Newcastle City Council

The Challenge

Newcastle City Council found itself in a familiar squeeze: Residents demanding slicker digital services while budgets tightened relentlessly. Over the years, as departments raced to digitise and enhance their offerings, each team championed its own tools and software solutions. But this patchwork approach was backfiring at the organisational level - costs were ballooning, systems operated in isolation, and the council was drowning in over 100 separate business applications.

It's a pattern playing out across countless councils: Outdated legacy systems resist change and fight integration at every turn, while shiny SaaS applications emerge to plug functionality gaps. As user needs shift and staff requirements evolve, more tools emerge - and suddenly you're wrestling with application sprawl.

Each application has its own trail of expenses, from licensing fees and support contracts to training programs and integration costs where systems need to talk to each other. Managing these disconnected applications becomes a maintenance nightmare, and fragmentation inevitably weakens security.

Newcastle recognised that this was strangling their ability to innovate. Integration headaches were stalling digital service delivery, data was trapped in isolated pockets, and citizens were getting frustrating, inconsistent experiences.

The Solution

Newcastle needed a unified strategy to deliver seamlessly connected public services, so they chose Liberty Create with Citizen Hub. They wanted a single view of citizens, cases, and users across all council services, plus the agility to spin up new applications in-house at speed using low-code and RPA (robotic process automation).

Strategic application rationalisation
Citizen Hub became the centrepiece of Newcastle's ambitious application rationalisation programme, battling app sprawl. With its unified view of citizens, cases, and users, it enabled them to regain control. Their methodical approach of auditing existing applications to expose redundancies and inefficiencies, then mapping citizen journeys to pinpoint every service touchpoint, enabled them to rank consolidation opportunities by impact and feasibility. They began systematically migrating services onto Citizen Hub.

Strategically retiring legacy systems unlocked £1.3m in licence cost savings over five years. Every step delivered tangible value - slashing costs whilst building a platform for turbocharged productivity, better experiences and accelerated transformation, taking them closer to their vision of unified service delivery.

Housing rent verification transformation
The annual housing rent verification process demanded manual verification of over 10,000 claims. It consumed up to 10 weeks of staff time and, with unforgiving deadlines, created crushing operational pressure. They benchmarked their existing in-house capabilities, including Microsoft Power Automate, against Liberty RPA.

Liberty RPA's intuitive visual interface proved easier to master and delivered dramatically better performance, processing twice as many cases in the same timeframe. Newcastle deployed Liberty RPA to build an automated solution that connects directly to the housing management system and the DWP portal, automatically verifying tenant data whilst maintaining comprehensive audit trails via Citizen Hub.

The new solution launched in 12 weeks and delivered instant impact: Manual processing time plummeted by 98%, from 840 hours annually to just 21 hours. Accuracy soared by eliminating human error through direct system integration. Teams were freed for strategic work, which improved their job satisfaction. This single automation project exemplifies the broader transformation rippling across Newcastle City Council, creating scalable, reusable solutions that deliver value year after year.

Delivering impressive results
Newcastle’s Universal Credit verification for housing generated at least £1.3 million in licence cost savings over five years. They sidestepped additional procurement costs of up to £25,000 and trimmed annual maintenance expenses by £5,000+ per automated process.

The consolidation journey slashed the council's portfolio from over 100 business applications to a lean, streamlined arsenal, enhancing system interoperability and guaranteeing data consistency. Numerous opportunities for further licence cost savings have emerged, promising improved productivity, heightened agility and elevated experiences for both citizens and staff.

Beyond the numbers, this transformation delivered meaningful benefits across every dimension of council operations. Citizens now receive consistent service delivery across all council touchpoints, with faster response times enabled by automated processes and greater accuracy in case handling and follow-up. The aggravation of repeating information across different departments has gone.

The new platform frees staff from mundane tasks to focus on higher-value activities. The headache of juggling multiple disconnected systems is no longer a factor. Staff training has become straightforward, and the cultural shift is noticeable, with teams having greater confidence in their ability to serve citizens effectively.

The Results

£1.3 million in license cost savings through strategic application rationalisation
98% reduction in manual processing time for housing rent verification
Application portfolio streamlined from 100+ business applications to an integrated system
£25,000 procurement costs avoided plus £5,000+ annual maintenance savings per automated process
Grant processing efficiency saving 2,100 hours processing time, reducing telephone applications by 6,500 each year and providing £800,000 cashable savings over 5 years
Improved citizen experience, giving more consistent and faster responses across all council touchpoints
Enhanced staff productivity teams can focus on higher-value, strategic work while routine tasks are automated
Better data accuracy through direct system integration and the elimination of human errors in processing
Cultural transformation, seeing increased staff confidence and automation opportunities actively sought out
Comprehensive audit trails are maintained through an integrated case management system
Scalable automation framework for continued process improvement.

Service Example: Grant applications

Using Citizen Hub, Newcastle rapidly deployed many applications. Through a single streamlined form, applicants now access everything they need and submit applications effortlessly. Built-in validation checks smooth back-office processing. Officers communicate seamlessly with applicants and trigger bulk emails on demand.

Through a unified grant application process, Newcastle introduced applications for Clean Air Zone (CAZ) grants. Using a custom-branded interface hosted on the Breathe website, users can apply, check car zones, verify eligibility, explore local exemptions and arrange payment. Data protection compliance is assured, and complex multi-vehicle grant applications are handled with ease. Agents verify eligibility, dispatch documentation and direct applicants to financial providers.

With embedded rules governing exemption dates, this data exports easily to CSVs for integration with enforcement camera whitelists, which Newcastle has connected via API to feed data directly from enforcement cameras into Liberty Create.

Newcastle City Council