Fee savings for most in streamlined one-city plan

Phil Twyford. Photo / Dean Purcell

Most Aucklanders will pay less to register a dog and in fees to build or renovate a home when the Super City comes into being on November 1.

The agency setting up the Super City has standardised fees and charges for services such as building control, resource consenting, dog registration and housing LIM reports at the lower end of what the eight councils being amalgamated now charge.

It will cost $70 to register a desexed dog, instead of the up to $100 it can cost in some places.

Obtaining a building consent will cost $110 an hour instead of up to $133, and building inspections, which now cost up to $185 an hour, will be a flat $110 per hour.

More streamlined and efficient processes are also expected to lead to time - and cost - savings for ratepayers.

The Auckland Transition Agency says the lower fees will cut revenue from $90 million to about $81 million a year.

The drop will will be largely offset by savings from streamlined management and less use of consultants, contractors, legal fees and trimming other costs, such as printing.

The 850 forms now used by councils will be reduced to 120.

The agency has not made public a full copy of its fee structure, but a spokesman said the net result after management and other savings was a reduction in revenue of about $2 million.

Fees would be adjusted if the Government raised GST from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent in Thursday's Budget, the spokesman said.

Labour's Auckland issues spokesman, list MP Phil Twyford, said it was important the lower fees were not an exercise in political point-scoring, but a genuine attempt to reduce costs.

"It's going to be a hollow victory if ratepayers have to increase the level of subsidy for these user charges," he said.

Local Government Minister Rodney Hide and Prime Minister John Key have been at pains not to promise any cost savings to ratepayers from the Super City reforms. Nor has the Government done a cost-benefit analysis.

Mr Hide has warned that water bills will go up for some Aucklanders in the move to a single pricing system.

The same will be the case when the new Auckland Council introduces a single rating system, which must be operating by 2015.

When the Auckland Regional Council introduced a single rating system in 2003, rises of up to 467 per cent caused a rates revolt.