Hauraki District Council rates and fees to rise dramatically to cover costs

Proposed rate and fee hikes look set to make it more expensive to live in, and visit the Hauraki district. Photo Hauraki District Council

Hauraki ratepayers face significant rates and fees hikes as the cost of living continues to bite.

Hauraki District Council has released its consultation document for the 2024-2034 Long Term Plan following a council meeting on March 13.

It comes with a long list of fee increases and a proposed rates hike of more than 17 per cent.

A spokesperson for the council said increased fees “can be a combination of increased compliance costs, new legislation or cost of service delivery”.

The spokesperson also confirmed an accompanying document Love This Place had been read and accepted by councillors without objection.

The document gave a breakdown of rates (non-water) and fee increases, more notably a 17.4 per cent increase in 2024/25, per property rates, followed by 12.3 per cent in 2025/26 and 9.2 per cent in 2026/27.

“We’re projecting an average cost (property and water rates) for a medium value property ($600K) to be $11.19 per day in 2024/25, the first year of the plan. Then after that the percentage goes down in the following years,” the spokesperson said.

The document stated proposed property rate increases were significantly higher than rates increases, signalled in 2021, “as we have budgeted what the cost now is to deliver what we need to over the next 10 years”.

“This increase also reflects the wastewater upgrade programme proposed in this Long-Term Plan.

“Basically, costs have gone up a lot and we don’t anticipate this to reduce in the coming years.

“We expect inflation of over 20 per cent over the next 10 years. Over 30 years we forecast that inflation alone will cause our costs to more than double.”

It had forecast that infrastructure operating costs were likely to increase more than 71 per cent over the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, water bills were also projected to weigh heavily on ratepayer pockets, with the council “proposing to increase water rates by 28.6 per cent for the first year, then 10 per cent for years two and three, then 4 per cent for the last seven years of the plan to cover inflation increases and to continue to spend on replacing water supply infrastructure like ageing pipes”.

The council looked at water bills separately “because water is mostly based on how much water you use rather than the value of your property”.

“Our water supply services are also showing cost increases. “We have tried to spread the increases but there are higher increases in the coming three years.”

The proposed increases were attributed to the recovery of additional costs, in order to meet drinking water standards, and to remove manganese from the Plains water supply.

A table of fees and charges showed proposed changes, as of July 1, 2024, which included food premise regulation fees, health licence regulation and general regulation fees, building consent fees, planning fees for consenting, designations, District Plan, LIMS and others, administrative fees including printing and electronic information, privacy request fees, library fees (printing costs, meeting room hire and others), and animal control (dog registration, property inspection, dog and stock impounding and animal control call out fees).

The report was written and designed by the Hauraki District Council strategic planning and communications teams.

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