Long Term Plan 2024-34

Council needs to take a long-term view to make sound decisions and plan effectively. However, 10 years is a long time, and many things can change during this period. So, every three years, the plan is reviewed and refreshed for the next decade to make sure it’s still relevant and delivers on our vision, priorities and community outcomes.

The 2024-2034 Long Term Plan (LTP) will include:

• the vision, strategic direction and community outcomes for the district
• details about the work plans, activities and services offered by the Council
• budgets, funding and financial management strategies, policies and information
• an infrastructure strategy
• what the council aims to achieve over the next ten years, the rationale, and the associated costs

As part of the LTP process, the community has an opportunity to have their say during the consultation period. All submissions received will be considered by Councillors who will deliberate on how to shape our work programme for the next 10 years.

What stage is Council at in the planning process?

We have $2.2 billion worth of water, wastewater, stormwater, and roading assets, as well as over $1.9 billion in infrastructure assets. To manage those assets well, we need to collect money to gradually upgrade and replace those assets over time. 

Our focus for the next 10 years will be keeping our district running smoothly while ensuring the cost to you through rates is as low as it can be. In other words, we have some challenges ahead of us to strike a balance between

1. providing excellent services and undertaking projects that enhance the quality of life in our district; and
2. keeping the costs for our services, projects and activities affordable.

To achieve this, we’re now carefully prioritising our projects, services and activities for 2024-2034, and simply won’t be able to do it all.

Managing affordability

Basically, everything we do is costing more to deliver, and there is more to deliver as a growing district. Projects planned three years ago now have significant cost increases that we now need to budget for in this LTP.

Three main factors are contributing to rising costs for the Waikato district:

Inflation - in many cases, inflation is hitting us harder than the average New Zealand household in terms of higher costs for the goods and services we receive, higher salaries, and the cost of borrowing money due to higher interest rates.

Interest - interest rate increases affect Councils too, as we borrow money to pay for capital projects like roading and water infrastructure.

Growing compliance demands from central government

The new Government has also signalled it will repeal the Three Waters legislation. As a percentage of our residents aren’t connected to the Council’s water services (e.g. they have their own rainwater collection tanks and septic systems) which means repealing Three Waters could have major financial impacts, particularly for our urban ratepayers and residents.

With limited ways to cover local costs, we continue discussions with central government regarding funding and easing the financial burden for our local ratepayers.

What’s important to you?

Budgets are currently being scrutinised and any potential savings are being made. For Council to add any new projects to this LTP, it will result in further rate increases.

So, our Council will be out and about in your community in the New Year to hear what you think, understand what’s most important to you, where we could make savings, and what you would like us to prioritise first. This feedback will be captured in the draft LTP.

Following this, the official public consultation on our draft 2024-2034 LTP is where you and other members of the public will be invited to provide input, feedback and opinions on specific issues or proposed policies in the plan.

Public consultation for the Long-term Plan 2024-2034 will open in mid March  2024. Keep an eye on this page and our social media pages or sign up for our fortnightly council e-newsletter for updates. If there are any events planned in your community that could host an LTP discussion, please let us know.