ZDNet UK


Skip to Main Content

  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Blogs
  4. Reviews
  5. Jobs
  6. Resources
  7. Community
  8. My ZDNet

 

ZDNet UK RSS Feeds


Online business Toolkit

Government urges councils to e-innovate

Kablenet.com

Published: 02 Dec 2004 16:35 GMT

  • Email
  • Trackback
  • Clip Link
  • Print friendly
  • Post Comment

Ministers want councils to submit ideas for using IT to achieve efficiency savings in local government as part of the next stage of the UK's "e-innovations" programme, it was announced on Wednesday.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is offering £7m for councils to develop projects along four main themes. Along with efficiency savings, they are:

  • using IT to tackle "social exclusion";
  • better use of technology to improve local authority business processes, including internal service planning and performance management;
  • promoting "better leadership" in local government.

Instead of councils bidding for the funding, as in the first round of the e-Innovations Programme, the ODPM says it wants to encourage a "more collaborative style" for developing projects. A letter sent to councils to coincide with the announcement said that Whitehall, the private sector, voluntary organisations, and academia would "work together" with councils to generate proposals.

In the first round, councils developed projects such as text messaging services, wireless technology, and a "virtual town planning" model.

Local government minister Phil Hope said: "Progress towards the 2005 target for e-enabling local authority services is well under way. Councils expect to be 86 percent e-enabled by 1 April next year, but we also need to look further than this."

"The e-innovations fund is designed to help local authorities develop cutting edge ideas and deliver real benefits to the way they do business."

  • Email
  • Trackback
  • Clip Link
  • Print friendlyPrint with Konica

Did you find this article useful?
91 out of 195 people found this useful



Company/Topic Alerts

Create a new alert from the list below:





Sentry Posts Blog

Police seize phone-gun

Italian police have seized a gun disguised as a mobile phone, according to a report on Gizmodo. The phone can hold four bullets, and is powerful enough to kill somebody. Gizmodo... More

3 comments

Gov't loses a PC a week

The government averaged losing one PC per week over the last year, according to figures collated by the Conservatives. A Friday report by the Press Association said that Tory front-bencher... More

1 comment

The Technological Singularity

Are we approaching a point when machines may wake up and become self or seemingly self aware? Vernor Vinge in 1993 seemed to think so. He refered to this event as the "technological... More

4 comments

Google Chrome

Roundup: Full coverage of the Google Chrome launch

The search giant has launched a beta of its own open-source browser, sending a clear challenge to Microsoft in the way it lets users work with applications More

Blog: Google Chrome has Microsoft's code inside, says MS manager

And furthermore, he says, that's a good thing... More

Blog: Google Chrome — nine things we've found since launch

Google must be very happy with the coverage Chrome has gathered. But it's not all good news... More