Local Government AI Email Automation:
Manchester City Council Takes Control of Email Overload
12 May 2026
Manchester City Council has taken a major step to tackle one of local government’s most stubborn problems: Overflowing inboxes.
Every day, the Revenues & Benefits team opens an inbox full of questions, updates and requests from residents who just want things sorted: A new tenancy, a change of address, a bill that doesn’t look right or a benefit query they’re worried about.
Working closely with Govtech – Netcall’s Revenues and Benefits specialists – and powered by Liberty IDP (intelligent document processing) the council has introduced Inbox Assistant. This is an AI-driven service that reads, sorts and processes emails automatically, designed to reduce manual effort and free up Revenues and Benefits staff for other tasks – and to speed up responses for residents and businesses.
A growing problem
Manchester has seen email volumes rise steadily. Each year, it receives around 12,000 emails from landlords and agents reporting tenancy changes. Behind every email, is a household trying to settle in, keep their Council Tax up to date and avoid delays.
On top of this, another 40,000 emails arrive covering Council Tax, Business Rates and Benefits – often a mix of short questions, long explanations and attachments that all need careful attention.
Until now, each message had to be handled by staff – who opened, read and assessed what it was about, uploaded into the system and passed on for action. Even simple tasks like updating an address took several manual steps. It worked. But it took a lot of time. Manchester wanted a better way. One that could support the team, protect the service and keep things moving even when the inbox is overflowing.
Making email work for the council
Email is still one of the busiest ways residents and partners contact councils. But it is also one of the toughest to manage. No two messages look the same. People explain things in different ways. Important details can be buried halfway down a thread or tucked into an attachment.
That means skilled colleagues spend time doing the same careful steps repeatedly: Monitoring the inbox, reading, deciding what it’s about and processing it in the right work queue. Turning off email isn’t realistic because the questions don’t disappear. They simply turn into phone calls – stretching already busy contact centres.
The goal was to make email work for the council, not against it.
Meet Inbox Assistant
Inbox Assistant is Manchester City Council’s new AI-powered email automation service, combining Govtech’s webCAPTURE digital process automation with Netcall’s Liberty IDP technology. It helps the council take control of the inbox through automation; automatically reading and understanding messages, pulling out key details and guiding each email to the right outcome.
How it works
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Emails are routed into a secure inbox where Inbox Assistant reads each message and identifies what it’s about
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It picks out the important details (like names, addresses and dates) and flags what’s missing or unclear, so the right information is ready for the next step
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The solution learns from real data over time, becoming increasingly accurate at recognising patterns and helping more enquiries move through with less manual intervention. That means even greater savings and faster service in the months ahead.
So, if it’s a tenancy change, the update can be processed automatically.
If it’s a general enquiry, it’s categorised and routed to the right team.
If action is needed, the case is created and ready to go – no rekeying required.
What used to take multiple steps, now happens in moments.
Inbox Assistant has been developed collaboratively with Manchester City Council – working with those who manage the inbox every day to shape the service around their needs.
“Manchester City Council was clear about the problem: Too much time was being spent sorting emails instead of resolving what people needed. By working closely with the council and bringing together Govtech’s service design with Netcall’s capability, Inbox Assistant turns a busy inbox into clearer actions. It’s a practical change, built around the day-to-day reality of local government – and it’s only the start.”
Graeme Maychell
Senior Solutions Specialist (Revenues & Benefits), Netcall
The service went live in early May 2026. The team is looking forward to seeing fewer messages stuck in a queue and more time for the work that needs their expertise.
What happens next?
This isn’t technology for the sake of it. It’s about giving time back to people who need it. The first focus has been on the Revenues and Benefits inbox, where pressure is highest. But the ambition is to apply the same approach to other services, helping more teams spend less time on manual tasks and more time supporting residents.
Manchester City Council has turned a heavy, manual process into something fast, simple and scalable. They’re showing what’s possible when councils stop accepting their inbox as unmanageable problem.
The first week of processing at Manchester yielded great stats:
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1004 emails automatically triaged.
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20% of landlord change of tenancy emails were autoprocessed in the Revenues system.
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18% were automatically replied to, to explain that there was insufficient data.
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The rest were categorised into 1 of 14 enquiry categories and automatically indexed and loaded in the DMS for action.
This means that staff can respond quicker and focus on what matters most.
If your team is spending too much time sorting emails and not enough time helping people, Inbox Assistant can help. Let’s talk about reducing manual handling, speeding up the route to the right outcome and giving staff more capacity in peak periods.
About the author
Graeme Maychell
Senior Solutions Specialist (Revenues & Benefits)
Graeme has been working within local government since 1990, where he progressed to management level as an experienced Revenues & Benefits practitioner. Between 2002 – 2012 Graeme was the Revenues Product Manager at NEC, before transitioning to his role of Head of Service Solutions with Govtech and now Senior Solutions Specialist (Revenues & Benefits) for Netcall. Graeme uses his technical knowledge and 20+ years’ experience in the provision of software solutions to deliver new innovative solutions, focussing on business process automation, using the best and most appropriate latest technologies.