A council serving one of the most deprived areas in Wales hopes to save £1.1m a year by using IT to transform the way it delivers services to citizens.

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council will undergo a four-year, organisation-wide transformation, improving areas such as call centres and mobile working, while reducing reliance on paper processing and data entry.

The council needs to keep in line with citizens' use of technology, and can achieve efficiencies simultaneously, said Robin Morrison, chief executive of Blaenau Gwent.

"We are seeking a corporate transformation in the way in which the organisation interfaces with its customers and, of course, the considerable cost savings that may accrue from the project," he said.

"The local community is utilising the latest digital methods to access the authority’s services and it is vitally important that we keep pace.”

The programme builds on the council's existing partnership with software supplier Civica, which has already improved housing benefits and tax administration, cutting housing benefit claim processing times by a third.