Realising e-government in the UK: rural and urban challenges

Purpose - The considerable success achieved with information and communications technologies (ICTs) within the private sector has influenced various stakeholders (including the government) to link up public sector services with the internet revolution. This is being achieved by making expeditious attempts to provide online public sector products and services on a nationwide basis. However, there are certain regions and groups of the populace in a country where this aim will not be achieved. Aims to focus on this. Design/methodology/approach - Using two comparative case studies and a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, this research identifies the challenges being faced by the UK government in ensuring e-government products and services to both the rural and urban areas. The London Borough of Hillingdon is used to illustrate the case of the urban area, whilst Conwy County Borough Council is the rural case. Findings - The research found that while citizens' backgrounds influenced accessibility to e-government services in the urban area, geographic location related issues were posing problems to the same in the rural area. Practical implications - While illustrating a digital divide, this implies that the UK government still has challenges to overcome, as it has to obtain and convince the citizens to attain internet access that will allow them to acquire the online products and services offered by the government. Amongst other challenges to be encountered are how to overcome the organisational and technical issues that could impede the desired integration of business processes and technologies across government institutions for effective e-governance. Originality/value - Addresses issues that the UK has to overcome in providing online public sector products and services offered by the government.