Annual Plan 2023/24

Our Annual Plan 2023/24, year three of our Long-Term Plan 2021–41, was adopted by Council on 29 June 2023. It sets out the minor amendments Council has made to year three of our Long-term Plan and budget for 2023/24.

Overview

In our Annual Plan we're continuing to invest in our resilience, making sure we have the infrastructure, services, and facilities we need to meet the challenges we're facing and support our whole community to thrive.

We're:

• investing in our essential infrastructure
• investing in our climate action, including improving our district's resilience to extreme weather events
• progressing projects important to our communities, including the Waikanae Library, Te Newhanga Kāpiti Community centre, Ōtaki Pool upgrade
• helping to address housing need where it makes sense.

We're continuing to focus heavily on our infrastructure renewals and upgrades, so we can maintain our core services, increase our resilience against natural hazards and the impacts of climate change, and prepare our district to grow well.

One example of this is the large stormwater capital works programme underway to help us improve our community’s safety and resilience to flood hazards – more than 220 stormwater projects are planned to be delivered over 37 years in our current Long-term Plan.

Sticking to our plan means we're not making any changes to our strategic direction, outcomes, levels of service, or strategic assets. Importantly, we'll continue to work with mana whenua on building a mutually mana enhancing partnership – ensuring our iwi partners are involved in our processes, decisions and the delivery of projects and initiatives.

Throughout 2023/24 we’ll also be navigating change – and the challenges and opportunities it brings. The biggest change will come in the form of Central Government reform – the Affordable Water reform (formerly known as the Three Waters reform), resource management, and the review of the future of local government. Each will have a big impact on Council and the mahi (work) we carry out for our communities. 

A challenging year 

2023/24 is going to be far from plain sailing.  While our work programme remains largely as outlined in our Long-term Plan, the cost of delivering our projects and services continues to increase, and we have supply chain challenges and workforce shortages to contend with too. 

These challenges are already impacting our ability to deliver. For 2022/23 we budgeted $85 million for our capital works programme but, due to constrained resources, we are tracking to have spent only $70m. As we get closer to financial year end it is likely we will need to rephase some projects to 2023/24.

Our capital budget for year three of the Long-term Plan has already increased substantially from $72 million to $87 million, due to inflated costs, rephased projects from 2022/23 and additional projects partially funded by the Government's Infrastructure Accelerate Fund (IAF).

We’re also dealing with some uncertainty; we still don’t know the full impact the Cyclone Gabrielle aftermath is going to have on New Zealand’s already fragile economy and supply chain. We'll know more about how this will affect our capital works programme once Government has reprioritised its funding. 

So for now, to make sure we continue to deliver for our community, we need to stay agile – track our progress carefully, revisit costs and timelines as needed and report back to our community as we go.

What’s different

We've made some minor amendments to our Long-term Plan (LTP) 2021–41, which are reflected in our Annual Plan 2023/24. 

Lower average rates increase

Council proposes rates will rise 7.8 percent on average, instead of the 7.9 percent forecast in the Long-term Plan.

Increasing operational cost pressures

There are increasing operational cost pressures on Council relating to resilience, responding to growth, sustainability and community partnerships. Together they result in a 2.8 percent rates impact.

Lower net borrowings

Net borrowings will be less than forecast in the Long-term Plan. Our June 2024 net borrowings are forecast to be $265 million (224 percent of operating income), compared to $282 million (252 percent of operating income) in the LTP. This is below the 250 percent preferred limit.

Fees and charges

We are making an increase to most fees and charges of 4.2 percent. This increase is in line with BERL Local Government Cost Index (LGCI) projections that include the increasing cost of inflation. Other amendments to fees and charges include: 

• To ensure consistency across our community halls portfolio we have made changes to hall hire fees for the Waikanae Memorial Hall (main hall) and Waikanae Community Centre Hall.  
• To cover the cost of the increasing amount of time staff spend processing building consent applications, certain building consent fees are being increased more than LGCI. 
• A new spectator fee of $2 applies at the Waikanae Pool. This does not apply to Learn to Swim or adults supervising under 8 year olds.  
• We have updated Trade waste volumetric charges to align with the Trade Waste Bylaw 2019.

Major projects and initiatives

In 2023/24 we have a full work programme that will see many projects and initiatives progress – some will safeguard our important infrastructure and others will bring people together and strengthen cultural and social wellbeing.  

The below table identifies some of the key projects and initiatives we intend to progress in 2023/24, as set out in our Long-term Plan 2021–41.

Capital Projects

 For a more detailed view of the projects and initiatives we intend to deliver in 2023/24 see year three of our Long-term Plan 2021–41.

