Hurunui District Council proposes 3.31% rates increase for 2025/26

Hurunui District Council’s 2025/26 Annual Plan budgets are expected to bring some relief for ratepayers.

Council passed the resolution to adopt the draft budgets for the 2025/26 Annual Plan, as detailed in the separately circulated and tabled papers from the Chief Financial Officer, at this week’s meeting.

Council will go out for consultation in May with an average growth adjusted increase in the overall rates for the 2025/26 year of 3.31%, down from 14.49% forecast for Year 2 in the Long Term Plan.

Council’s Chief Financial Officer Jason Beck said the budgets had been extensively workshopped with Council, Community and Ward Committees and the Hanmer Springs Community Board.

The total rates for 2025/26 comes to $34,334,881 – down from the $37,984,383 predicted in the Long Term Plan. Beck said changes to the roading budget was the biggest factor in the variance.

Beck said when Council consulted on the 2024/34 Long Term Plan (LTP) last year, it highlighted uncertainly around anticipated roading subsidies from Waka Kotahi NZTA.

“The LTP budgets were prepared on a range of assumptions, particularly relating to roading funding, which accounted for the majority of the 14.49% rates increase for the 2025/26 year.”

Beck said the draft LTP was predicated on Waka Kotahi NZTA providing full matched funding of 52% of the roading budget. Following Waka Kotahi NZTA’s 2024 announcement of an indicative programme of funding that was “substantially lower”, Council reduced its roading budget for 2024/25 and is proposing to spend a similar amount in 2025/26.

“The issue was exacerbated in August 2024, when NZTA announced that subsidy funding for the Low Cost Low Risk programme, that Council had still allowed for in the final LTP, was not available. This has meant that the Low Cost Low Risk Programme budget for the 2024/25 year will not proceed.”

Rates collected for the local share portion of the Low Cost Low Risk programme will be actively used to meet a portion of the budgeted roading costs for the 2025/26 year, Beck said.

Other key variances included large increases to the cost of insurance; anticipated compliance costs for water; audit fees, and provision for a new South Ward Community Board.

A placeholder for $500,000 for potential works to Waikari Hall has also been included. Beck said this followed a resolution by the Hurunui Community Committee at its 26 March meeting to include a placeholder of $500,000 to allow for any potential work. Beck said any works would be debt funded against the Hurunui Rating Area’s Amenities account and wouldn’t affect rates immediately, however, the funding of any capital works undertaken will need to be addressed in the 2026/27 Annual Plan and the following Long Term Plan.