Whakatāne, Kawerau and Ōpōtiki district councils have struck rates for the 2025-2026 financial year this week.

Whakatāne District Council formally adopted its annual plan yesterday, confirming an average rates increase of 11.7 percent.  

The council stated in a media release yesterday that this increase aligns with the average across councils nationwide.

The increase is a reduction from the previously forecast 12.7 percent for year two of the Long-Term Plan 2024-34.

The mayor and councillors approved the plan following a process focused on identifying savings while maintaining the core work programme agreed in the long-term plan.

Mayor Victor Luca said the plan reflected a careful balance between affordability, service delivery and financial responsibility.

“An 11.7 percent rates increase is not something I, or many in our community, would choose if there were an easy alternative,” he said.

“But given the pressures we are facing, this is the compromise we landed on. It is a necessary response to a difficult economic environment.”

Like many councils across Aotearoa, the council continues to face significant cost pressures from inflation, high interest rates and the rising cost of maintaining infrastructure.

“We cannot borrow our way out of this. We cannot spend without discipline. That is why councillors gave clear direction to find savings without compromising the future.

“Our chief executive and his staff worked hard to find those savings and make them count,” Dr Luca said.

Compared to the long-term plan forecast for 2025/26, operating expenditure had been reduced by 2.2 percent. The number of planned new full-time equivalent roles over the 10-year period had also been reduced from 32 to 26, with no new staff being added in year two.

“This plan keeps our district moving forward with fewer resources than originally planned. It is not ideal, but we are heading in the right direction,” Dr Luca said.

As the annual plan does not introduce major changes to the council’s agreed work programme, formal consultation was not required.

“This plan responds to the challenges in front of us. It offers some short-term relief while continuing to invest in the district’s future,” Dr Luca said.

Ōpōtiki District Council also adopted its annual plan on Thursday, including a 9.8 percent increase in total rates.

This is 0.3 percent more than the 9.5 percent figure stated in an information document released by the council on April 29.

A report to yesterday’s extra ordinary council meeting states the reason for the extra 0.3 percent is the new water services levy imposed on council by central Government water services regulatory authority Taumata Arowai.

On May 23, the Government confirmed Taumata Arowai would be funded by a mix of Crown funding and levies payable by councils or council-controlled organisations.

The cost of the levy nationally would be $20.658 million per annum for the next three years. This equated to an average annual cost of $4.14 per person or around $11.17 (excluding GST) per average household and would come into force on July 1.

The report to yesterday’s council meeting points out that the total rates increase is still less than the 10.6 percent forecast for year two in last year’s long-term plan.

The council announced in its April information document that it had managed to reduce the forecast rates rise through “review of various budgets and works programmes”.

Kawerau District Council adopted its nine-year long-term plan on Wednesday, which included an overall rates increase of 8.5 percent.

This was to meet the $1.227 million increase in costs from the previous financial year required to maintain current levels of service to the district.

Finance and corporate services group manager Lee-Anne Butler said the drivers of these increases were personnel costs, increases in depreciation and finance costs.

Other increases included an extra $82,000 for water authority Taumata Arowai and additional costs involved in delivering its Water Services Delivery Plan to the Department of Internal Affairs. Solid waste was also an area of continual increases in cost.