What’s in it for your community

Each day, people in our district use a range of Council services, from libraries and swimming pools and parks, through to dog registration and building consents, as well as infrastructure such as water and roading.

Here are some examples of projects we will be progressing for your community through the Annual Plan 2023/24. 

See some of the other projects we're working on in our communities.

Rates for 2023/24

We have achieved an average rates increase of 7.8 percent, slightly lower than the 7.9 percent projected in year three of our Long-term Plan (the average increase is the difference between the rates we required for 2022/23 and the rates we require for 2023/24.  

The impact of the rates increase will vary between households, depending on where you live and the value of your property. The increase is driven by external factors such as inflation, interest rates, increased labour costs and depreciation.

We’re not alone – local authorities across the country are in the same boat, and many are proposing increases to rates as a result. We came in just slightly below the forecast 7.9 percent in year three of our Long-term Plan. 

What this increase means for you

To see the the 2023/24 rates for your property, including Greater Wellington Regional Council's proposed rates increase, go to our online property rates search and enter your address. 

While the average rates increase across the district for 2023/24 is 7.8 percent – the actual increase will be different for different properties even in the same area. This is because property rates are calculated using a combination of fixed charges, land value and capital value. Land value and capital value are assessed independently by Quotable Value New Zealand Limited.

The table below shows how the average rates increase for 2023/24 would apply to median properties across the district.

Rates for 2023/24 by rating area based on 7.8 percent rates increase after growth of 0.7 percent
Based on Rating Valuations 15 August 2020

 Note:

• Urban property figures include water rates for typical water usage (fixed and volumetric) of 255m3 per year, noting no change proposed to the fixed or volumetric water rates for 2023/24.
• Commercial property figures include a fixed water rate of $222.00 per annum
• Rural median example is for a property of less than 50 hectares
• All rates figures include GST.
• Excludes Greater Wellington Regional Council rates.

Minimising the impact

We know times are tough, with cost pressures impacting households and businesses alike, but in the face of change and other challenges – climate change, housing need etc., we made the call to stick to our Long-term Plan and continue to invest in our resilience.

Council worked hard to minimise the additional financial pressure on our community without ‘kicking the can down the road’ in terms of the work that needs to be done. 

At the start of the Annual Plan process the forecast rates increase was 14 percent, after applying all of the cost increases including personnel, depreciation, and interest.   

After carefully considering our budgets we were able to reduce the forecast increase to 7.8 percent (slightly lower that the 7.9 percent forecast in year three of our Long-term Plan). This is how we did it: 

• Repurposing the Better Off funding: We have submitted an application to Government to repurpose some of our tranche 1 Better Off Funding – to cover projects where operating costs have increased substantially. This means we are able to reduce the average rates increase by 3.8 percent. Note, this proposal must be approved by the Department of Internal Affairs and discussed and agreed with Council’s iwi partners.
• Removal of net expenses for the Te Uruhi project: In our Long-term Plan we had assumed the Te Uruhi facility would be up and running in year three, so budgets had factored in the usual costs of running a Council facility – power, security, staff etc. As this project is no longer going ahead, we were able to remove these expenses from the Annual Plan. Council has committed to look at other ways to achieve the objectives of the Te Uruhi project and are allocating a budget of $150k (of absorbed costs) to do this work.
• Growth: We have not experienced the growth of rating units as forecast in our Long-term Plan 2021–41 – we were anticipating this to have grown by 1.3 percent in year three but at the start of this Annual Plan process we adjusted it to 0.6 percent. Since then, we’ve confirmed an increase in rating units which spreads the rate burden across more ratepayer. This has allowed us to confidently increase growth to 0.7 percent. 

Help with paying your rates

We recognise that any rates increase has an impact, particularly for those in our community on low incomes – we might be able to help.

• Read more about options for helping to pay your rates.

Where the money goes

In 2023/24, the cost of providing services (rates revenue required) is approximately $90.8 million (excluding GST, rates remissions and including rates paid by us). Below, we show the costs of providing services per resident per week based on our current estimated population of approximately 57,600. 

Greater Wellington Regional Council

Separate to our rates increase, Greater Wellington Regional Council is increasing its rates by an average of 16.94 percent across residential, business, and rural ratepayers. We collect this on their behalf, so you will see this listed on your rates invoice. To learn more visit the Greater Wellington Regional Council website.

Annual Plan workshops

Elected members discussed Annual Plan 2023/24 requirements in workshops earlier this year. You can watch recordings of these public workshops on our YouTube channel:

• Annual Plan Workshop 1 – 16 February 2023
• Annual Plan Workshop 2 – 16 March 2023
• Annual Plan Workshop 3 – 30 March 2023.