Brown says web can save Britain billions

Britain can save billions of pounds a year by embracing online technology in public services, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday, weeks before an election being fought partly over soaring government borrowing.

Brown said the Labour government, which has funded plans to bring broadband Internet to nearly all homes by 2012, would open access to public data to transform the way citizens communicated with the state.

He said further investment to build a next generation, superfast broadband network over the coming decade would bring "new, cheaper, more personalised and more effective public services to people."

The government proposes to pay for this faster network by 2017 with a 6 pound a year tax on telephone lines. The opposition Conservatives say the levy is unnecessary and they would scrap it if they win the election.

Brown's ambitious plans will need to avoid the pitfalls struck by previous government computerisation projects which have gone hugely over time and over budget.

A National Health Service programme to digitise patient records is forecast to cost at least 12 billion pounds, has missed a number of deadlines and has been condemned by the head of a parliamentary committee as a "disaster."

Britain's budget deficit is heading towards a record 12 percent of gross domestic product this year and Labour and the Conservatives are tussling over how best to cut it.

Labour promises to halve the deficit over four years. The Conservatives say that is not enough. 

Opinion polls show no party is on course to win an overall majority in the parliamentary election expected on May 6, which could leave the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats as kingmakers in a hung parliament.

Part of both Labour and the Conservatives plans to get borrowing down after an 18-month recession will fall under the heading of "efficiency savings" - finding cheaper ways to do government business.

The government had said more than 10 billion pounds could be saved over the next four years through "smarter government."

Brown said chancellor Alistair Darling would give more details on how this total could rise to 20 billion pounds in his budget on Wednesday.