An update from the NPDC on reducing rates, reducing debt, increasing efficiencies, improving consultations and a Stakeholder for Ratepayers

On Wednesday 13^th May we had our NPDC quarterly Senior Management meeting with the first update on how the NPDC is reducing rates, reducing debt and increasing efficiencies.

Reducing Rates Increases

We are aware the current elected officials inherited a rates increase in July 2026 of around 9.9%. The Senior Management Team have been working since late last year to bring that increase down to around 4.5%.  We know people aren’t happy the increase will be as high as 4.5% this July, but it is less than half what it was going to be with the decisions that had been made by the elected officials BEFORE the 2025 election.

• In this meeting we talked about what work is underway with rates for July 2027. 2027 is also when the next Long Term Plan is due out.

The NPDC is working to a plan of a rates cap of a 2% increase in July 2027, and an LTP increase of only 2%.

As a group representing many ratepayers who have been struggling to pay the increased amount with rates invoices, it was refreshing that the NPDC staff in this meeting talked openly about there being only so much money to go around – so they have to work out where the priorities are to spend that money.

The discussion also covered that for every new project which is built, a maintenance budget has to follow, and there is not enough rates income to go around to maintain continual new projects. There is a focus at this time not to introduce new initiatives and to work out how best to maintain what we already have.

In this mix will also need the basics that need to be done – renewing pipes, lights, roads and repairs, etc.

• We are sure there will be many of our supporters who will be pleased to hear the focus has changed significantly with rates and planning this year.

Reducing Debt

We also asked about debt reduction. The response was more that debt at this stage is not coming down – but instead - it is not going up.

New debt will not be taken on to cover things that have gone over budget. The main examples are the $1.3 M that was missed with GST on rates last year, and the Commercial Waste Sorting Depot which has been running at a loss of around $2.2 M over the last 2 years.

A solution for the Commercial Sorting Depot is not a simple one as due to people supporting this depot through consultation, without another consultation, the depot can’t just stop running and close. Consultations are fairly expensive to run, so consulting on this isn’t an easy option at this time.

The NPDC can pause the operation, but this will also mean the commercial waste will need to get trucked to landfill in Marton with extra costs associated with that. The NPDC staff are currently working through options to try to break even with this operation – but a solution will not involve taking on debt to cover the losses.

Maintenance Budgets and Prioritising Future Spending

The Senior Management team have been looking at all of their asset management plans. Every asset the NPDC owns is being looked at – and they are currently prioritising which are the critical assets to be maintained.

When looking at the assets for the district one of the biggest issues is the cost of keeping the Todd Energy Centre Swimming Pool at Kawaroa going. It is running with old equipment which is costing a lot to keep going. This is a major asset that is well used by so many in the community so there is a high priority to keep the pool operating, but the costs to replace the equipment to run the pool needs to be built in to the next Long Term Plan.

With some assets it will need to be considered whether to keep the asset running as it is right now. An example given – The Huatoki Walkway has had ongoing slips which are very expensive to clear and a deviation has been in place on part of this walkway because of the slips. The NPDC are having discussions on whether a modification needs to be made to part of this route to move away from the area that is very expensive to maintain. No one is saying this has been decided – but ways to reduce some maintenance costs of existing assets are likely to be included with consultation options in the next Long Term Plan.

It was brought up in our meeting that the NPDC region has 110 parks, reserves and stream walkways – and 54 Playgrounds. This is a lot of assets to maintain and there needs to be discussions about how best to do this going forward.

• We were very pleased to be able to participate in this meeting with such an open conversation about the reality of how the roughly 37,500 ratepayers can not continue to cover the cost – and maintenance – of multiple new assets going forward.

Discussions about improving the Consultation/Feedback process and Stakeholder Status

The other main thing we talked about in the meeting was a follow up to the serious concerns we raised about the Consultation Process with the Bell Block Spatial Plan.

In the letter we wrote to the NPDC we asked for some specific things to be addressed with the overall consultation process, and in our meeting this week we formally asked to work with the NPDC on improving the current consultation process.

We also asked for a conversation about becoming a fully recognised Stakeholder – giving the situation with the Water Company SOE as an example of what benefits the community would have with the Alliance being aware well in advance of big decisions coming up, and making sure the community is aware of decisions being made.

We agreed in principle it will be explored how this can progress. An internal discussion will be required at the NPDC to identify what is required with legislation and their current processes. From here we will work on getting Council people and Alliance people around the table to work out how we upgrade and improve the current consultation process.

We will also work with our supporters on what is important.

Consultation Process changed in a new Survey out this week

In our first Senior Management meeting we asked for an open text box to be added to all consultations and surveys - at least one open text box. So people can write exactly what they would like to say. It was confirmed in this week’s meeting this is possible - up to around 1,000 characters per box – if that many were needed.

This week a new NPDC survey has come online – and we see this is full of open text boxes. We are thrilled to see this step has been taken for people to be able to explain what they prefer and why.

• This was another very productive meeting with the Senior Management Team – and we can definitely say there has been a major shift in focus since the election last year.  We are very pleased to see the recognition that continuing to build nice to have, expensive new assets, is not something that is sustainable for the existing ratepayers to continue to pay for.