Local authorities in England will need to spend £2.13bn to meet the
Government's 2005 target for electronic service delivery, according
to research from e-government specialist Kable.
The study of English local authority Implementing Electronic
Government (IEG) statements also warned that councils could face a
funding shortfall of £1.78bn as they strive to meet the 2005 target
for getting services online.
Senior public sector figures have expressed concern that the
shortfall could hinder the progress of the e-government agenda. Bob
Griffith, national secretary of the Society of Information
Technology Management (Socitm), said, "To expect all these new
initiatives with insufficient extra funding is unrealistic."
Councils were urged by the Government to implement a satisfactory
IEG statement by the end of July this year to qualify for a share
of £350m allocated as part of last year's spending review.
Experts are now worried that this funding will not be sufficient to
enable all local authorities to meet the 2005 target. Kable
director Karen Swinden said, "Some local authorities will fail
because they will struggle to find the extra funds."
Swinden acknowledged, however, that councils are becoming
increasingly innovative as they attempt to deal with the funding
shortfall. "One local authority, for example, is going to share
software development costs with other local authorities," she
said.
The research found that the largest area of expenditure was
community access (£306.4m). This was followed by customer
relationship management (£287m) and networks (£227.5m).