This document from Communities and Local Government argues that although it is accepted that ‘place matters’ too few government-owned datasets incorporating location can be analysed with reliability from across local and central government bodies. There is too much duplication, too little reuse and too few linkages across datasets which are required to support policy and management.

The Location Strategy will maximise the value of geographic information to the public, government, UK business and industry. It will provide a consistent framework to assist national, regional and local initiatives and service delivery.

It will bring benefits to policy and operational areas of the public and private sector where shared and integrated place-based information is valuable for decision making. These include planning for communities, environment, health, education, security, construction, transport, crime prevention, insurance, retail, energy, climate change, agriculture, heritage, sport, employment and statistics.

The Location Strategy will be delivered in a cooperative effort and it will be owned by central, local and devolved governments in the UK. It will focus on joining up and integrating information from many sources within a consistent reference framework. This will lead to more effective cross-organisational processes, far greater sharing and reuse of information across the public sector and beyond.

The location strategy is available from DCLG.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/locationstrategy.pdf