Effective immediately. Subject to change without notice, particularly if house prices move.
By submitting your postcode to Posh Index, you agree to accept the resulting score and verdict with good grace, composure, and — where necessary — a stiff drink. Sulking is permitted for up to 48 hours. After this period, you are encouraged to either move house or make peace with your surroundings.
In the event of a score exceeding 85, you are reminded that smugness, while understandable, is unbecoming. A quiet sense of satisfaction is perfectly adequate.
Appeals against your Posh Index score may be submitted in writing to thebutler@poshindex.co.uk. All correspondence must be on headed notepaper. Biro is not acceptable. Appeals submitted via WhatsApp voice note will be declined without review.
Posh Index reserves the right to dismiss any appeal on the grounds of the applicant being, frankly, a bit much about the whole thing. The algorithm is not personal. Your postcode's proximity to a Greggs is, however, a matter of public record.
The presence of a Waitrose, Waitrose & Partners, or Little Waitrose within a reasonable radius is treated as an objective, empirical measure of an area's standing. This is not up for debate. No correspondence will be entered into regarding the relative merits of other supermarkets, regardless of their meal deal.
M&S Food is acknowledged as a creditable substitute, though it is noted that an M&S Food without a full M&S is, in some circles, considered trying a little too hard.
Posh Index awards points for the proximity of golf clubs. This is non-negotiable and reflects long-established precedent. Counter-arguments involving the democratisation of the sport will be noted and filed.
Posh Index uses publicly available data from HM Land Registry, the Office for National Statistics, data.police.uk, OpenStreetMap, and Postcodes.io. All data is used under open government licences and attributed accordingly. We are grateful to these institutions, particularly the Land Registry, for keeping meticulous records of what people paid for houses they definitely can't afford now.
Scores are calculated algorithmically and are intended for entertainment purposes only. They do not constitute financial, property, or lifestyle advice. Posh Index accepts no responsibility for any property purchases, sales, or relocations undertaken on the basis of a score. You should absolutely not move to a different postcode to improve your number.
Data is refreshed periodically. If your area has recently acquired or lost a Waitrose, scores may not yet reflect this. We appreciate your patience during what must be a difficult time.
Posh Index does not require you to create an account or log in. When you search a postcode, we record the postcode, its score, tier, region, and timestamp in an aggregated log. We do not record your IP address or any information that could identify you personally from a search alone. The log is used solely to power the leaderboard and improve the service.
Your recent searches are stored in your browser's localStorage — on your device, not our servers. You may clear these at any time via your browser settings. The AI commentary for your postcode is cached to reduce costs and improve response times. This cache contains only the postcode and its associated commentary text — nothing about you.
Posh Index does not use advertising cookies, tracking pixels, or third-party advertising networks. We use PostHog for anonymised product analytics (search volume, feature usage). We are not that kind of operation.
Posh Index is operated by Ben Mustard, a UK resident. For data-related enquiries, contact: thebutler@poshindex.co.uk.
If you choose to submit your email address via the ranking leaderboard feature, we collect your email address, the postcode you searched, your region, and a record of the consents you gave and when. This data is stored securely and is not shared without your explicit consent.
Marketing communications. If you ticked the marketing consent box, we may contact you with updates about Posh Index, new features and relevant news. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in any email or writing to thebutler@poshindex.co.uk.
Partner data sharing. If you ticked the partner sharing consent box, we may share your email address with selected third-party partners — such as property portals or similar services — who may contact you with relevant offers. We will only share with partners whose services we consider genuinely relevant to Posh Index users. You can withdraw this consent at any time by writing to thebutler@poshindex.co.uk.
Your rights under UK GDPR. You have the right to access, correct, or delete your data; to withdraw any consent at any time; to object to processing; and to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) if you believe your data has been mishandled. To exercise any of these rights, contact thebutler@poshindex.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days.
Retention. We retain your email and consent records for as long as at least one consent remains active. If you withdraw all consents we will delete your record within 30 days.
You may also view the leaderboard without submitting your email at all, by using the skip option. We won't hold it against you, though it does suggest a certain reluctance to commit that the algorithm might, in time, find a way to score.
The two-sentence commentary on your postcode is generated by an AI language model (Claude, by Anthropic) in the style of a society correspondent for a glossy magazine. It is intended to be wry, affectionate, and lightly snobbish. If it is any of these things excessively, we apologise. If it is none of these things, we also apologise.
The commentary does not reflect the views of Posh Index, its creator, or any actual society columnist. It is not a review, a valuation, or a statement of fact. Any resemblance to actual society column opinion is coincidental and probably quite funny.
Commentary is cached for 30 days. If your area has dramatically changed in character during this period, please accept our commiserations or congratulations as appropriate.
Posh Index accepts no liability for: arguments at dinner parties, property gazumping inspired by a high score, the emotional distress of discovering your childhood home scores 31, or any sudden and overwhelming desire to move to the Cotswolds.
We also accept no liability for smugness-related social incidents arising from sharing your score in neighbourhood Facebook groups. You were warned.
Scores are derived from publicly available data sources which may be incomplete, out of date, or simply wrong about your area. The AI commentary is generated by a language model and reflects neither fact nor the considered opinion of anyone in particular. Posh Index accepts no liability for the accuracy of any score, data point, or AI-generated verdict, nor for any decision — property-related, social, or existential — made on the basis of them. This is, we feel, a reasonable position for a website that awards points for golf clubs.
The Posh Index name, scoring methodology, tier names, and AI-generated commentary are the intellectual property of their respective creators. The data underlying the scores belongs to the various public bodies who collected it, and we thank them for their service to the nation.
You are welcome to share your score, copy your verdict, and post it wherever you like. We encourage this. Attributing results to "science" when sharing on social media is technically inaccurate but spiritually correct.
These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, which seems appropriate given the subject matter. Any disputes shall be resolved in the courts of England and Wales, ideally somewhere with decent parking and a good independent coffee shop nearby, though we would obviously prefer a Waitrose with a café counter.
These terms were last updated in May 2026. They will be updated again whenever something important changes, or whenever the author thinks of something funnier to say about golf.