Purpose

The Council has a statutory duty to bill and collect Council Tax and Business Rates, and to administer Housing Benefit. To carry out this duty we use third-party software supplied by NEC.

The current NEC contract was awarded in April 2022 through a CCS framework for an initial five-year term, with the option to extend for a further two years. This report seeks approval to exercise the two-year extension option when the initial five-year term ends on 31 March 2027.

Decision

A report has been reviewed by Commercial Board on the 18 June 2026 and was supported to put forward for a Portfolio Holder Decision.

The 2-year extension at £154,204 will bring the total contract value to approx. £552,157, therefore a Portfolio Holder Decision is required to authorise the extension as the total contract value will be above £500,000.

As this is a straightforward contract extension, no specific legal comments are expected.