Take up of e-enabled services will offer benefits for citizens and local authorities alike

Date published: 14 November 2005

A national campaign designed to raise public awareness and encourage take-up of council e-services has been announced by Local e-Government Minister Jim Fitzpatrick. The campaign will launch in early 2006 and will highlight the benefits of accessing council services online - including flexibility and convenience, and improved access to information.

The campaign will herald the next stage in the transformation of local authority services. Since 2002, the Local e-Government Programme has seen councils working towards e-enabling local services by December 2005. However, there is evidence that current usage of council e-channels still lags behind public interest in using them. For example, research suggests that 46% (17.5 million) of the adult population of England are predisposed to use council e-channels.

The campaign will aim to tap into this latent demand, and support councils in turning citizen interest into action. For local authorities, post December 2005, raising awareness and encouraging take up will become an increasing priority, in order to drive up the use of local e-services and release efficiency gains.

Local e-Government Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: "We are delighted with the achievements of the Local e-Government Programme to date and the efforts of councils in putting services online.  This has built a platform for the next phase of transforming service delivery. Our future plans are dependent upon winning citizens around to the benefits of using e-services. To this end, I am announcing our intention to shortly launch a campaign to support the efforts of councils in raising awareness in local communities of the local e-services that are now available."