Benefit applications are being dealt with by Oxford City Council in half the time they were three years ago -- but the authority is still on course to be rated weak.

Government inspectors visit the town hall next month and although they will be told the payment of housing benefit and invoices has improved, and greater amounts of council tax are being collected, it is unlikely to improve the authority's overall ranking.

Finance chiefs have predicted that at the year-end next month, benefit applications will be dealt with in an average of 32.9 days.

In 2001-02 these applications were being dealt with in 80 days.

A report prepared for the council's finance scrutiny committee shows the authority has made big improvements in bill payments, collecting rents and handling planning applications.

Rent collection continues to improve and is expected to reach a target of 96.9 per cent at the end of the financial year.

The chairman of the finance scrutiny committee, Stephen Tall, said: "This is a bit of good news, but I'm not over the moon because the council's overall performance is not good.

"I doubt this will affect the council's ranking. We're not slipping back further -- we're just not improving quickly enough."

Each local authority in the country is given targets for specific service areas, which are called best value performance indicators or BVPIs.

Town halls are ranked poor, weak, fair, good or excellent depending on their performance against these BVPIs.

Oxford City Council, which is currently ranked weak, wants to be rated a good authority within three years.

Earlier this month it was revealed the council had to hire a troubleshooter because it could not recruit a full-time legal officer.

And it was heavily criticised by district auditor Andy Burns for "significant weaknesses" in ensuring the legality of its large financial transactions.

Council leader Alex Hollingsworth added: "This is a huge step in the right direction. Quite clearly this was an area that was counting against the authority and will definitely contribute towards the council's standing.

"This was probably the single worst performing part of the authority."