Street naming and numbering (including house names)

The Councils are legally responsible for the naming and numbering of all new streets and properties within the Adur District and Worthing Borough, under Sections 17-19 of the Public Health Act 1925 and Section 21 of the Public Health Amendment Act 1907.

All addresses must comply with British Standard 7666.

Apply to register a street name or number

Please complete the relevant online application form below:

Form 1: Register new properties that are currently being constructed or converted (online eform)

Form 2: Register properties that are recently built or converted and are now completed (online eform)

Form 3: Add or change a house name, or a building name, or a number to an existing property (online eform)

Form 4: Confirmation of address letter - to apply for a letter that will officially confirm your property's address (online eform)

Please note:

• Developers should complete a Street Naming and Numbering Application form as soon as building works commence
• It is the responsibility of the property owner to inform the Land Registry of a house/property name change approval
• No address within the District or Borough is legal unless authorised by Adur & Worthing Councils

For any other street naming or numbering queries, for example re-naming a street, please contact us.

Current charges

Our current street naming and numbering charges are:

• Street Naming and Numbering Schedule of Charges (1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025) (714KB)

Why street naming and numbering is important

Appropriate naming of streets and numbering of buildings is essential for identifying a property. This saves money, time, and resources and ultimately, lives. Accurate addressing allows:

• emergency services to find an address quickly and efficiently
• reliable delivery of postal services, and other vital goods and services
• accurate record keeping for residents, businesses and service providers
• centralised record keeping for local and central government services such as the National Address Gazetteer (NAG), and meeting the terms and requirements of the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement

Developers need official street names and numbers to be able to connect new properties with gas, water and electricity. Royal Mail will not allocate a postcode unless an official address has been assigned by the Council.

Guidance for property developers

Once your development has obtained the relevant Planning Decision Notices and Building Control Approvals and actual building work has commenced on site (on the actual plot, rather than any initial clearing of the site or work on the road layout), you need to apply to the Street Naming and Numbering Department for an address. This applies whether you are building one single dwelling, an entire estate or converting an existing property.

You can do this by completing the relevant online application form (listed above) with the details of your development. You will also need to supply the following:

• A site layout plan clearly displaying the plot numbers and access doors for each floor. This is important as properties must be addressed into the road from which their front door is accessed
• A site location plan
• Estimated dates for building work commencement and completion dates
• If appropriate, proposals for new street names which are part of your development
• If appropriate, proposals for a property name in addition to an allocated number and street name for your new development or conversion.

Once you have submitted the form, the Street Naming and Numbering Officer will review your application and calculate your fees. We aim to respond within 10 working days.

Addressing new properties in an existing street

Where properties are to be numbered into an existing street the existing numbering system will be used, where appropriate; ie infill. Where there is no suitable gap in the existing numbering, letters will be attached to the allocated numbers. All numbers (except the number 13, as this is excluded) must be used and allocated accordingly in sequential order.

In streets where no numbering exists, an appropriate number will be allocated to the property. You can still propose a name for the property to use in addition to the property number and street name as part of your address.

In some circumstances, the Councils may consider numbering or renumbering an entire street. If this is an option being considered a formal consultation process will be undertaken with all the property owners.

Naming a new street

If you are developing a site that requires a new street name(s), we welcome your street name proposals. New street names must meet certain criteria (see guidance below), and provided they do, will be considered in consultation with local councillors. The Councils have the final decision on all new street names.

Once all the plots have been addressed, you will be supplied with the full postal addresses in writing, accompanied by a list of plot numbers and their corresponding property numbers.

Policy on street naming for property developers

This policy provides guidance to help support property developers. It may not cover every situation, and the Councils reserve the right to reject suggested street names and request alternative proposals:

• Street Naming and Property Numbering Policy (464KB)

When proposing suggestions for a new street name, please consider the following:

• Where an area, field or previous building has names historically associated with it (or other associations such as plants and activities), it is acceptable to preserve these in street names. Developers are encouraged to consult county archives and museums that may offer inspiration. Where there is no information to suggest a street name, a new one may be chosen.
• Where several streets are proposed, a suitable theme can be chosen. Sometimes, linking the names of a suitable theme can be used to help identify the area.
• Names with a commercial connection will not be accepted. The Councils will not adopt unofficial marketing titles used by developers in the sale of new properties.
• Names relating to people either living or recently deceased should be avoided unless approved under special circumstances by the Building Control Partnership Manager. Personal names which relate to developers, their friends or relatives will not be accepted.
• Streets with only a few houses are not well known and so can be difficult to find. Apart from exceptional circumstances, our policy is to number streets with less than six properties as part of the primary street, rather than name them, to comply with the British Standard BS7666.
• Cul-de-sacs accessed off a street which is itself a no through road could lead to ambiguity. It may be more appropriate to use a single street name to describe all the streets which are linked to form a no through road.
• Where a new street is an extension of an existing street it is not normally necessary to give that section a new name, but continue the street name and numbering sequence from the existing street.
• Duplication of street names in the same area or within another nearby parish or town is not permitted to avoid confusion. A variation in the suffix, ie street, road, avenue, etc, will not be accepted as sufficient reason to duplicate a name, for example Broadwater Way off Broadwater Road near Broadwater Church.
• Avoid having two phonetically similar names within a postal area, and ideally not in the same borough. Example: Churchill Road and Birch Hill Road. Street names should not be difficult to pronounce or awkward to spell. However, the use of foreign names (ie town twinning) will be considered.
• Avoid aesthetically unsuitable names or names capable of deliberate misinterpretation.
• Street names which could be deemed as offensive will not be permitted.

All new street names should ideally end with a suffix to distinguish the street from a building name or locality. The following list should act as a guide, but it is not exhaustive and other descriptive words may also be appropriate:

Suffixes to consider carefully as they may give a false impression of location:

All these words can be incorporated in a street name provided it ends with an appropriate suffix (eg Titnore Meadow Lane)

Single names without suffixes may be allowed in appropriate places (example New Broadway).

All pedestrian ways should end with one of the following suffixes. These examples are not exhaustive and other descriptive words may also be considered appropriate:

Further information:

• National Address Gazetteer (NAG) - on the Geoplace website
• Public Health Act 1925 - on the UK Legislation website
• Public Health Acts Amendment Act 1907 - on the UK Legislation website
• Town Improvement Clauses Act 1847 - on the UK Legislation website

Back to top