What a great day at the CIVIC Hall in Leeds talking about the latest technology, innovation and processes in Local government. Great to be back in the fray on this and was delighted to be able to present on behalf of MEGA.AI. This technology is already transformational and quickly becoming indispensable. A great bunch of people too.
[PS what a great building]
Key Take Aways
- Public sector collections are under rising pressure from arrears growth, affordability stress, cost constraints and increasing regulatory expectations.
- Earlier engagement was presented as a critical lever to reduce downstream enforcement, complaints and vulnerability risk.
- Innovation was positioned as a cultural and operating model challenge, not simply a technology challenge.
- AI, automation and digital channels can increase capacity where councils and collections teams cannot materially grow headcount.
- Vulnerability identification, affordability assessment and income maximisation were recurring themes across the discussion.
- Open banking and account-to-account payments were presented as faster, cheaper and more customer-friendly payment options.
- Payment journeys that reduce friction can materially improve immediacy of payment and customer engagement.
- RPA and AI-enabled document classification can reduce manual inbox processing and prioritise urgent or vulnerable cases.
- Verified messaging, RCS, WhatsApp and branded communications were presented as key tools to improve trust and contact rates.
- Apprenticeships were positioned as a strategic workforce resilience tool for revenues, benefits and welfare services.
- Video and animated communication were presented as stronger engagement tools than text-heavy communication.
- Data-led targeting was positioned as essential to identify the right households, interventions and enforcement routes.
Innovation
- AI voice agents for outbound and inbound customer engagement, including identity checks, account review, negotiation, distress detection, escalation and audit logging.
- AI guardrails using restricted scripts, escalation rules and control layers to prevent inappropriate advice or off-script behaviour.
- RPA-enabled inbox automation to classify council tax emails, identify urgent vulnerability signals and route cases into document management workflows.
- Open banking payment links enabling immediate account-to-account payments, biometric authentication and reduced chargeback risk.
- Behavioural “abandoned basket” style nudges for residents who start but do not complete payment journeys.
- Digital income maximisation tools to identify households eligible for benefits, discretionary support and debt support.
- Crisis and resilience platforms combining bank data, resident data, forms and officer discretion.
- RCS and branded messaging to improve trust and reduce the limitations of basic SMS.
- WhatsApp and virtual assistants as lower-friction, lower-stigma channels for customers in arrears.
- Animated, on-brand video generation from text-based content, using human-designed characters and AI-supported scripting.
- Real-time mail tracking and reporting to control postal spend and evidence statutory mailing timelines.
- Apprenticeship pathways to build specialist revenues, welfare benefits and financial inclusion capability.
Key Statistics
- Typically 10–15% of people were described as worth pursuing legally from a rent arrears perspective.
- 85–90% of people assessed were described as unsuitable for litigation.
- Employers with a wage bill of £3 million or more pay the apprenticeship levy.
- Cambridge was said to pay around £100,000 in apprenticeship levy each year.
- Around 75% of UK adults were said to use a banking app.
- Around 5.6 billion banking app transactions were referenced for 2024.
- A typical banking app payment transaction was described as taking around eight seconds.
- One in five consumers and businesses were said to use open banking, compared with one in 17 in 2021.
- Around 20% of people in one payment exercise chose to pay by banking app without prompting.
- Around 30% of payments through that channel came within two hours.
- Only around 0.8% of failed open banking payment attempts were attributed to insufficient funds.
- Around 10–11% of customers opened their banking app during the payment process.
- Around 31–32% opened their banking app three times.
- A potential 5–11% uplift was suggested from follow-up nudges or partial payment options.
- 3.2% of tens of thousands of applications were awaiting decision.
- An average additional benefit of £774 per month was referenced for residents in one case.
- 93% of residents going through one journey were entitled to some form of benefit.
- 45% went on to claim the benefit they appeared entitled to.
- One local authority case referenced £3 million in council tax arrears.
- 42% of households in that case were below the poverty line.
- Around £30 million of income was reported as generated for residents.
- Around £650,000 was referenced as produced from one campaign.
- Around £820,000 was secured for 340 households in one homelessness and income maximisation example.
- Around £24 billion of benefits and support was described as going unclaimed each year.
- One in three UK local authorities were said to be making their data work harder.
- People were described as looking at their mobile phones 200–300 times a day.
- 97% of people were said to have WhatsApp on their phone.
- Visuals were said to be processed 25 times faster than text.
- 91% of people were said to believe there is stigma attached to being in debt.
- 69% of people were said not to talk about debt.
- 53% were said to be embarrassed by debt.
- Video was said to increase knowledge retention by as much as 40%.
Key Discussion Points
- How councils should balance enforcement, affordability and vulnerability when pursuing arrears.
- Whether charging orders are always the right enforcement route, given they secure debt but may not generate cash.
- How councils can use empty homes teams and council tax teams together to unlock value and bring properties back into use.
- Why innovation needs culture, leadership and trust before technology.
- How organisations can create safe environments for staff to recommend and test change.
- How AI voice agents can support earlier intervention without replacing human judgement.
- What controls are needed before AI is used in regulated or sensitive collections journeys.
- How open banking can reduce payment friction, settlement delay, orphan payments and chargebacks.
- How councils can use customer behaviour data from payment journeys to drive smarter follow-up.
- How apprenticeships can address recruitment, succession planning and specialist skills gaps.
- How automation can reduce manual handling of inboxes, email classification and document routing.
- How trusted digital channels, video, WhatsApp and RCS can improve engagement with residents who may avoid traditional communication.
Event Description
The event covered public sector innovation and revenues focused on local government collections, council tax, vulnerability, payments, automation, workforce development and resident engagement.
The discussion moved across enforcement strategy, landlord and tenancy issues, innovation culture, apprenticeships, payment trends, AI voice agents, open banking, RPA, crisis support, income maximisation, digital messaging, video communication and council case studies. The overall theme was how councils and partners can modernise revenues and collections while improving resident experience, vulnerability support, operational efficiency and financial outcomes.
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