Opinion: Let's Talk Rates
In June, Horowhenua District Council adopted a rates resolution which signalled an average rate rise of 9.1% for 2025/26. This is lower than the 9.9% estimated in the Long-term Plan – evidence of our efforts to find savings wherever possible. It is still high though, and reflects the reality of the funding and financing crisis of local government.
Nobody likes to hear rates are increasing, we get it, but balancing the wants and needs of the community with affordability remains a challenge. We are doing our best to provide a good balance as we strive to do what we said we would in the Long Term and Annual plans.
Increased costs, Central Government reforms, and affordability pressures facing our communities mean it is as important as ever that we look for efficiency and effectiveness in everything we do.
Just like when household costs rise and you might look at cancelling your Netflix subscription, cancelling a kids after school activity or putting some things back on the grocery shelf, here at Council the increased costs we face mean we have had to go through our budget with a fine-toothed comb and find savings. We take this very seriously, and over the last year have had to make some pretty challenging decisions off the back of some challenging conversations.
Let's be clear though, the funding and financing system of Local Government is broken, and the affordability pressures on our communities means something has to give. We either need to reduce some of the services we're accustomed to, or enter a different conversation about the different ways in which we can fund and deliver the services our communities so dearly value.
With our Annual Plan 2025/26 adopted and a decision made on Local Water Done Well in recent months, Council now has more clarity as we face an ever-changing future.
On Wednesday 4 June, our elected members voted to join Palmerston North City Council and Rangitīkei District Council to deliver water services, as well as recognising Whanganui District Council and Ruapehu District Council as potential willing partners.
The rising cost of providing water services is one of Council's biggest challenges, which is why partnering with other councils to gain economies of scale and mitigate the impact on our ratepayers is so important.
This decision gives us clarity and opportunities to reduce costs including having our three waters debt shifted from our balance sheet, but the work has only just begun. Our focus now turns to developing a Water Services Delivery Plan with our new partners to ensure that our water infrastructure is safe, fit for purpose, affordable, and Horowhenua residents will continue to receive the same high level of water services delivery as they have become accustomed to.
More than 85% of the rates increase this year can be attributed to the rising cost of water services. This is not the cost of providing new infrastructure for growth but the cost of continuing to supply our community with safe drinking water and dealing with wastewater and stormwater effectively and sustainably.
That is why our urban ratepayers will see a rates increase higher than the average, but many of our rural ratepayers will see little increase, and in some cases a decrease, as most rural properties are not connected to council-owned water, wastewater or stormwater networks.
When you receive your rates notice, take the time to understand your invoice more and drill into the detail of what you get for your rates. Reading a copy of our recently published Pre-Election Report is a great start.
Please remember though, Council isn't just an institution. It's made up of people who live locally too. Many of us are ratepayers ourselves, and we do this work because we genuinely care about our district and want to help it remain a fantastic place to live, work, and play.
Your rates invoice may feel like your only direct contact with Council, but every time you pour a glass of water, drive on a local road, or use your local library, you are able to do so because through your rates, you're helping to build your community.
We will continue to look for savings while maintaining and improving our service delivery, because that's the least you deserve Horowhenua.
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NZ Herald
16 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Mayor Mahé Drysdale's call for council review backed by LGNZ
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Scoop
18 hours ago
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Growth In The District - What It Means For All Of Us
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Speak to one of the many 65+ year olds that call Horowhenua home and they will say it wasn't that long ago that St Annes Street in Levin backed onto paddocks filled with sheep and you could buy your first house for the same price as a ride on lawn mower in today's currency. So how fast are we actually growing? Up until about 2014, Horowhenua had almost no growth, according to Census data, between 1991 and 2013 our population grew by just 200. This began to change, when we saw our population jump by more than 3000 in 2018 – a trend that has continued in the 2023 Census when our population increased by another 4000. Growth forecasts have pulled back since 2021, lowering the population and household numbers originally forecast, but Horowhenua is predicted to continue as the fastest growing district in the Manawatū-Whanganui region, and to grow strongly alongside the greater Wellington region councils. 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Council has committed to spending $284m on water projects alone over the next 10 years, with a further $340m investment anticipated for the following 20 years. Significant projects include upgrades to the Levin Wastewater Treatment Plant and building a more resilient water supply for Levin and Ōhau, with major investment committed to projects across the district. Horowhenua District's Population as of 2023 Census data Levin – 19,539 Rural – 4,491 Foxton – 3,384 Waitārere-Waikawa-Hōkio - 3,342 Ōhau -Manakau** - 2,262 Foxton Beach – 2,130 Shannon – 1,548 TOTAL – 36,696 *Hokio Beach is split between Waitārere and Waikawa for SA2 (Census Unit) purposes, we have grouped into a single unit. **Ōhau-Manakau is a single SA2 (Census Unit) From 2018-2023 we've seen the biggest percentage change in the 15-29 year age group at 31%, 65+ age group at 28%, 30-64 age group at 19% and under 15's changed by 15%. Is it just population growth, or are we also seeing economic growth? 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Vibrant communities New families, businesses, and community groups bring fresh energy and ideas, making Horowhenua an even more vibrant and connected place to live. The challenges of growth that need to be navigated are: Upfront infrastructure costs To prepare for more people, we often need to invest in roads, pipes, and services before the growth fully arrives. That can feel unfair if you're already paying rates and struggling with costs, but in Horowhenua we have development contributions, which means the 30% of total expenditure that relates to growth is paid for not by current ratepayers, but by developers and people subdividing or building new homes in the district who will benefit from the infrastructure that's required to support that growth. Pressure on services Rapid growth can strain existing services—like waste collection, libraries, roads, and stormwater—if we don't plan carefully. Changing character Growth can bring change to neighbourhoods, landscapes, and how places feel. That change can be exciting—or unsettling. Uncertainty It can be difficult to predict the exact when, where, and what type of growth – factors outside of Council's control (like market forces, interest rates, and central government policy) could cause growth to happen more quickly or more slowly than we expect, or limit the actions Council can take to keep up with growth. To counteract this, we regularly review growth projections and are improving monitoring of development uptake. This means we can adjust our approach if needed – such as speeding projects up or slowing them down. However, the Government's direction to 'stop work' on plan changes puts us at risk of being unable to keep up with demand for housing and business land. We are awaiting further detail from the Government about this. Have you noticed a change in traffic congestion, available GP appointments, the lead in time required to enrol the kids in a local school, or perhaps more options to eat out at night? Much like a caring parent, who's navigating the angsty teenage years, as kaitiaki we want to make sure that Horowhenua is not just prepared for growth and our next 'life stage', but that with clever strategic planning, collaborative partnerships and our community's best interests at heart, in years to come we will look back and be proud of the decisions we've made and the work we've done to shape our district. We'll be discussing growth among other things tonight in a Facebook Live session - feel free to join us and share any questions you may have, and we will do our best to answer them.
