Birmingham City Council

Summary of Submission

Birmingham City Council has demonstrated excellence in partnership working through a successful collaboration between the Council Tax Service, Internal Audit, and NEC. Together, the teams transformed the Single Person Discount (SPD) review process by introducing an intelligence-led risk assessment model that reviewed over 14,000 accounts.

By combining operational expertise, strong governance, and managed service support, the partnership identified incorrect discounts, improved record accuracy, strengthened fraud prevention, and ensured fair application of council tax legislation. The project generated £1.8 million in additional income to support essential public services while creating a sustainable approach to future revenue assurance activities.

Regular collaboration, shared performance measures, and accountability enabled the teams to operate as one integrated service. Equality, diversity, and inclusion were embedded throughout, with accessible communications, translation support, and assistance for vulnerable residents. This partnership delivered exceptional financial, operational, and customer outcomes, demonstrating innovation, efficiency, transparency, and the value of collaborative working.

Excel Civil Enforcement and Inicio AI

Summary of Submission

Excel Civil Enforcement and Inicio AI have built a distinctive, values-led partnership to transform income and expenditure assessments for local authorities through Budgie, the only FCA‑authorised IE virtual agent.

Together, we combine Excel's operational expertise with Inicio's digital engagement capability to transform how debtors access information, support and repayment solutions.

Our recovery journey puts the debtor experience at the heart of the collection journey, empowering understand of their situation, improving engagement through their preferred channels, supporting vulnerability, encouraging sustainable debt resolution and taking earlier positive action.

Budgie’s inclusive, accessible design, real-time vulnerability signposting and strict FCA‑grade guardrails ensure ethical, debtor‑centric engagement and robust compliance. 

Since go‑live, Excel has achieved industry‑leading completion and conversion rates, significantly reduced agent time, and supported sustainable, affordable repayment solutions.

Together, we show that enforcement and empathy can work hand in hand, setting a new benchmark for ethical, innovative debt resolution that delivers better outcomes.

London Borough of Brent and Payment Plan

Summary of Submission

PaymentPlan.co.uk and Brent Council have created an innovative digital approach to council tax debt recovery that combines strong financial performance with a fairer, more customer-focused experience, especially for vulnerable customers.

The fully automated platform enables residents to engage digitally, set affordable instalment plans and receive supportive reminders, providing an accessible alternative to traditional enforcement. Requiring no additional staffing or IT infrastructure, the solution has been quick to implement, scalable and cost-effective.

The partnership is delivering impressive results. Recovery costs are significantly reduced when compared to traditional enforcement, and the system has become part of Brent's BAU activity.

By combining digital innovation, operational efficiency and early intervention, Brent and PaymentPlan are demonstrating that effective debt recovery can also be supportive, proportionate and inclusive.

Voicescape and Luton Borough Council

Summary of Submission

Luton Borough Council's Revenues service protects Council Tax income for a diverse borough of more than 85,000 households. Facing rising arrears and falling national collection rates, Luton partnered with Voicescape to rethink how Council Tax recovery could work.

The teams moved beyond a manual, officer-led model and co-designed a proactive, multi-channel engagement journey. Residents are contacted before formal recovery action and offered clear choices: pay, request an arrangement, query a bill, or speak to a specialist officer. Straightforward cases are directed to self-service, freeing officers to help those who need personal support.

This has helped generate over £1.5m in additional revenue, reduced the year-end Council Tax gap from 1.69% to 0.69%, and increased resident engagement from single figures to a sustained 60%.

The partnership demonstrates that protecting public income and supporting residents earlier are not competing goals - rather part of the same modern, compassionate service model. 

West Northamptonshire Council and MRI Software

Summary of Submission

West Northamptonshire Council and MRI Software

Starting Point (2021)

• Three councils with very different performance levels
• Six systems
• Different processes
• Different cultures

The Journey

• Transformation business case approved
• MRI selected as a strategic partner
• Joint WNC and MRI project team working together
• 18-month commitment
• Formal contract management and strong project governance
• Data cleansing and migration
• System integration
• Challenging billing deadlines
• Change management, which was key to success

The Partnership

• Established in 2022
• Major service transformation undertaken together
• A true partnership built on transparency and shared accountability
• Shared ownership of challenges and outcomes
• A partnership that supports significant organisational change while improving performance, delivering savings and enhancing services
• Success achieved together

The Future

The success of this partnership is not measured by what has already been achieved, but by the opportunities it continues to create

Wigan Council and Destin Solutions

Summary of Submission

Wigan Council and Destin Solutions have worked in partnership over the last five years to develop a ground-breaking ‘Single View of Business’ solution. 

Tasked with facilitating targeted, proactive and intelligence-led engagement with local businesses, the partnership achieved this through identification of sector trends, business decline and growth areas, enabling early intervention to protect jobs, strengthen resilience and safeguard revenue.

Much more than a technology project,  this transformational change programme has altered how decisions are made, how services collaborate, and how resources are targeted. It has allowed Wigan to move from reactive decision-making, based on fragmented and often outdated information, to a proactive intelligence-led approach powered by daily refreshed data and real-time analysis. 

This partnership has created one of the most comprehensive and dynamic ‘local business profiling’ solutions currently available in the UK. Reducing data gathering time by approximately 96%, it automates the process of running multi-day analytical tasks into minutes.