New Research Report ‘Untapped Potential’ Uncovers Gap Between Councils’ Digital Ambitions and Reality
Hitachi Solutions has partnered with Local Government Chronicle (LGC) on an industry research report that analyses local authorities’ perceived potential, planned utilisation, and readiness to utilise major technologies over the next five years. This report surveys and examines the challenges local government authorities face in adopting digital technology today, highlighting the gap between the desire to embrace digital solutions and the readiness of local authorities to implement and benefit from them.
The survey gathered insights from 78 respondents, including chief executives, managing directors, heads of services, council leaders, cabinet members, and councillors.
This report aims to explore current opinions and attitudes toward various technologies and identify how local governments can come together to harness technology for the benefit of their communities.
The survey suggests there is a clear gap between the potential councils see in digital and their current plans to use it.
Martin George
Deputy Editor, Local Government Chronicle
The purpose of this research
Our vision for UK local government at Hitachi Solutions is a sector that’s collaborative, confident, and effectively equipped with the digital skills, knowledge, and superior solutions to contribute to a better society. But how far off that vision is the sector today? We wanted to know more.
This is why Hitachi Solutions partnered with LGC to survey and report on UK local authorities’ perceived potential, planned utilisation, and readiness to adopt major technologies over the next five years. Despite widespread recognition of the transformative potential of digital technologies, many local authorities in the UK struggle to bridge the gap between their aspirations and the practical implementation of digital solutions.
This research indicates that while councils see the promise of digital innovation—such as improved service delivery, greater efficiency, and better citizen engagement—their current plans often fall short of these ambitions. The impact of this reality could have a lasting effect on our communities up and down the country, unable to achieve their local strategic vision, knowing digital has a role to play but not using digital technologies to help achieve it. Is this not being set up to fail?
Bridging the gap
With local authorities facing such enormous challenges, harnessing the potential of digital will be essential to their future success, but local authorities should no longer be left in isolation to work out how to close this gap between their digital aspirations and how to actually achieve it. Instead, we should come together to establish a collective voice and ambition on the importance of digital technology in achieving strategic outcomes across the breadth and complexity of local community needs. Local government organisations should be asking themselves, “What objectives are most important?” and “How can digital help to achieve them?” Well, this is what this research sought to find out.
Much of the debate about digital transformation begins with a focus on the technology available. The approach of this research is different. We started by identifying the biggest strategic objectives councils have set themselves for the next five years and then worked backwards to understand where digital could have a role in achieving them.
The picture that emerged is more complex and nuanced than the usual discussions about how councils can use individual technology, such as generative AI. We found that councils see a big role for digital in achieving their biggest strategic priority—efficiency and productivity—but when it comes to other high-scoring objectives such as economic growth or regeneration, they see less potential. For each objective we asked about, clear patterns emerge about which types of digital different councils see as being of most use.
The research also suggests there is a clear gap between the potential councils see in digital and their current plans to use it. The scale of the challenges facing the sector must not be underestimated. Perhaps the most worrying finding was that 54% of respondents believe their organisation does not have the knowledge, ability, and confidence to design and implement digital solutions to successfully address its biggest challenges.
If you agree that leveraging technology in local government is a path to solving core society challenges, then it’s time to fly the flag for local government technology.
Sharna Quirke
Strategic Director for Local Government
Working together
Never has it been more important to us to follow Hitachi Solutions’ traditional Japanese values of coming together in harmony, to explore the issues with sincerity and openness, and to have the courage of a pioneering spirit to see how it can be done differently and what we can achieve together.
Hitachi Solutions and LGC hope that the research results will not just be interesting and insightful but also provoke new thinking about the different and unexpected ways that councils can harness different types of digital to achieve their multiple objectives.
Get the full ‘Untapped Potential’ report
To read the full report and discover the unique findings and takeaways, please click here.
Thank you to LGC for partnering with us on this report and Martin George, Deputy Editor at LGC, for his contributions to the report.
