Some 600 sites will either be entirely eliminated or will move data to the existing direct.gov.uk portal, leaving around 200 websites operational. A review informing the next steps will report back by September, and will advise how the remaining sites can shift onto common infrastructures.

The move builds on by the previous government, which since 2008 has closed 1,001 sites and said new websites could not be established without approval.

But three months later it and said it would not ban new local government websites, after admitting the original decision had been taken without consulting councils.

The announcement comes in the wake of an official report that many websites have low usage and high costs. The worst examples were uktradeinvest.gov.uk, which has running costs equivalent to £11.78 per visit, and businesslink.gov.uk, which costs £2.15 per visit. Last year, the government spent £126 million setting up, maintaining and staffing 46 of the more expensive sites.

There are also issues over efficiency, with 40 percent of surveyed visitors to the Department of Work and Pensions site complaining they found none of the information they were looking for.