Thursday 12 December 2013
A joint initiative between the Housing Department and Policy Council has won an award for outstanding achievement. The award is presented annually by the Association for Geographic Information to the section of government in Britain which has demonstrated the best innovation and best practice.
The initiative involved developing an IT system which uses geographic information systems (GIS) to link together data from several States Departments in order to provide detailed statistics on the Island's property stock. The information was primarily required to help monitor the progress of the States Corporate Housing Programme, but is useful for other purposes too, including the annual publication of the Guernsey Annual Housing Stock Bulletin.
All of this information is published on www.gov.gg/property and is routinely used by the Housing Department in its policy-making and day-to-day administration.
Stephen Langford, Chief Officer of the Housing Department said:
"We were aware of the considerable benefits of this project from the outset, so it's great that the value and importance of what has been achieved has now been recognised more widely. This was a truly collaborative project involving several States' departments and is a good example of what can be achieved by working together, embracing new ideas and pioneering innovative technologies. It is not generally realised that the scope and quality of the data we have access to on a day-to-day basis puts the States of Guernsey ahead of most - if not all - other jurisdictions when it comes to the availability of up-to-date and accurate data on property.
The Housing Department regularly uses information extracted from this database across the whole of its areas of responsibility, from high-level strategic decisions about what new housing should be provided under the Corporate Housing Programme to the day-to-day administration of the Housing Control Law. I can say with certainty that we wouldn't want to be without it."
The IT system itself was developed by Digimap Ltd. Colin Le Conte, Managing Director said:
"We were delighted to be able to deliver a product that brought to life the designs of Policy Council's Research Team. By using the latest GIS technology, it was possible to bring information together from a number of sources in a way that would not otherwise have been possible."
For further information see http://www.agi.org.uk/agi-news/2013/12/5/agi-awards-2013-the-winners.html
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