03 December 2010

Government initiative for national addressing

Today Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has announced that addressing information from local authorities and Ordnance Survey will be brought together to create a ‘National Address Gazetteer Database’ to provide one definitive source of accurate spatial address data.

Products from the national address gazetteer database will provide access to a definitive database of addresses in England and Wales for use by all parts of the public sector and the private sector, removing wasteful duplication in the public sector and providing more comprehensive and accurate information.

Accurate address data underpins a multitude of public services, ranging from the emergency services, to school transport and refuse collection together with many uses within the private sector including use by utility suppliers and insurance companies. This initiative will provide a platform for more collaborative working between central government, local authorities, and local service providers to deliver better, more innovative and more efficient local services.

It is anticipated that products from the national address gazetteer database will deliver significant efficiency savings and improvements by reducing the need for data matching across different address products.

Utility companies, for example, rely on address data to respond to incidents, such as, burst pipes. As part of this process, they work with local government, but often experience inefficiencies when they have to compare local government address data with their own systems, as both parties use different databases. A single gazetteer will provide utility companies with a nationally complete set of addresses that would assist them to provide services more effectively and efficiently. 

As part of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement, products created from the national address gazetteer would be available for the entire public sector, delivering significant cost savings and enabling more partnership working with private and third sector delivery bodies.

Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government said: “It’s crazy we don’t have one single address list in this country.  It makes no sense that both the public sector and businesses have to bear the unnecessary expense of licensing two sets of data, especially in these straitened times.

“In particular, it is vital that the emergency services can get to people as quickly as possible. Having only one ‘address book’ will make that job easier, deliver vital savings that can be put towards frontline services and bring real benefits for business.”

 Baroness Margaret Eaton, Chairman of the Local Government Association, added: “We are delighted to be working with Ordnance Survey to bring together, for the first time, this important information. This landmark agreement will allow councils and other public sector organisations to build a better, more accurate picture of where people live to help them deliver the services people need in a way that they want.

“I congratulate everyone involved in this joint venture for their hard work and effort in getting the project to this stage. It is a great step towards improving the customer experience of the services we provide.”

Sir Rob Margetts CBE, Ordnance Survey Non-Executive Chair, commented: "I am enthusiastic about the creation of a single national address gazetteer and very confident that it will bring new benefits to all users of address information. Much hard work has gone into creating this joint venture which will supply a definitive source of accurate spatial address data to both the private and public sectors. I would like to thank everyone involved for getting the project to this stage.

“Over the last nine months Ordnance Survey has achieved some major milestones with the launch of OS OpenData in April, the Public Sector Mapping Agreement in August and now the announcement of a single national address gazetteer database. The demand for accurate, accessible, high quality geographic information has never been so high and the products which will be created from the new national address gazetteer database will be another step in meeting the needs of all of our customers.”

The national address gazetteer database, which remains subject to regulatory approval by the OFT, is welcomed by Royal Mail. With 28 million addresses and 1.8 million postcodes, the Postcode Address File (PAF) will form a key component of the national address gazetteer database. In addition, Local Government in Scotland and Scottish Government are supportive of the goal to create a national address gazetteer database and are working with Local Government and Ordnance Survey to explore options for achieving this goal.

The Office of National Statistics are also working with the joint venture partners to ensure that investment in addressing as part of the preparations for the 2011 Census for National Statistics (ONS), is optimised through the national address gazetteer database.

Notes to editors

1. Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey are working together to create a single national address gazetteer database, to combine the best of local government's address gazetteer (the National Land and Property Gazetteer) with Ordnance Survey's flagship address product - OS MasterMap Address Layer 2, and both include Royal Mail’s PAF product. As part of the proposal a joint venture vehicle has been established, called GeoPlace LLP.  GeoPlace will purchase Intelligent Addressing (Holdings) Limited, the company which currently manages the national datasets for local government; National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and National Street Gazetteer (NSG). Details are being finalised but, subject to OFT approval, it is anticipated that the joint venture will be operational by April 2011. The proposed joint venture will be set up so that the Intellectual Property Rights in the National Address Gazetteer are 100% owned by the public sector.

2. The proposition follows significant support for a single national gazetteer as evidenced through CLG's Ordnance Survey consultation. 43% of respondents to the consultation provided comments on the question relating to a definitive national address register (189 responses). A large proportion of these responses were supportive of the proposal to create a definitive national address register. Responses identified a number of benefits of having a definitive register including efficiency gains, and enabling more accurate and improved delivery of services. Some respondents were critical of the current arrangements, in particular due to the collective costs of multiple systems, and also due to the lack of a definitive national dataset for addresses, which was identified in the UK Location Strategy as one of the ‘Core Reference Geographies’.

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Head of Corporate Communications - Rob Andrews

Email: rob.andrews@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

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