London, UK, 30 June 2008 – The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and Intelligent Addressing have announced the 2008 NLPG and NSG Exemplar Awards. The awards recognise the outstanding service delivery, effort, commitment and innovation by local authorities, fire and police in the creation, maintenance and utilisation of the National Land & Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and National Street Gazetteer (NSG).
Intelligent Addressing and IDeA will jointly present the awards at a one-day conference ‘Underpinning Transformational Government – everything happens somewhere’ to be held at the Birmingham ICC on the 16th October 2008.
The NLPG and NSG are two key initiatives to join up systems, improve efficiency and service delivery. The identification of ‘place’ is absolutely vital to the function of government; everything happens somewhere and all services are delivered based upon knowledge of location. The NLPG and the NSG are the building blocks that enable systems and organisations to join up and collaborate.
The sharing of accurate address information across local government departments is a vital component in the drive to facilitate and improve service delivery and regional cooperation. The NLPG makes this possible through linking local authorities' Local Land & Property Gazetteers. Similarly the NSG links local authorities' Local Street Gazetteers and is a key dataset supporting the NLPG, traffic management and the vital coordination of street works.
Thanks to the MSA (Mapping Services Agreement) there is a contractual framework to maintain and share gazetteers with councils, police forces, fire services, national parks and many other local organisations, which can now benefit from using the same data. This shared data structure leads not only to improved service delivery, less error and duplication but also to a constantly improving data resource as all parties contribute change information for the benefit of all.
John Hayes, Director at IDeA, said, "We are delighted to be able to announce the 2008 NLPG and NSG Exemplar awards and the ‘Underpinning Transformational Government’ Conference. The combined event not only acknowledges the hard work and vision of those creating and working with the NLPG and the NSG but also acts as a platform to encourage others to learn by their example, to improve efficiency, deliver better services and bring about closer collaboration across the country".
For further information about the ‘Underpinning Transformational Government’ conference please visit: www.nlpg.org.uk
The NLPG was initiated in 1999 to become the master address dataset for England and Wales and the central hub for the 376 address creating Local Authorities and their Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPGs). Based on unique sixteen digit property reference numbers (UPRNs) the underlying principle of these gazetteers is to provide a single definitive address database for all departments and systems across a local authority in order to cut costs, improve efficiency and service delivery.
The benefits also go beyond service delivery. Fraud prevention, tax collection and disaster planning all benefit from the fact that each property is given a ‘Unique Property Reference Number’ which transcends (property) numbers, names, descriptions (such as ‘The Nursing Home’) and the Postcode. UPRNs are assigned for the full life of the plot and/or building from planning approval to demolition.
www.nlpg.org.uk
NSG
Required under the New Roads and Street Works Act, the National Street Gazetteer (NSG) is a comprehensive list of over 1 million named and un-named streets, footpaths and thoroughfares, the definitive source for anyone with an interest in streets and their usage. There are over 300 organisations, utilities such as gas, water and electricity, BT, plus cable and communications companies, named as ‘Statutory Undertakers’ approved by the Department of Transport to download this data, which conforms to the BS7666:1-2000 Standard.
The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) works in partnership with all councils, to enhance the performance of the best, accelerate the speed of improvement of the rest, and develop the sector as a whole.
Working in partnership with the local government community developing national infrastructure projects that enable councils to deliver local services more effectively, LGIH acts as an intermediary between the public and the private sector enabling it to negotiate with private companies on behalf of local authorities in order to provide key parts of a technical infrastructure for improved service delivery.
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