Councillors to vote on Service Birmingham

If the proposal to extend Service Birmingham's contract from 2016 to 2021 is approved, the contract would also cover the back office functions of the council's revenues service from the start of the next financial year. The city council said that the plan would generate £135m in gross savings over the next 10 years. £5m of this could be raised by increasing council tax collection rates from the current 96% to 98% by 2017. Service Birmingham, a joint venture between the city and Capita, opened in 2006. It provides the city with ICT, call centre and business transformation services. Councillor Randal Brew, cabinet member for finance, said: "This proposal delivers considerable efficiencies for the council and offers value for money in its approach – at a time when our focus needs to be on both more than ever before. "We have left no stone unturned to ensure the case for this stacks up, and are confident it will help the council meet the unprecedented financial challenge it faces. "Our relationship with Capita through Service Birmingham has been a successful one, as we have begun to modernise services despite this being a huge challenge for an organisation that had previously done things in traditional ways for a very long time. We need to keep this momentum up over the coming years and the proposals will do this."