Pendle Borough Council signs ten-year contract extension with Liberata

Liberata to deliver further efficiency savings through a major channel shift programme

Liberata, today announced that its contract with Pendle Borough Council has been extended until February 2030, in a deal worth £54m. The ten year-long extension will see Liberata invest almost £1m in a self-serve transformation programme for citizens, employees and suppliers. This will deliver approximately £4.9 million in efficiency savings and includes a committed channel-shift programme, which will see 65% of customer transactions moved online over the next five years.

Liberata has been working in partnership with Pendle since 2005 and currently provides a range of core services including: Revenue and Benefits, Strategic HR and Payroll, IT, Fraud and Error, Property Services and Customer Services. Liberata will be working closely with the Council on this major digital transformation programme, to ensure that all services are redesigned to exploit the developments in technology. This will deliver enhanced services to both citizens and employees with greater accessibility (available outside normal council hours), easier service requests (improved automation of forms, reduced keying) and speedier resolution. It will also reduce the cost to deliver, therefore ensuring sustainability in the services whilst enabling additional resources to be assigned to enhance the handling of vulnerable citizens and more complex requests.

Since the start of the partnership, Liberata has helped Pendle to reduce its budget deficit, improve staff engagement and retention and regenerate the local area, creating over 150 jobs. The collaboration has also helped Pendle to boost its revenue collection capability. In partnership with Liberata, the council managed to achieve its highest ever percentage of business rates (99.1%) in 2015-16, despite the difficult economy in the area. The team at Pendle are now also involved in servicing a number of other strategic partners across Liberata.

Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, Leader of Pendle Council, said: “Since 2005, Liberata has consistently delivered a high quality of service, which has helped to create many new jobs in the local area.

“This move will further secure Liberata as a major employer in Pendle, and in particular Nelson, where it employs 300 people in Number One Market Street.

“That footfall has a big impact on the town’s economy.”

Dean Langton, Strategic Director and Head of Paid Service at Pendle Borough Council, added: “As we embark on our digital transformation journey, Liberata’s expertise in channel shift will prove invaluable. In the face of budgetary challenges, Liberata has always worked with us to identify alternative ways of doing things, allowing us to realise additional cost savings. By continuing our partnership with Liberata, we can build on the improvements made to date and achieve even greater things in the future.”

Charlie Bruin, CEO of Liberata, commented: “We are delighted to be extending our long-standing partnership with Pendle Borough Council. This partnership has demonstrated how outsourcing contracts can be flexible and evolve with the times. We look forward to assisting Pendle digitally transform many of its services, creating benefits for both citizens and council employees.”

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As a Council we are focused on ensuring that the services delivered are both sustainable and of the highest quality. We are delighted to be working with Liberata to help deliver these services on behalf of our residents and businesses. Liberata stood out with its ability to drive transformational change and improve customer access and digital services.
Richard Baker
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
Following a formal process and tender notice, Liberata stood out with its ability to transform our services and improve customer access and digital services. Liberata has demonstrated it can achieve high collection rates across business rates and Council Tax services and benefits by improving processing times. We look forward to working with Liberata to help transform these services for our residents and ensuring we are providing the appropriate levels of support to the most vulnerable in our area.
A spokesperson for Swindon Borough Council
Swindon Borough Council
Eastleigh Borough Council has worked with Liberata for a number of years who undertake the council's empty home reviews, and I must say, their service exceeded all expectations. From start to finish, they demonstrated professionalism, efficiency, and a genuine commitment to addressing this critical issue in our community. Thanks to Liberata, the council has been able to maximise our empty home bonus year on year. This positive impact on our community cannot be overstated.
Kerrie Thomas
Eastleigh Borough Council
The RV Finder service from Liberata has really helped us ensure that our data is as accurate as possible and, when the VOA has processed the outstanding cases, I fully expect to see more than £1,000,000 of additional RV. The “risk and reward” model works well and the Council only has to pay for their success and the service is something that we will use on a regular basis.
Steve King
Leicester City Council
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