Ways in which Malvern Hills District Council can improve its benefits and revenues service have been suggested in a new report.

The services, which include collecting Council Tax and business rates and paying out housing and Council Tax benefits, has been inspected by an in-house team as part of the Best Value Review.

The report claims that 92 per cent of MHDC customers were satisfied with the service they received. The council collected 97 per cent of Council Tax owed, and paid out £11 million in benefits during the year.

The report lists 58 ways to improve the service, including increased efficiency and dealing better with customers.

It also gives a statistical snapshot of the Malvern Hills district, which has an average of 125 people per square kilometre, compared to 306 for Worc-estershire and 379 for England as a whole.

The district's population is ageing, with 54 per cent of benefit customers being above retirement age and population growth is predicted to slow to 1.3 per cent over the next ten years.

There are pockets of deprivation, especially in Malvern's Langland ward, which is in the Government's top 25 per cent of deprived areas.