The government's intention to establish a single, comprehensive national address register, announced in May, has been shelved because the parties involved could not agree a way forward, undermining the country's e-government strategy and raising a barrier to delivering efficient public and private sector services.

Inaccurate addresses disrupt deliveries, emergency response times and the collection of council tax. In the past, problems such as duplicate, missing or erroneous addresses have been seen as modest or isolated and often resolved with local knowledge. But with computer technology, even tiny discrepancies in an address can lead to problems.