Local councils spend 10 times more on web services than comparable businesses

On average, town halls spend much more than businesses on web services

Local councils in Britain spent nearly 10 times more than businesses on equivalent external web services last year, according to a report published today.

The report, based on a Freedom of Information request to every local council in the UK, is published by People Per Hour, an organisation set up to link small businesses with independent service providers.

It shows that on average local councils spent £40,917 in a 12-month period spanning 2008 and 2009, compared to £4373 for the average spend among over 60,000 businesses.

This is despite the observation that the business sites were mostly more complex than local authority sites and handled as much or more traffic, says PPH founder Xenios Thrasyvoulou.

On the local government sites “there is no e-commerce and no user-generated content, no Web 2.0 features which would add to the overall expense,” Thrasyvoulou told Computing. “You have to wonder what they spend the money on.”

While the comparisons are for average spending, the report shows massive differences in spending from borough to borough and region to region.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council tops the league for the biggest percentage increase – a stonking 4696 per cent – when comparing last year's spending with the year before.

But comparing regional averages, the southwest and northeast of England and Scotland show the biggest jumps in spending – all up nearly 50 per cent per annum.

The figures represent only one facet of IT spending, Thrasyvoulou admits.

“This is a small proportion of a much bigger spend on the full range of IT services procured by the public sector,” he says in the report.

“Bearing in mind that IT services is just one of many areas of overspend and councils a small part of the public sector, one can only imagine the magnitude of waste in the system.”