygons on a map; these use the same open data, but check the date of the data they show.

What you can use them for

Seeing the pattern of registered land. Large unregistered areas, such as some old estates, show as gaps.
Finding the title boundary for a property. As a first look, before buying the title plan.
Spotting where one title ends and another begins. Useful when a field, track or strip of woodland seems to belong to nobody.
Research. The polygons are widely used in academic and journalistic work on land ownership.

What you can't use them for

Legal boundaries. The polygons come from the index map, which shows general boundaries. For a dispute or a sale, the title plan, deeds and a surveyor's evidence matter, and even the title plan usually shows general boundaries only.
Leasehold property. Leasehold flats and long leases are not in the dataset.
Ownership. The dataset contains no owner names.
Unregistered land. No polygon doesn't mean no owner. It may just mean unregistered.

Why there are gaps

A gap in the INSPIRE polygons usually means one of three things:

The land is unregistered. Registration on sale became compulsory across England and Wales in 1990, so land that has not been sold, mortgaged or otherwise triggered registration since then may never have been registered.
The land is a road or river that is not part of a registered title.
The land is held under a leasehold or other interest with the freehold unregistered.

Polygons vs title plans

	INSPIRE polygon	Title plan
Cost	Free	£7 online copy
Shows title number	No (INSPIRE ID only)	Yes
Shows owner	No	No (the title register does)
Leasehold	Not included	Leasehold titles have plans
Boundary	Indicative	General boundaries

A worked example

Say you want to know who owns a strip of woodland behind your garden.

Download the INSPIRE polygons for your local authority and open them in QGIS over an aerial map.
Check whether the woodland has its own polygon or is part of a neighbouring field's polygon.
Look up that location in HMLR's map search to find the title number.
Buy the title register (£7) to see the owner.
If there is no polygon at all, the woodland may be unregistered. HMLR can search its index map for you (a paid search), and local enquiries may help.

Working with the files in QGIS

A few practical tips if you download the GML:

Load just one local authority. Files for big authorities are large. Start with the area you need.
Style the polygons with no fill and a thin outline, so you can see the imagery underneath.
Use the identify tool to read a polygon's INSPIRE ID.
Check the date. The files are replaced monthly; note which month you downloaded so you know how current your map is.
Respect the licence. The data comes with Open Government Licence terms and attribution requirements for HMLR and Ordnance Survey. Read them before you publish a map.

How accurate are the polygons?

The polygons come from HMLR's index map, which is based on Ordnance Survey mapping. They're designed to show the general position and extent of a title. In towns, they usually line up well with walls and fences at street scale. In rural areas, long boundaries along hedges, streams and old field edges can be shifted relative to imagery. Treat a difference of a few metres as normal and a difference of tens of metres as a sign to look more closely.

Who uses INSPIRE data

Developers use the polygons to find land for sites, councils use them to understand ownership patterns, and researchers and journalists use them to study who owns what. If you've seen a website claiming to show "every land title in England", it's very likely built on INSPIRE polygons plus the title numbers it has bought or looked up.

Common questions

Are INSPIRE polygons free? Yes, free to download and reuse under the Open Government Licence.

Do they cover Scotland or Northern Ireland? No. They cover England and Wales only. Scotland uses ScotLIS; Northern Ireland has no public map.

Is the INSPIRE ID the title number? No.

How often are they updated? Monthly.