The government is urging the UK’s geospatial sector and beyond to take part and share views on their future vision, as part of its call for evidence launched today.

The creation of the Geospatial Commission was announced in November 2017, to maximise the value of data linked to location, which could generate £11 billion a year.

By using location data, geospatial technology is transforming services across the private and public sectors to contribute to the #SmarterGov Government campaign, which helps deliver wider economic growth and productivity. From emergency services, transport planning, and 5G networks, to housing, smarter cities and drones – the UK’s geospatial infrastructure has the potential to revolutionise the UK’s economy.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, David Lidington, said,

The data revolution is changing the way we see the world and the way we live our lives – and this government is determined to make the most of the opportunities it presents.

The launch of today’s call for evidence is another key milestone in the Geospatial Commission’s exciting journey. We want to hear how the use of geospatial data can support economic growth and productivity across the United Kingdom, while transforming how public services are delivered.

This is crucial in helping to inform the UK’s first ever Geospatial Strategy, which the Government will launch next year.

Call for evidence document

The call for evidence document is linked to below:

Geospatial Commission: call for evidence 2018 (PDF, 1.76MB, 40 pages)

Call for evidence questionnaire

The call for evidence questionnaire is linked to below in various formats:

Geospatial Commission response questionnaire (odt) (ODT, 18.9KB)

Geospatial Commission response questionnaire (docx) (MS Word Document, 30.3KB)

Geospatial Commission response questionnaire (pdf) (PDF, 88.9KB, 9 pages)

Initial analysis

This document sets out the initial high-level analysis which contributed to the Government’s announcement of the creation of a Geospatial Commission in the 2017 Autumn Budget:

Initial Analysis of the Potential Geospatial Economic Opportunity (PDF, 453KB, 18 pages)

Notes to editors

Geospatial Commission

The Geospatial Commission is an impartial expert committee within the Cabinet Office, supported by £40 million of new funding in each of the next two years, and will drive the move to use public and private sector geospatial data more productively. Research estimates that this could contribute up to £11 billion of extra value for the economy every year. The Geospatial Commission is due to publish its first annual plan next Spring.

Further details on the Geospatial Commission can be found in this press release: Chancellor to unlock hidden value of government data

Partner bodies

The Geospatial Commission has 6 partner bodies. These are:

• British Geological Survey
• Coal Authority
• HM Land Registry
• Ordnance Survey
• UK Hydrographic Office
• Valuation Office Agency

Innovate UK has up to £1 million to help organisations put high-quality, human-centred design at the earliest stages of innovation.

This competition will fund projects across a wide range of technologies and markets. It applies to new concepts as well as testing and improving existing ideas.

Why early-stage design matters

Thinking about what customers, users and stakeholders need at an early stage can show organisations where to concentrate their effort and innovation.

Improving the design process can help to spot flaws, uncover new angles and shed light on what customers are actually doing to inform further research and development.

Previous projects to be awarded grants include ‘delivering warmth’, which wants to help people heat their homes and manage how much water they use, and a wearable device for infants to monitor their health and allow for faster, more accurate diagnosis.

What makes a desirable product?

We’re looking for projects that explore what people really need from products and services, and what makes them desirable from a customer’s point of view. It could be about a physical product or the design of digital products or services.

Projects should:

• identify and address the problems that customers care about
• generate ideas for new products, services or business models in line with customer demand
• record their findings to support future development and investment

They must follow an established early-stage design process, such as the Double Diamond model, which divides the design process into 4 phases: discover, define, develop and deliver.

Project teams should also include experienced design professionals, either in-house or as part of a collaboration.

Competition information

• the competition opens on 13 August 2018 and the deadline for applications is midday on 19 September 2018
• UK-based businesses of any size or research and technology organisations can lead a project. Businesses can work alone or in collaboration with partners
• total project costs can be between £10,000 and £40,000
• you could get up to 70% of your project costs
• you can register to attend a briefing event in Manchester on 16 August 2018 to find out more about the competition and how to make a quality application
• successful applicants will be contacted by 26 October 2018
• projects must start by 1 January 2019 and last no more than 3 months

England

In England, the June data shows on average, house prices have risen by 0.3% since May 201. The annual price rise of 2.7% takes the average property value to £245,076.

