HM Land Registry and Ordnance Survey have signed a memorandum of understanding that will see the historic government organisations work together to deliver a more connected and digitally-enabled property market.
The collaboration includes ensuring strategic alignment in relation to the OS National Geographic Database and OS Product Roadmap and HMLR’s Geospatial Roadmap and transformation.
The property registrar for England and Wales and the mapping agency have also agreed to share “insights and concepts” of what the property market needs and how they can best deliver their public tasks to drive economic growth.
Additionally, the organisations’ three-year agreement includes plans to leverage opportunities for data-distribution, including making optimal use of OS’s DataHub to provide HMLR data to market.
Other areas of activity involve exchanging knowledge, skills and best practice in licensing, geospatial and compliance – and helping to create a consistent public sector standard for commercial models and the reuse of data.
Tina Kennedy, chief customer officer at OS, said the collaboration is an “invaluable opportunity” to deliver value to government, homebuyers and developers.
“A more efficient property market is vital to the UK economy. It helps people move home more easily, supports development and investment, and underpins one of the most significant assets many people own,” she said.
“Our trusted data has always been integral to the land registration process, so we are delighted to be collaborating with HMLR to further improve data accessibility across government and strengthen connectivity between departments across the housing market.”
Lynne Nicholson, deputy director for data and head of data group at HMLR, said the collaboration represented an excellent framework to drive change.
“We have exciting plans to transition from traditional record keeping to actively fuelling economic growth and unlocking new opportunities across the housing sector,” she said. “I am looking forward to working closely with Ordnance Survey colleagues to share insights and ideas, and build a shared vision for trusted data that will make a real difference for all of our customers.”
According to HMLR, the UK property market is one of the largest in the world, with annual sales surpassing £360bn.