Only 7% of the general public used digital technologies to access council services or information in the last year, despite nearly half wanting to do so, a new study finds.

The O2 Digital Community study reveals that 43% of people surveyed said the council information or service they wanted wasn't available from their mobile or tablet. Of those using twitter, 74% said council response time was too slow.

Mark Adams-Wright, managing partner of O2's Local Government Practice said: ‘With local authorities under continual pressure to cut costs, digital services can play a big part in saving money and the technology is ready to be implemented.

‘For example, every telephone enquiry from the community will cost a local authority £8.62, as opposed to 15p for a web enquiry. The money saved can then be spent on people and services that really need help from local authorities.'

The Local Government Digital Fund has now been launched by O2, which will give one local authority access to services and technologies up to the value of £250,000.