Our latest whitepaper, titled “Readiness is Resilience”, shows that the best way to prepare Local Authorities is by using software solutions that help Revenues and Benefits teams accelerate preparations for the ambitious Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) programme – including the best methods to manage service continuity and address increased operational pressure.
In this blog, we have summarised the insights within this whitepaper into a 3-minute blog covering: what the current landscape requires of councils, especially Revenues and Benefits teams, as well as an introduction to our “READY” framework to address challenges brought on by LGR – where you can claim your free copy for your council below.
With the first wave of unitarisation set to begin in little over a year and continue across 2027 and 2028, Revenues and Benefits teams face an unprecedented convergence of structural change, integration complexity and the everyday pressures of managing increasingly complex workloads against tightening resources. From all the reforms occurring, from Universal Credit (UC) to shifts in Housing Benefits, a sustainable strategy will be central to success during this time to deliver accelerated operational efficiency: moving beyond administrative roles to empower financial innovation and risk management for more resilient services.
Drawing on exclusive sector insights, practitioner interviews, and real-world case studies, the whitepaper examines how the LGR timeline is intensifying pressure on Revenues and Benefits services and teams that will be critical to ensuring seamless revenue collection through and beyond transition.
The report highlights the key operational and strategic challenges facing councils as reorganisation accelerates:
With growing resident demands and pressures from LGR, Revenues and Benefits teams will play an important role in building financial resilience and improving resident services.
In response to these pressures, our whitepaper introduces the “READY” framework – a practical model designed to help councils build operational resilience during reorganisation and beyond. The READY framework succeeds through team integration, not isolation.
Built around five pillars: “Resilience,” “Engagement”, “Automation”, “Diverse communications,” and a “Yes culture,” the framework offers a structured approach to modernising revenue collection whilst improving resident experience during a period of significant change.
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Automated engagement tools, such as those offered by Voicescape, can support with building trust faster: Tameside Council implemented our automated Voicescape Collections solution for Revs and Bens and transformed its Council Tax collection process to automate routine and resource-intensive tasks:
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Offering residents more self-service channels has been proven to manage arrears more effectively: Rugby Borough Council's Revenue teams shifted to use Voicescape Collections in their Revenue team to change their recovery process for the better, enabling them to:
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Gary Haynes, Managing Director at Voicescape, comments:
"With detailed planning for the creation of a wave of new unitary authorities up and down the country now well underway, there are certainly tests ahead. But LGR also provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enact real, necessary change.
"Reorganisation provides unique justification and permission for addressing long-standing inefficiencies – replacing fragmented systems, eliminating communication approaches that can unintentionally be perceived as adversarial, and enabling approaches that reflect the increasing complexity of residents' lives.
The ambition behind our new report is to reframe the question from 'can we get through LGR?' to 'how we leverage LGR to emerge stronger?'"
Our ‘Readiness is Resilience’ whitepaper, containing our full guide to implementing our READY framework, is available to download free now.
In our whitepaper, we additionally cover the macro forces reshaping Local Government and the need for Revenues and Benefits operations to require innovation and harmonisation across multiple areas: from policy and process to Council Tax. Discover why reorganisation must be a catalyst for rebuilding trust with real case studies and research to support our findings.
Discover the top management products for Local Government restructuring with Voicescape, a trusted and award-winning provider to the public sector.
Interested in discovering how Voicescape can scale services elsewhere in your council in preparation for LGR? Read our latest LGR blog for Housing teams here.