The regional data for England indicates that:

• West Midlands experienced the greatest monthly price rise, up by 1.9%
• the North East saw the most significant monthly price fall, down by 1.9%
• London saw the lowest annual price increase, down by 0.7%

Price change by region for England

Repossession sales by volume for England

The lowest number of repossession sales in April 2018 was in the East of England.

The highest number of repossession sales in April 2018 was in the North West.

Average price by property type for England

Funding and buyer status for England

Building status for England

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Sales volumes for England

The most up-to-date HM Land Registry sales figures available for England show:

• the number of completed house sales in England fell by 19.3 per cent to 50,308 compared with 62,318 in April 2017

London

London shows, on average, house prices have fallen by 0.6% since May 2018. An annual price fall of 0.7% takes the average property value to £476,752.

Average price by property type for London

Funding and buyer status for London

Building status for London

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Sales volumes for London

The most up-to-date HM Land Registry sales figures available for London show;

• the number of completed house sales in April 2018 fell by 26% to 5,272 compared with 7,120 in April 2017

Wales

Wales shows, on average, house prices have risen by 1.7% since May 2018. An annual price rise of 4.3% takes the average property value to £156,886.

Average price by property type for Wales

Funding and buyer status for Wales

Building status for Wales

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Sales volumes for Wales

The most up-to-date HM Land Registry sales figures available for Wales show:

• the number of completed house sales in April 2018 fell by 13.9% to 3,005 compared with 3,490 in April 2017

• there were 54 repossession sales in April 2018

Access the full UK HPI

UK house prices rose by 3.0% in the year to June 2018, down from 3.5% in the year to May 2018. This is the lowest UK annual rate since August 2013 when it was also 3.0%.

The UK Property Transaction Statistics for June 2018 showed that on a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of transactions on residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater was 96,340. This is 5.7% lower compared to a year ago. Between May and June 2018, transactions decreased by 3.0%.

West Midlands was the fastest growing region with an annual growth rate of 5.8%, up from 5.0% in the previous month. London was the slowest growing region, falling by 0.7% in the year to June 2018, down from negative 0.2% in the previous month.

See the economic statement.

Notes to editors

1. The UK House Price Index (HPI) is published on the second or third Wednesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. The July 2018 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on Wednesday 19 September 2018. See calendar of release dates.

2. We have made some changes to improve the accuracy of the UK HPI. We are not publishing average price and percentage change for new builds and existing resold property as done previously because there are not currently enough new build transactions to provide a reliable result. This means that in this month’s UK HPI reports, new builds and existing resold property are reported in line with the sales volumes currently available.

3. The UK HPI revision period has been extended to 13 months, following a review of the revision policy (see calculating the UK HPI section 4.4). This ensures the data used is more comprehensive.

4. Sales volume data is also available by property status (new build and existing property) and funding status (cash and mortgage) in our downloadable data tables. Transactions involving the creation of a new register, such as new builds, are more complex and require more time to process. Read revisions to the UK HPI data.

5. Revision tables have been introduced for England and Wales within the downloadable data. Tables will be available in CSV format. See about the UK HPI for more information.

6. Data for the UK HPI is provided by HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and the Valuation Office Agency.

7. The UK HPI is calculated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) andLand & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. It applies a hedonic regression model that uses the various sources of data on property price, in particular, HM Land Registry’s Price Paid Dataset, and attributes to produce estimates of the change in house prices each month. Find out more about the methodology used from the ONS and Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

8. The UK Property Transaction statisticsare taken from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) monthly estimates of the number of residential and non-residential property transactions in the UK and its constituent countries. The number of property transactions in the UK is highly seasonal, with more activity in the summer months and less in the winter. This regular annual pattern can sometimes mask the underlying movements and trends in the data series so HMRC also presents the UK aggregate transaction figures on a seasonally adjusted basis. Adjustments are made for both the time of year and the construction of the calendar, including corrections for the position of Easter and the number of trading days in a particular month.

9. UK HPI seasonally adjusted series are calculated at regional and national levels only. See data tables.

10. The first estimate for new build average price (April 2016 report) was based on a small sample which can cause volatility. A three-month moving average has been applied to the latest estimate to remove some of this volatility.

