Local government websites are ‘struggling’ to adapt to the rapid growth in the use of mobile phones to access services, according to a new survey.

Socitm’s Better Connected survey found that only 31% of council sites achieved the Better connected standard for mobile access, even though a third of visits come from mobile devices.

The assessment also found that tasks tested on mobiles were only half as good as those tested on desktop devices. Socitm said this suggests councils are finding it difficult to match the quality of experience on the desktop with that on mobile devices.

This is the first year that testing of website performance on mobile devices has been fully incorporated into the assessment. Four of the 14 top tasks tested for the 2014 survey were done so exclusively on mobile devices.

Of the 14 tasks tested, the ‘apply for a copy birth certificate’ worked the best, while ‘Find out about care homes for elderly relative’ performed poorly. While there has been improvements this year in the use of search, accessibility has declined.