£570k

 Arrears reduced by (£570k out of £195m) - 2025/26 in-year debt collected

£1,225

 Saved in Recovery postage costs; preventing 1,883 recovery notices

124,044

 Engagements facilitated across multiple channels across all modules (since go-live to April 2026)

Voicescape Collections for Revenues and Benefits helped Nottingham City Council achieve a proactive approach to their Council Tax collection, reducing arrears during 2025/26 by 0.31% improving the resident experience through early automated engagement.

Nottingham City Council has additionally begun early intervention strategies, aiming to shift the narrative around Council Tax with residents. With the addition of a new account for ‘Cash Payers,’ as well as weekly updates for ‘Cash Payers’ with instalment plans.

The Challenge

Nottingham City Council was navigating significant organisational change during a period of Section 114 supervision and needed to improve financial performance across key income streams. An unanticipated pressure point was Council Tax collection, where a 5-year collection rate target created an urgent need to reduce debt and importantly strengthen in-year recovery to support the longer-term bad debt provision.

With spending and resources constrained, the council sought new and innovative ways to improve collections. At the time, processes were largely reactive, with letters used as the primary response to failed direct debits. This meant that there was minimal proactive engagement with residents and no outbound contact strategy to support early intervention or debt prevention.

Alongside this engagement challenge, Nottingham had:

• A 97.5% 5-year collection rate and an annual billing amount in 25/26 of £195m, that had increased by 5% annually, leaving Nottingham with one of the highest council tax rates in the country.
• An aim to reduce bad debt provision by 0.5%, from 2.5% to 2% over the next five years.

It was critical that they reduced in-year losses and addressed gaps in the existing collection approach. The ambition to improve Council Tax collection performance prompted a cultural shift from reactive recovery to more proactive, resident-focussed collection strategies.

Initially, the Council used a revenues system SMS module, but this offered limited follow-up capability and little visibility of outcomes. Following a review of available options, Voicescape was identified as the provider of the pre-emptive, measurable technology needed to modernise collections.

The Solution 

Voicescape Collections for Revenues and Benefits was chosen over competitors due to its voice led approach - backed by behavioural science. Additionally, its predictable fixed pricing model and positive feedback from other Councils made Voicescape an ideal choice. The Council wanted to maintain or improve its in-year collection rates during a period of increasing pressure on household budgets, particularly as Nottingham is one of the most deprived local authorities in the country and also has one of the highest Council Tax rates in the country.

For Nottingham, the primary focus was improving collection rates, and Voicescape Collections enabled them to take a more proactive approach, while addressing its engagement challenges.

“There was something about taking a voice-led approach to engagement and the transfer at the first instance that made Voicescape stand out from the rest.” – Chris Pembleton, Business Manager (Revenues), Nottingham City Council.

“We chose Voicescape Collections to trial initial nudges to collect Council Tax , with a view to expand it more broadly.”

Nottingham placed a strong emphasis on ethical approaches to revenue collection and encouraging self-serve, and using Voicescape Collections was vital to achieve this. The solution can quickly tease out easy-payers, leaving the more difficult or complex residents to talk to the Council for support.

Nottingham City Council used Voicescape to reshape resident engagement through a behavioural science-led approach. For cash payers, using timely prompts and ‘nudge theory’ principles, Voicescape helps residents avoid missed payments and take action earlier. This created a more supportive, preventative collections journey and improved the overall resident experience.

Behavioural insights were embedded throughout the automated voice outreach, ensuring messages were relevant to each stage of the collection process. Automation and targeted voice nudges not only helped protect the public purse, but also supported residents to stabilise payments, access help sooner, and reduce the risk of escalating of debt.

Voicescape Collections enabled the team to accomplish this by:

• Empowering residents to self-serve through ‘soft’ and ‘elevated’ voice nudges
• Sending payment voice nudges ahead of instalment due dates, to proactively support adherence to their payment schedule
• Using voice nudges to prevent recovery escalation
• Assisting vulnerable residents with financial advice and welfare support activities if they require it
• Freeing up team resources to engage with residents who need further support by automating their routine, lower-priority tasks

Beginning their implementation journey with Voicescape Collections in November 2024, they went live with failed Direct Debit campaigns and quickly saw results for revenue recovery.

