Should Ordnance Survey be privatised?

Long talked about as “what would eventually happen” during my tenure at Ordnance Survey, but it looks as if the OS, a cherished Southampton institution after we nicked it from London, could be broken up and sold off. Can’t see them giving the military work to anybody else, but like every other privatisation, I can see them selling off the business, especially the data, far too cheaply.

    1. Don’t know
    1. Don’t care
    1. Yes
    1. No

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Talked about since the '80s. There would be a strong anti privatisation lobby in both chambers and a very strong anti campaign from the public.

I can’t see it happening and I don’t see any great argument in favour of privatisation. There are large parts of the OS’s remit that simply aren’t profitable but carried out by Parliamentary edict, underwritten by the profitable parts. Whoever takes on the profitmaking side will also have to sign-up to take on the less profitable obligation.

I’m long gone and maybe not up to date with the reality of the issue…but if the government want to privatise it won’t be an easy ride.

On principle no, like anything else that ends up in the private sector it becomes unprincipled and loyal only to the shareholder.

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buy a sat nav :lou_surprised:

Originally posted by @areloa-grandee

buy a sat nav :lou_surprised:

…and who supplies the data for said sat nav??

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Indeed, and that’s before you even get into the nitty gritty of collecting it in the first place. I don’t know what advancements they’ve made since my last stint in the early 2000’s, but you still need surveyors, field staff and all the equipment to support it. It’s a huge operation, and I can’t see how all of it is going to be profitable unless higher costs are passed down to the consumers.

I was being a bit fecetious…

Originally posted by @areloa-grandee

Originally posted by @lifeintheslowlane

Originally posted by @areloa-grandee

buy a sat nav :lou_surprised:

…and who supplies the data for said sat nav??

I was being a bit fecetious…

I know you were…I was providing an implied answer for the less enlightened visitors :lou_wink_2:

How about they run as a profit making enterprise and any profits over a certain amount are returned to the treasury

What about the poor who won’t be able to afford maps to find the local food bank? Tories again trying to hit the poorest in society.

:lou_wink:

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Yes that was how the OS was run when it operated under a “Trading Fund” in the mid-'80s> early '90s. It wasn’t the ideal way to run it as there wasn’t an ability to carry forward a trading profit to fund capital projects. There was just a frantic spending binge at the end of the financial year as an underspend would indicate too much had been allocated in the previous financial year and the following year would be cut back to match. Crazy.

Lets face it the Gov see this as another money making scheme, sell it off to the people that have money, ie their mates who own the big business’s, who will then make sure that the peole that sold it to them dont go short of a bob or two.

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How much new Ordnance is there to survey now?

I had one experience with them two years ago, paying for digital files to download while mobile, for use while mountain biking in Wales. Took 10 days to arrive in my inbox after the online order and then did not work when needed. Not good. Ended up buying paper maps.

To be fair, they widened their remit some time ago. Some of my older colleagues told me about the age when the Director General used to be from a military background. I am sure that lifeintheslowlane can tell you more on that.

In terms of day to day stuff, they basically have to map every change in a country that rarely stops changing. Probably worth remembering how much stuff they individually catalogue. It’s not just roads and houses. It is a constant, unending job.

I loved working there, btw. The politics and money were crap, but the projects were awesome. During my time there, I helped to make GPS in the UK 15x more accurate :slight_smile:

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Yeah I can tell you about the history and how it was up 'til 2002 but have never been back and never visited the new building. Spent 33 years there but took an early pay-off…I had the best of it. :lou_wink_2:

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