11. Work has been taking place since 2014 to develop a single, official HPI that reflects the final transaction price for sales of residential property in the UK. Using the geometric mean, it covers purchases at market value for owner-occupation and buy-to-let, excluding those purchases not at market value (such as re-mortgages), where the ‘price’ represents a valuation.

12. Information on residential property transactions for England and Wales, collected as part of the official registration process, is provided by HM Land Registry for properties that are sold for full market value.

13. The HM Land Registry dataset contains the sale price of the property, the date when the sale was completed, full address details, the type of property (detached, semi-detached, terraced or flat), if it is a newly built property or an established residential building and a variable to indicate if the property has been purchased as a financed transaction (using a mortgage) or as a non-financed transaction (cash purchase).

14. Repossession sales data is based on the number of transactions lodged with HM Land Registry by lenders exercising their power of sale.

15. For England, this is shown as volumes of repossession sales recorded by Government Office Region. For Wales, there is a headline figure for the number of repossession sales recorded in Wales.

16. The data can be downloaded as a .csv file. Repossession sales data prior to April 2016 is not available. Find out more information about repossession sales.

17. Background tables of the raw and cleansed aggregated data, in Excel and CSV formats, are also published monthly although Northern Ireland is on a quarterly basis. They are available for free use and re-use under the Open Government Licence.

18. HM Land Registry’s mission is to guarantee and protect property rights in England and Wales.

19. HM Land Registry is a government department created in 1862. It operates as an executive agency and a trading fund and its running costs are covered by the fees paid by the users of its services. Its ambition is to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.

20. HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership worth in excess of £4 trillion, including around £1 trillion of mortgages. The Land Register contains more than 25 million titles showing evidence of ownership for some 85% of the land mass of England and Wales.

21. For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry

22. Follow us on Twitter @HMLandRegistry, our blog, LinkedIn and Facebook

Contact

From today (15 August 2018), banks must publish information on how likely people would be to recommend their bank – as well as its online and mobile banking, branch and overdraft services – to friends, relatives or other businesses.

The results come from an independent survey of thousands of personal and small business customers, and must be prominently displayed in banks’ branches, as well as on their websites and apps. This will make it easier for people to find out if another bank has a better offer and has been introduced to drive up competition between banks, so leading to a better overall quality of service for those who use them.

The new measure is one of a number being required by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) following its in-depth investigation of the sector. The CMA also requested the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) build on this by making banks release further information on their performance and services to drive up standards, and make it easier for people to judge whether they are with the best bank for them.

Adam Land, Senior Director at the CMA, said:

For the first time, people will now be able to easily compare banks on the quality of the service they provide, and so judge if they’re getting the most for their money or could do better elsewhere.

This is one of the many measures – including Open Banking and overdraft text alerts – that we put in place to make banks work harder for their customers and help people shop around to find the best deals for them.

Banks will now be required by the FCA to publish details of available services and relevant helplines. In addition, the banks will also have to provide information about the number of major operational and security incidents they have experienced, and provide updates on their websites.

From February 2019, the FCA will expect that banks publish figures on how long it takes to open current accounts and replace debit cards.

Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy and Competition at the FCA, said:

Getting a good deal isn’t just about pricing. It’s also important for customers – including individuals and small businesses – to be able to judge the quality of service around their current account and to see whether other providers could offer something that suits them better. This information should encourage providers to offer the services that people value.

Notes to Editors

1. The CMA published its final report, which demanded 17 changes to make banks work harder for their customers, in August 2016.

2. Information on service quality will be published every six months by all British banks and building societies with more than 150,000 personal current accounts (PCAs) or 20,000 business current accounts (BCAs), and all Northern Ireland banks and building societies with more than 20,000 PCAs or 15,000 BCAs.

3. The FCA rules apply to banks and building societies with 70,000 or more personal current accounts or with 15,000 or more small business current accounts.

4. Businesses – such as switching sites and regulated financial technology companies – and consumer bodies will be able to access the underlying customer survey data through Open Banking. These organisations will be able to use the information to make sure people are better informed about what products and services are available, at what price.

5. Enquiries should be directed to the CMA’s press team, press@cma.gov.uk, or 020 3738 6460.

6. For enquiries relating to the FCA’s information requirements, contact the FCA Press Office on 020 7066 3232 or at press.office@fca.org.uk.

7. For more information see the CMA’s homepage, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Sign up to our email alerts to receive updates on the markets cases.