A revolutionary way of helping businesses locate their customers more easily has been launched in the Forest of Dean.

Hashpoint is a unique new social enterprise project that is designed to make it easier to find individual houses using a mobile device or satnav.

It assigns a single letter - called a Hashpoint - to each registered property.

Once combined with the postcode, it can be used to accurately pinpoint any property on the system using a mobile device or satnav.

The project is the brainchild of a GP, who did not wish to be named, and her partner Tom Marshall-Andrews from the Forest of Dean.

Tom said, "Many GPs on call will have had trouble finding a property at some point in their careers, but when those GPs are in rural areas, this issue becomes more frequent, sometimes having serious implications.

"We decided that something had to be done, so worked for the last year to develop the best way of pinpointing these houses that would work across the board, not just for GPs."

Hashpoint comes with pre-assigned accounts for all properties in the Forest of Dean that are on the electoral roll.

Currently, 7,000 letters containing information and validation codes are being sent to all unnumbered residences in the area.

It is hoped that the scheme, which could prove particularly helpful to the emergency services, taxi companies and delivery drivers, will be expanded throughout Gloucestershire over the summer.