Councils urged to raise IT budgets

Funds needed to make reforms

Though local government IT budgets are increasing, reforms to boost efficiency via technology are still underfunded compared with similar projects in the private sector.

That is the finding of the Society of IT Managers (Socitm)'s annual IT Trends in Local Government survey, published early December, which also warns that many council IT chiefs lack the influence required to successfully implement reforms.
The survey of 475 local authority IT managers found that total IT spending in the financial year 2005/06 will climb 23 percent to £3.3bn and many managers are confident that such investment is delivering efficiencies. But it also found that councils were only spending two to four percent of their budgets on IT - significantly below the eight to 10 percent of revenue spent by private firms undertaking similar transformational projects.

Socitm report editor John Serle said further budget increases are required to deliver promised efficiency savings. "We've had some success, but if the government is serious about using technology strategically, spending must increase further," he argued.

Socitm also suggested that IT managers should be given more influence - after finding that 40 percent do not contribute to their council's service development. "Only a handful [of authorities] have chief information officer (CIO) roles. Without input from the IT side many will struggle to complete [efficiency] reforms," said Serle.

But many council IT managers lack the business skills required to perform a CIO role, said Marianne Kolding of analyst IDC. She added that replacing or retraining them would be tough at smaller councils, which would struggle to pay salaries to attract managers with the right mix of IT and business skills.

The report also raises concerns over "limited" public interest in e-government services. Poor marketing is blamed for the problem and the report says "urgent action needs to be taken to engage with customers".

The call comes a month after e-government minister Jim Fitzpatrick announced a £5m campaign to promote online public services next year. But Serle questioned whether this scheme would be sufficient. "You have to ask if the private sector would spend just £5m promoting an investment this large," he said.