IRRV Performance Awards 2025
Delivering real-world impact for councils and communities
Liberata, alongside several of our Local Authority partners, is shortlisted in five categories at this year’s IRRV Performance Awards. For over a decade, we have consistently appeared at the awards for delivering measurable benefits to councils and residents. This year’s nominations highlight the impactful outcomes we’re achieving through collaboration and innovation.
We are proud to be shortlisted for:
Excellence in Innovation – Debt Assist
Local government debt continues to grow due to financial pressures on residents and businesses. This is creating increased strain on traditional enforcement debt recovery methods, making them less effective and adds more debt to customers.
To address this, we developed Debt Assist, an ethical, data-driven debt recovery solution that provides proactive support to vulnerable residents facing financial hardship.
Results for the London Borough of Bromley
Over three months, Bromley Council used Debt Assist to address Council Tax arrears totalling £8.2 million. The service saw 12% of cases become fully paid, with a further 6% reducing in their outstanding balance.
Families benefited from improved financial stability, with the service identifying £121,000 per month in unclaimed benefits.
Additionally, Debt Assist reduced the council’s total arrears by £576,000 through targeted, supportive interventions.
Debt Assist is already gaining recognition, winning Innovator of the Year at the Credit & Collection Industry Awards. Their judges stated:
“Liberata has implemented strong working practices and people-focused initiatives, showing a well-rounded approach to innovation that goes beyond just technology.”
Benefits and Welfare Reform Team – Swindon Borough Council
In April 2023, Liberata began working with Swindon Borough Council to enhance its Benefits service through digital transformation, aiming to speed up processing and improve resident outcomes.
Swindon Council’s existing manual processes were inefficient, resulting in delays in claim handling and negatively impacting residents, particularly vulnerable groups. Additionally, high volumes of Housing Benefit Overpayments required effective recovery.
Transforming the benefits process
By 2024/25, our transformational partnership had successfully automated three-quarters of benefit transactions, resulting in a significant improvement in claim processing times.
New claims were processed in just 12.5 days (national average: 20 days), with changes in circumstances resolved within 3 days (national average: 7 days).
Additionally, the team successfully recovered 98% of Housing Benefit Overpayments, collecting a total of £1.7 million.
Andy Stevens, Head of Revenues & Benefits at Swindon Borough Council, said:
“Liberata has been empowered to create seamless integration with technology, digitally transforming the Benefits service whilst protecting local jobs. The joint strategy has delivered innovative solutions exceeding expectations, providing savings to the authority.”
Excellence in Partnership – Burnley Borough Council
Burnley Borough Council and Liberata have partnered since 2016 to deliver essential council services, including Revenues, Benefits, IT, HR, and Payroll, with a key focus on digital innovation and improved collection outcomes.
Burnley faces considerable socioeconomic challenges that negatively impact their collection rates. The council needed a strategy to enhance digital engagement and revenue collection, despite these local challenges.
Increased collections and resident engagement
Through this partnership, Burnley Council have achieved an additional £2.6 million in Council Tax collections and £1.4 million in Business Rates over a five-year period.
Digital engagement with residents has increased significantly, with 63% of customer interactions now conducted digitally.
Their revenues and benefits processes have been automated by 64%, resulting in a substantial improvement in efficiency.
And Housing Benefit claims are processed within 10 days, half the national average processing time.
Rob Dobson, COO at Burnley Borough Council, commented:
“Our partnership with Liberata exemplifies our ‘One Council’ ethos; we work as a unified team to deliver quality service. This collaborative approach underpins our successes, from outstanding service automation to sector-leading collection rates.”
Excellence in Partnership – Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council
Over the last six years, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and Liberata have worked together to enhance revenue collection without increasing pressure on the council’s internal resources and teams.
The partnership began with targeted reviews, including Single Person Discounts, Business Rates, and Empty Homes, aligning with the council’s broader strategic aim to support community regeneration and financial stability.
Maximising council revenue
Together we have successfully generated an additional £10.8 million in revenue since 2019.
- Reviews of Single Person Discounts alone delivered an additional £6.2 million in income.
- Business Rates reviews identified properties with an additional £801,000 rateable value, generating £2 million.
- Empty Homes reviews have removed 1,539 empty properties, securing £2.6 million in funding from the New Homes Bonus.
Amanda Chadderton, Head of Income at Tameside MBC, noted:
“Liberata have provided an extremely efficient, reliable, supportive, and collaborative service. They have importantly delivered in respect of revenue generated for the Council.”
Revenues Team of the Year – London Borough of Hounslow
Liberata’s Revenues Team at the London Borough of Hounslow Council has consistently delivered excellent collection performance, managing council tax effectively through ethical and customer-focused methods. The team’s success has been driven by the Going Digital-Service Automation Programme, which enhances efficiency and resident engagement through automation and digital transformation.
The council faced increasing levels of Council Tax arrears. Traditional methods had limitations in efficiency and effectiveness, requiring innovation to improve debt management while maintaining sensitivity towards vulnerable residents.
Accurate benchmarking against comparable socio-economic local authorities to ensure meaningful performance evaluations.
Improved collections
Over five years, Liberata’s Hounslow team has collected an additional £5.5 million more in Council Tax than forecasted.
In 2024/25, the collection rate reached 97.1%, significantly above expectations based on socio-economic benchmarking.
Liberata’s Going Digital initiative streamlined processes, reducing paper reminders by 20% through digital engagement and significantly improving resident interactions.
Using ethical and targeted approaches to debt collection also led to the recovery of £7.7 million in aged debts, surpassing their target by £1.2 million.
The team’s resident-focused approach, including the development of the Debt Assist solution, demonstrates innovation, efficiency, and compassion, setting a benchmark for excellence in Council Tax collections and management.
Recognising real benefits for councils and communities
Our IRRV Performance Award nominations highlight our commitment to delivering measurable outcomes that positively impact councils and residents. Each nomination highlights how innovative approaches, collaborative partnerships, and customer-centric strategies can create tangible improvements in local government services and broader benefits to their communities.
For more examples of how we’re helping our customers with their services, see our case studies.
