Policy areas

Land Explorer – our journey so far.

We’re very excited about the progress of Land Explorer; our software platform that helps you find, access and manage land.

With development continuing to go from strength to strength and our first minimum viable product (MVP) soon to be launched, our Digital Coordinator, Julian Thompson talks about his story and that of Land Explorer.

Land Explorer update launches in 2018

After a successful trial of a prototype in 2017 using DEFRA data to map land types, agricultural classification, soil, flood risk and sites of special scientific interest, Land Explorer is being expanded and updated for 2018.

Data? What is it good for?

Our Digital Coordinator, Julian Thompson, explorers the some of the challenges and opportunities presented by Open Data, as we celebrate Open Data Day.

Housing white paper announces plans for complete and open Land Register

Earlier today the housing white paper announced exciting plans about opening up the Land Registry. This is something Shared Assets and others have been fighting for, and sounds like an incredibly positive step. This blog outlines some of the key proposals and what they might mean.

We need testers for our awesome new site Land Explorer

Our new land mapping website Land Explorer uses maps and open data to help you find the information you need to understand the land around you. Please help us by giving it a go and filling in our (very short) feedback form!

The Land Registry privatisation is off – now lets open it up

The government has come to its senses and listened to the huge opposition to the privatisation of the Land Registry. This is great news, but there is more to do. Now we need to push for ownership information to be made freely available to everyone

Launching Land Explorer

We’re delighted to introduce you to our new website, Land Explorer. Land Explorer uses maps and open data to help you find the information you need to understand the land around you. Try it now for free at www.landexplorer.uk.

Coming in January: our new online mapping platform, Land Explorer

Land Explorer is a new map-based platform designed to provide the information needed for land to be managed for the common good. We’re launching in on 4th January at the Oxford Real Farming Conference. If you’re interested, please get in touch.

Opening up the Land Registry – a letter to Greg Clark

Accessible information on ownership is crucial to making land work for everyone. We recently brought together a broad coalition of organisations interested in opening up the Land Registry. There was a real thirst for change, and as the first step we have sent a joint letter to the Minister responsible for the Land Registry.

Exploring Land Data: getting better information to common good land users

Quality land data is crucial to making good decisions about land use. Our new report explores the information needed by common good land users and how to get it to them.

Land data needs and datasets (open google sheet – contributions welcome!)

This open spreadsheet sets out the information needs of land-based groups and the datasets that can help them. Most of the datasets included are open data. New contributions welcome!

(Data)diving for land data treasure

Shared Assets and DataKind got together 20 volunteer data scientists to explore how land data could help Ecological Land Coop find a new site. Here’s the story of the day

Ownership data and common good land use

The Government’s plans to privatise the Land Registry will lose the public resources and control if they go ahead. Moreover, our research suggests that communities and land-based social enterprises will be amongst the biggest losers.

Land Registry: sell it off or open it up?

Our Director, Mark Walton, sets out why we will be campaigning against the proposed privatisation of the Land Registry.

How can land data support common good land use?

We recently identified improving access to land data as one of the key ways of promoting common good land use in the UK. Now we want to know more about how this can be achieved.  If you are interested in this, or think you can help, please get in touch.

What information do land-based social pioneers need?

Is it possible for a single platform to give land-based projects the key information they need about the land around them? Our latest project aims to answer this question, and to find a way to increase access to data for common good land users.

#OpenDefra must be accessible to everyone

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs recently announced they will make most of their data freely available over the next year. This will unlock great innovation. How can we ensure it also improves social and environmental outcomes rather than just profits?

Democratising Land Data

“If we want people to play a bigger part in our society, we need to give them the information.” Despite these words from David Cameron in 2010, lack of accessible data about land remains a problem. In this blog we explain why we think access to land data is such an important issue for land based social enterprise and explore some ways in which it might be improved. Let us know what you think.