Proposed cap on rates' increases at 5 per cent in draft Plan

Christchurch City Council is proposing to cap its average rates' increase at five per cent for the 2016-17 financial year and for a further two years after that.

The Council will discuss its draft Annual Plan released today at Thursday's Council meeting, where a version will be agreed for public consultation.

Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel says the draft Annual Plan represents more certainty and a better financial situation from where the Council was a year ago. "Council is back on a solid, sustainable financial footing and looking to the future with a realistic draft Annual Plan 2016-17. Part of this has been achieved by undertaking a complete review of our capital programme which is what we promised when we released our Long Term Plan last year," she says.

"By being realistic about the timing of major projects and making operational savings we have been able to achieve a lower than planned rates increase of five per cent. We will also not need Christchurch City Holdings Ltd to release any additional capital in 2016-17," says Mayor Lianne Dalziel.

She says the Council needs to prioritise the work to be done. "We recognise that some residents have been without basic services such as footpaths for five years, so we are prioritising earthquake repairs over routine upgrades. It cannot simply be business as usual - we need to ask whether the work stacks up against other priorities.

"We are being realistic about how many projects we can complete in the coming year and have budgeted accordingly. At the same time we are looking at innovative ways of delivering the work and are signalling a willingness to bring funding forward as soon as projects are ready to go."

Because of the proposed changes the Council is having to amend its Long Term Plan while it considers the Annual Plan for the year ahead.

The budget for major work is being spread across a more realistic timeframe, so the Council plans to spend $166 million less next year, then $125 million and $105 million more than planned in the following two financial years. After carefully reviewing projects, timetables and budgets we have removed $167 million from the capital programme out of a total LTP 10-year budget of $4.6 billion, this is 3.6 per cent.

Public submissions open on Wednesday 6 April and close on Tuesday 10 May. After considering this feedback and making changes, the Council will adopt a final version of the Annual Plan in late June.

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