Just eight (2%) of council websites have been awarded ‘excellent' status by the Society of IT Management. SOCITM's survey, Better Connected, shows 55% of websites are ‘standard', and 43% are ‘transactional', somewhere between standard and excellent. This marks an increase on the five councils awarded the top status last year. The report reveals the Web is already the most used method for accessing council services, and yet between 12% and 31% of Web inquiries end in failure, leading to costly, ‘avoidable contacts', such as via the phone. This is against a background of significantly rising Internet usage – a jump to 73% of all adults is reported – and some evidence at least of a narrowing gap in the digital divide. Programme manager for SOCITM Insight, Martin Greenwood, said: ‘Given the current economic crisis, the time has surely come for major investment in self-service. ‘Council website managers need to become obsessive, and there needs to be a much more ruthless approach to content, focused on content customers want, as opposed to the content councils think they should have.'