The review looked at the possibility of making the organisation’s maps free to access and use, but this ‘full utility’ model was rejected for a number of reasons, including cost.

‘The cost to the government in the first five years would be between half a billion and a billion pounds,’ said OS chairman Sir Rob Margetts. ‘But it wasn’t the only reason we discarded that model. We looked around the world at other organisations and [in] nearly every organisation that had [adopted] a free model, quality had declined and customers were increasingly dissatisfied.’

However, a  study recently carried out by the University of Cambridge found that making data from agencies such as the Met Office and OS free to access could boost the UK economy by around £164million. Margetts believes that similar economic benefits to UK businesses and developers can be achieved by making OS data easier and simpler to access. In order to make this happen, the organisation is planning to remove minimum costs for users and unnecessary clauses in contracts. 

OS is also hoping to encourage innovation through the relaunch of its free online mapping service Open Space, which allows individuals and businesses to combine data with its online maps, and the launch of GeoVation, an online networking site for developers.

July 2009