New OS and Local Government joint venture acquires IA and ends address confusion

As part of the arrangements, the joint-venture, which will be known as GeoPlace⢠LLP, has agreed terms to acquire NLPG Custodian, Intelligent Addressing (Holdings) Limited. This acquisition, which is dependent on approval from the Office of Fair Trading, will give the joint-venture access to the company's intellectual property, software, NLPG and NSG data hubs, and expertise.

Until now there have been a number of address datasets produced by the public sector. This new joint venture will help consolidate them, clarifying ownership issues, ending confusion and duplicated effort and leading to significant efficiency gains in the public sector and, potentially, the private sector.

As part of the agreement, Intelligent Addressing's existing data hub and infrastructure, which hosts the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), is being extended to include Ordnance Survey's addressing products, data from the Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF) under licence and with the capacity to include the One Scotland Gazetteer.

In 1999, Intelligent Addressing formed a public private partnership with local government to develop the NLPG in association with every local authority in England and Wales. In 2005, Intelligent Addressing won the competitive tender (the Mapping Services Agreement or MSA) to maintain the NLPG and the National Street Gazetteer (NSG).

The Board of Intelligent Addressing has unanimously welcomed the resolution of the long-running confusion over addressing. Michael Nicholson, Managing Director of Intelligent Addressing said "Addressing is fundamentally a co-operative activity and the new joint-venture structure at last provides all participants with a way to work together effectively."

Nicholson continued "we have long campaigned for wider access to definitive addressing, and are proud of how the team at Intelligent Addressing has helped local government achieve success with the NLPG and NSG. The process is based on rigorous information management principles and BS7666. The gazetteers are now supporting an ever growing range of applications that provide services to citizens. We are delighted that our efforts will continue to be taken forward and it is gratifying to see the vision that we subscribed to a decade ago being realised."
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