Abstract
This report was commissioned late in 2009 by the Spatial Analysis Unit in the Department for Communities and Local Government. It was originally designed as a ‘toolkit’ to support analysts and policy users in CLG (now renamed DCLG), other central government departments, regional government and local authorities in using classifications or typologies of places to inform policy development or performance evaluation. However, we hope it will also be useful within the wider research community for academics, students and other social researchers.