Client:	Westminster City Council
Contract Type:	Revenues (Business Rates & Council Tax Administration and Collection)

Duration:

5 years initially with a 7 year extension granted in 1998, a further 3 year extension granted in 2005 and a further 7 year extension agreed in 2006, taking the contract to 2015

     

The challenge

Westminster required a leading edge partner that had the experience and capability to administer and collect over £1billion in Business Rate and Council Tax revenue and deliver the customer service improvement objectives in its corporate business plan, whilst saving money. The implementation also required conversion of their, largely undocumented and entirely bespoke, NNDR application to a Unix based system.
 
The provision of effective back-office functions to support the Council’s front line “One Stop” shops was high on the Council’s agenda as an integral part of achieving its objective, requiring standardisation of processes to achieve seamless interaction.
 
A further significant factor was the liaison between the back office Council Tax service and the Council’s Housing Benefit Service, which at the time was administered by Westminster.
 
Notwithstanding the broader challenges of the contract requirements, we were also faced with the need to re-locate and ensure staff retention and service delivery throughout the transition process.

The solution

Capita relocated the administration, billing and collection of Westminster Council Tax and Business Rates in April 1994 to its newly modernised Business Centre in Bromley, Kent. The transition for staff and migration of the IT systems was completed without any disruption to the level of customer services, it also resulted in a seamless service transfer highlighting Capita’s ability to set up and provide a remote service delivery that does not impair on customer service. In 1996 our Bromley Shared Service Centre became ISO accredited and was also IiP accredited in 2005.
 
The service was further enhanced in 1999 when Capita established a 300+ seat specialised Contact Centre located in Coventry, processing all Council Tax telephone enquiries, which both improved call resolution and processing times. Best practice and efficiency were also required in the delivery of a business-like approach for achieving a low council tax and a value for money administration.
 
A key element of the 1998 contract extension was a commitment to convert Westminster’s existing system to a more modern Unix based system. This was a major project as the originating system was largely undocumented and bespoke in design, with the added risk that any service disruption would have jeopardised Westminster’s ability to collect its annual £985 million in Business Rates. Within the first year of the extended contract, Capita successfully managed the conversion to our Academy NNDR Unix system.
 

The outcome

For the Council Tax and NNDR work, the relocation from central London combined with the creation of the Bromley Shared Service Centre and implementation of best practice procedures and protocols alongside function based processing, has allowed the service to make staged incremental improvements since the inception of the partnership.
 
Council Tax collection stood at 84.6% at the start of the contract and we have improved this to 94.8%. NNDR stood at 86.9% at the start of the contract and has been improved to 98.2%.
 
"The Westminster Revenues Service has derived real benefits from being part of Capita’s Revenues Centre in Bromley. In addition to the staff dedicated to the Westminster service, having access to a larger pool of revenues practitioners actively promotes the sharing of best practice processes, offers true service resilience, and also provides focused and innovative solutions for service delivery. There is no doubt these have all been contributing factors in us achieving and sustaining our service improvements and efficiency savings."
 
Martin Hinckley, Contracts Performance Manager, Westminster City Council