Google Local ranking?

Thanks for the reply David. But that's plainly not the case. Read this again and see for yourself:

"I've actually seen Google maps with multiple display results from a single business, where other suppliers have been ignored, and others where the map has exclusively shown results on the other side of London and ignored actual suppliers from that location.  'Office Space in Croydon' being a current example."

There is some other factor at play here. Maybe there are only 'certain' locals in Google's system? I'm not sure. I'm just surprised there's not a bit more information/talk on the subject for all the reasons mentioned but primarily because of the time, effort and money being spent on natural search - when the local results are being slapped down straight on top of them.

If I do get any more information on this I'll post it up here.