Rates Increases

Rates Increases

The proposed annual plan would see a rates increase of 9.8% for 2022/2023. This falls beneath the cap of 10.4% set in the Long Term Plan. As we develop the annual plan we have made budget reductions where possible as part of our ongoing efficiencies programme. This has off-set cost pressures from across Council without compromising levels of service.

There are six primary drivers for the rates increase:

• We've adjusted our budgets to account for 3.6% inflation;
• We've factored in 1.6% to account for new costs associated with our priority projects;
• We've increased budgets by 1.5% to meet externally driven costs relating to materials and labour;
• We have some legacy costs related to initiatives from previous years including the wheelie bins roll out, which add 0.9% to this year's budgets;
• We've factored in 0.9% cost increases for three waters operations;
• Our insurance premiums have increased, which has added 0.9% costs to the budget.

The rating system was significantly changed at the start of the 2021/22 year as part of the Revenue & Financing Policy review. In addition to new property differentials being introduced, it was agreed the change to General Rates would be phased in over three years. This has resulted in higher than average rates increases for several categories of property shown in the table.