Newcastle City Council hosts over 600 datasets on land asset ownership and responsibility.  

These datasets are owned and managed by siloed service delivery teams with limited integration between them.

All services delivered by Newcastle City Council are underpinned by data relating to the land that it governs, the property on it, and people living, working, or visiting the area.

Over time, the development of 30 standalone place-based data systems within the Council has resulted in inconsistent records.

Understanding the extent of the Council’s responsibilities to maintain land, manage property, and deliver services to stakeholders is crucial to the effective coordination of resources.

Over time, the development of 30 standalone place-based data systems within the Council has resulted in inconsistent records.

The inability to access one accurate and current source of place-based data is a recurring problem for multiple council services.

Solving the problem

Urban Foresight initiated a programme of discovery workshops and sprints that brought together officers from across the council and key external partners.

This informed a root cause analysis and identification of suitable pilot initiatives to develop a proof-of-concept solution.   

A technical architecture and solution development roadmap was compiled by Urban Foresight in partnership with the council’s IT team and service leaders. This was based on a review of prioritised datasets, corporate systems, and business processes.  

In parallel, a technology review identified suitable data-mapping solutions. Engagement with these suppliers also secured a free trial of a platform that was used to develop a proof-of-concept solution.

Key outcomes

A proof-of-concept solution was developed and evaluated with both internal and external stakeholders. This was trialled over the course of 2020/21. 

A business case for a full council-wide deployment was also developed.

This considered cashable benefits from developing a complete internal record of data on land ownership and responsibility. It also set out opportunities to achieve savings and generate revenues from a customer-facing portal for external queries.