The lower rates increase comes after Council
identified over $11 million dollars in
efficiencies from lower priority spending.
Making
the announcement today in his State of the City speech, Justin Lester said that
despite the earthquakes the Council’s books were in good shape.
“I’m
very happy we are going to be able to deliver a much lower rates increase than
forecast, despite millions of dollars of unavoidable new costs because of the
earthquake,” he said.
“I’ve
made keeping rates affordable a key focus since becoming Mayor. In January I
instructed our Chief Executive to target at least $8 million in efficiencies. I
want to congratulate our organisation on digging deep and finding over $11
million in efficiencies.
The
Mayor said these had been achieved by re-prioritising and re-phasing capital
expenditure, better utilisation of Council office space, building consent
processing in-sourcing from Auckland, increases in energy efficiency, and
improved procurement processes.
“In
this year’s Annual Plan our council will deliver on a very busy programme of
work: major investments like the Film Museum to boost the local economy,
building hundreds of new social houses, offering a rates rebate to people
building a new home, working towards a solution to our traffic issues,
restoring our iconic town hall and providing a major boost for our local arts
and culture scene.
“We
are also investing in making Wellington safer through our resilience strategy
as our city continues to recover from the earthquakes.
“To
be able to do all of this while still delivering a much lower than forecast
rates rise means Wellington is very well placed to succeed. We’re got very low
levels of debt and the strongest credit rating of any government entity in the
country, including central government, as stated by Standard and Poors.
“I’m
committed that Council will continue to manage our books well while delivering
on an agenda that’s helping to make Wellington a more vibrant, exciting place
to live.”