Today Hutt City Council adopted the Annual Plan for 2023-24, which comes into effect from 1 July 2023.

"Our Annual Plan is all about striking the right balance," says Mayor Campbell Barry.

"That balance is between doing the essentials, while being mindful of cost pressures for households and businesses. Putting this plan together has not been easy given the challenges we face, but I’m convinced we have struck the best balance in the current economic climate.

"When we started putting this plan together we focused on finding savings and reprioritising, to offset what would otherwise be highly unaffordable rates increases.

"We’ve deferred a number of non-urgent projects and reduced budgets where we can, and have increased fees and charges to ensure that users are paying their share of service costs - and that this isn’t being borne by all ratepayers.

"We’re not kicking the can down the road, though. We are continuing much needed investment in infrastructure. About half of the proposed household rates increase is going directly into repairing and renewing our water infrastructure, which we all know is critical.

"We’ve made a point to prioritise projects that have partner funding, like the $98.9 million we received from the government’s Infrastructure Acceleration Fund for valley floor water infrastructure. This means our city can enjoy the benefits of these projects at a lower cost to ratepayers."

The overall rates revenue increase for 2023-24 has been set at 9.9% (after growth), which means an average increase of $5.04 per week per household, or $262 per year.

Campbell Barry says he recognises this increase will be tough for many people, particularly those on fixed incomes and already facing other cost pressures.

"It brings no one joy to present a rates increase in the current economic climate. I have said previously that the rating system is fundamentally broken and leaves councils with few options. Locally, a lower rates increase would impact infrastructure delivery and result in cuts to services - and I’m not prepared to go down that path."

Hutt City Council consulted the community on the proposed changes in the draft Annual Plan earlier this year. The results of this consultation were considered by Council when making final decisions on the Annual Plan, and a summary of feedback is available on Council’s website.

For more information, you can find the full Annual Plan on Council’s website.

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