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
New Plymouth District Council credits property owners $3.1 million to fix rates bungle
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"Standing here having to introduce this matter brings me no joy, however, as your chief executive it is my responsibility to own what is a significant failing of this organisation." The residential rates error was discovered as part of an internal review called for following an earlier GST bungle which could've cost council $20 million in lost revenue. The GST mistake - which had been characterised as a "typo" and "cut and paste" error - was corrected earlier this month. As well as ironing out the average residential rates glitch, councillors also corrected an annual plan wording error relating to industrial water use which could've cost council a further $1.4 million in lost revenue. An external Simpson Grierson review, which ran concurrently with the internal investigation, found council lacked financial reporting and modelling capability which "strongly suggests a need for training, and possibly recruitment / restructure and training". Green was not sure exactly how the rates error occurred but said it involved an incorrect assumption about the average value of residential land. "I put it into the context that there was a lot of pressure about getting rates down and being able to keep them down and that potentially could've contributed. "We were going through a restructure process which adds stress and pressure into any organisation and there were a lot of other processes going on nationally and locally at the time. "Just like in the airline sector a plane doesn't crash because one engine stops, it does when a number of things line up and we had a number of things lining up here which created this issue." Councillors had to decide whether to offer the automatic rates remission, go ahead and charge the full 12.8 percent or initiate a Rates Replacement Proposal to increase the commercial / industrial differential rate for 2025/26 which would've required a round of consultation. New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Mayor Neil Holdom's recommended councillors opt for the rates remission. He acknowledged councillor Amanda Clinton-Ghodes for repeatedly raising the issue of risk when council lost two senior finance leaders - one through a resignation - during the restructure period. "Today's meeting is about transparency and finding a way forward. We've published the details of the errors and the external report including a suite of recommendations developed to ensure we are legally compliant and square these issues with the community in a fully transparent manner. The motion before you does that." Deputy mayor David Bublitz said corrosion of the public trust the gaffes caused couldn't be overstated. "The first thing we have to do is restore the trust of the public and we restore the trust of the public by doing what we said we were going to do which is rate them at the right number. "We've got no choice. We then need to ... whoever is back [after the local body elections] ... needs to work hard to ensure that our council is a little bit leaner, a little bit more efficient and a little bit more innovative, so we can make that money back. We have to get it back." Councillor Murray Chong wanted to be done with it and charge the full 12.8 percent. "The real rate is 12.8 percent. That's it. We weren't being honest or we didn't realise we weren't being honest, but it wasn't 9.9 percent at all. "So what do we do? Do we give you a remission or do we face the reality and pay it this year because the reality is because if we don't pay it this year we will have to pay it next year or we make cuts and how are we going to make cuts? We already tried to make cuts." Chong didn't believe $3.1 million in savings could be found before June next year so council would end up borrowing to pay the shortfall. Outgoing councillor Anneka Carlson-Matthews admitted she didn't often agree with councillor Chong, but she wasn't comfortable with lumping more debt on the incoming council either. "To be fair I can't leave in good faith with a $3.1 million deficit for the [incoming] council on our mistake. That doesn't sit well. "All the talk about us being able to find it [the money] and we're going to cut service levels and we're going to reign [spending] in. We reigned it in. "And we heard from the CEO today that part of that reigning it in and restructure - which was great and we saved $10 million - was actually part of potentially why we're in the situation we are now." Carlson-Matthews didn't believe council could find the savings without making significant sacrifices. Councillors voted 13-2 in favour of the rates remission. Rates bills for the first of four quarterly instalments were expected to be sent out at the end of this month as normal. The amount owed showing on the bill would reflect the resolution in adopting the Annual Plan, but an "adjustment" or credit would be applied to each bill to reflect the decision made by the council on 22 July. The credit would be spread across the year.
