03/02/2005

Councils set to meet e-government target

Local e-Government Minister, Phil Hope has announced that England's local authorities are on target to be 'one hundred per cent e-enabled' by the end of the year.

The Minister said that local authorities are also expected to deliver £1.2 billion in efficiency savings by 2007/08.

Councils had been encouraged to utilise the Local e-Government National Projects, which aimed to help councils deliver service improvements and efficiency benefits.

Speaking at a National Projects EXPO 2005 event in London, Mr Hope praised the results and said that it showed the progress councils had been making on e-government. He said: "In over 100 councils, citizens can already go online to submit planning applications, check their council tax balance and calculate their benefits entitlement. Our challenge for the next twelve months is to drive through the full benefits of e-government to help build the efficient and effective local councils that our communities deserve."

Mr Hope outlined the results, which were taken from December's Implementing Electronic Government (IEG4) returns. The results showed that the average council was now 79% enabled and that £121 million in efficiency gains was expected to be achieved in 2004.05, as a direct result of investment in Local e-Government.

Mr Hope said: "To this end, we will utilise the IEG4 results and a further mid-term asessment in July 2005 to frame and target requirments for further specialised support."

(KMcA/SP)

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