The Results

Nottingham City Council’s in-year collection liability has steadily reduced by 0.31% since implementation, measured from April 2025 to April 2026. During this period, Voicescape has supported improved Council Tax collection performance rates from 91.42% in 24/25 to 91.73% in 25/26.

£570k arrears collected reducing 0.31% of 2025/26 in-year debt, consisting of:

• £95.5k Bounced DDs collected
• £405.5k Pre Reminder collected
• £69.5k Pre Summons collected

Since go live, Voicescape has facilitated 124,044 calls (inbound & outbound), voicemails and SMS for Nottingham City Council across all active campaigns.

“The automated calls were desirable; particularly for triaging residents. One of the things we’re trying to do more of, is debt prevention. If the call does the triaging and somebody wants to talk to us, they want to talk to us for a reason [like if they’ve got an underlying issue], and they can come through and have a conversation with us.” – Chris Pembleton, Business Manager (Revenues), Nottingham City Council.

Failed Direct Debit Campaign results:

• 68% (3,695) of residents listened to the Voicescape messaging in full, demonstrating strong engagement with automated outreach.
• Of those, 498 residents who selected the payment line completed a payment.
• Of those 330 residents who opted to receive an SMS subsequently made a payment; with 292 choosing Internet Debit and 38 Internet Credit.
• 1,883 recovery notices were prevented since implementation due to Voicescape facilitating manual payments more efficiently. In addition, £8,850 in costs were prevented – a direct saving to Nottingham households; with 131 summonses and 1,254 reminders prevented saving a further £8,842.50.
• 17.9% of residents with Failed Direct Debits made contact by phone, enabling better resource planning and delivering a faster, more effectively triaged customer experience.

“We get more phone calls around Direct Debits than before. There are more people contacting us and sometimes it’s something as simple as ‘I’ve changed job’ and we’ll reset up a Direct Debit for them closer to a corresponding pay day. Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.” – Chris Pembleton, Business Manager (Revenues), Nottingham City Council.

Starting with using Voicescape Collections for Council Tax Direct Debits, Nottingham City Council expanded their use of Voicescape to include: Cash Payer nudges, Pre Summons, Pre Reminders, as well as Direct Debit text messages.

Cash Payer Campaign results:

• £373k cash collected within 7 days of contact following implementation.
• 1,112 residents opting to pay the correct amount within the following 7 days.
• 2% increase in Direct Debit uptake attributed to Voicescape’s nudges.

Pre Reminder Campaign results:

• £405k collected from pre-reminders prior to any other council contact.
• £815 saved in postage.
• 29,191 calls made and 13,348 SMS Messages sent that led to £405k in payments.

Pre Summons Campaign results:

• 12,823 calls made and 3,101 SMS Messages sent that led to £70k in payments.
• 131 summons notices prevented.

Cost Savings and Prevention across all campaigns:

• £1,225 saved, preventing 1,883 statutory letters being sent. 2,487 letters including ‘Returned Direct Debit Letters’ being issued.
• 1 FTE equivalent unlocked with Voicescape Collections; freeing up more time for team for high-priority tasks.

Voicescape Collections helps prevent accounts from progressing through the recovery process, protecting residents from significant additional charges (circa. £9k) while also reducing council postage and recovery costs.

Operational impact:

• Increased internal efficiency by automating routine tasks that did not require direct officer intervention.
• Freed staff capacity to focus on high-value casework ensuring residents with more complex financial circumstances received personalised support.
• Built internal confidence through clear performance data, income recovery results, and a more effective engagement model for contacting residents and maximising outcomes.

“The team are pleasantly surprised by the amount of cash that Voicescape generates. Sometimes the culture within councils can be a bit risk averse to trying new things, but we see the benefits of making that change.” – Chris Pembleton, Business Manager (Revenues), Nottingham City Council.

Regarding Voicescape’s single biggest impact, Chris Pembleton commended the solution for enabling the cultural shift they needed:

“Voicescape’s standout value is its immediacy around recovery events, allowing us to be proactive before the event rather than reactive after the event.”

Future Steps

Nottingham City Council’s future vision is centred around setting up accounts correctly early on and focus on more early intervention. They wish to be more proactive when new accounts are set up, such as when people are moving in or out, to prevent problems before they arise.

If your Council wants to build a better relationship with residents regarding Council Tax, making it less of an afterthought and more of a welcoming process, get in touch with our dedicated team today, and discover how we can help you drive results in your Council Tax Recovery.