Why Councils Now View Automation as Essential

20 September 2026

by Graeme Maychell

At one time, automation in council Revenues and Benefits Departments was an ambition. Something that could improve efficiency, if budgets and priorities allowed.

Five years later, the conversation has completely changed.

No longer a nice-to-have, for many councils, it’s an essential part of operations.

Across the UK, digital process automation is helping services manage increasing workloads, improve the customer experience and make the best use of valuable staff resources. For many of Govtech customers, it’s difficult to imagine running these services without it.

“I’d be surprised if councils are not embracing automation. Every council must be using some form of it to manage the growing workloads.”

Lisa Webster

Project Manager, Revenues & Benefits, Kirklees Council

These comments reflect the shift we’ve seen across local government. Govtech launched an ‘Automation Club’, with the goal of helping councils understand what automation could achieve, encouraging them to think beyond simple efficiency gains.

Today, excitingly, we’re seeing those ambitions become reality.

What does automation look like in practice?

The best way to measure the value of automation is through the outcomes that customers achieve using Govtech’s WebCAPTURE for Revenues and eCAPTURE for Benefits.

A great example is Coventry City Council, which reduced its Council Tax backlog from 19 weeks to just 11 days after implementing webCAPTURE. The council introduced core modules alongside the Landlord Schedule form with five large landlords. At the same time, it moved customers towards online forms and closed a generic email inbox which had been used for submissions.

This earned a big reduction in manual processing and a rapid decrease in backlog during the first year.

This shows how quickly automation can deliver value.

“webCAPTURE automation has significantly reduced manual processing, improved accuracy and enabled us to focus on more complex cases where human intervention adds the greatest value. This in turn has allowed us to greatly reduce significant backlogs, meaning customers receive their bills quicker and giving us the opportunity to maximise collection benefiting Coventry citizens.”

Karen Holtom

Policy and Projects Manager, Revenues and Benefits, Coventry City Council

Automation at its best

Not replacing people, but helping them focus on the work where their expertise makes the biggest difference.

When automation becomes essential

One of the clearest signs of success is when a service no longer wants to operate without automation.

As automation becomes embedded into day-to-day processes, teams quickly see the impact it has on capacity, performance and customer service.

The journey doesn’t stop there

Once councils experience the benefits of automation, the conversation shifts.

Councils are looking at new opportunities to streamline processes, reduce manual work and get more value from their investment.

We’ve seen this with Manchester City Council and Inbox Assistant, our email automation solution powered by Liberty IDP technology. Early results are showing strong potential to reduce administrative effort and improve efficiency.

Record volumes, growing confidence

Automation is becoming a core part of modern service delivery. The growth in automation is reflected in the volumes being processed across Govtech’s customer community.

In April 2026, Govtech processed 4.9 million transactions in a single month, breaking their own record.

This milestone demonstrates both the growing adoption of automation and the confidence councils place in automated services to manage high-volume workloads accurately and reliably.

As automation matures, councils are focusing less on whether a process is automated and more on the outcomes it delivers.

They want clear answers to questions such as:

1. How many transactions are completed automatically?
2. What savings are being achieved?
3. How are staff being redeployed?
4. How is service performance improving?
5. What impact is automation having on revenue collection?

The most successful councils can measure these outcomes and use that insight to continually improve their services.

Better outcomes for teams and citizens

Automation is helping councils deliver:

1. Faster Council Tax billing and account updates
2. Quicker responses to customer changes and notifications
3. 24/7 self-service options for citizens
4. Reduced backlogs and improved service levels
5. More support for vulnerable customers
6. Better use of specialist skills and expertise
7. More rewarding work for employees.

For councils managing rising demand and ongoing resource pressures, those benefits make a significant difference.

Ultimately, automation is about helping people do their best work.

And for a growing number of councils, that journey is already well underway.

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.