diff --git a/common/files/locale b/common/files/locale
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..01ec548f82205efd53e4fc1be27aef47ddaee9cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/files/locale
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+LANG=en_US.UTF-8
diff --git a/common/tasks/locale.yml b/common/tasks/locale.yml
index 2594d6d10016541fc08b562e17cc9859e98ceb5a..d104bd2685227348a4f9809ec8e15d3f6870ed36 100644
--- a/common/tasks/locale.yml
+++ b/common/tasks/locale.yml
@@ -13,3 +13,7 @@
     - config
     - locale
 
+- copy: src=locale dest=/etc/default/locale owner=root group=root mode=0644
+  tags:
+    - config
+    - locale