2025-34 Long-Term Plan sets strategic course for the future

Gore District Council has formally adopted its 2025–2034 Long-Term Plan (LTP), following a significant consultation process and months of rigorous financial planning.

The Council has set an average district-wide rates increase of 8.82% for the 2025/26 financial year, which is lower than what had been flagged in its draft LTP. The average rates increase over the nine-year life of the LTP is 7.32% per year.

Total rates revenue is projected to rise from $29.5 million in 2025/26 to $51.2 million in 2033/34

Gore District Mayor Ben Bell said there had been some really tough conversations around the Council table and in the community.

The Plan sets a strategic course for the next nine years, aiming to strike a careful balance between affordability for ratepayers and the long-term financial sustainability of Council services and infrastructure, he said.

Mayor Bell thanked the community for its input into the LTP. More than 500 submissions were received during the month-long public consultation, a significant increase from previous years.

As a result of community feedback and further financial modelling, the key outcomes in the LTP were:

• Reducing property maintenance and salary budgets by $550,000
• Including $500,000 in projected revenue from asset sales
• Continuing to fund community events

These changes helped lower the proposed initial rate increase and reduce operational debt.

Chief Executive Debbie Lascelles said the Council had faced some of the toughest financial decisions in recent years.

“With cost-of-living pressures and the largest reform programme in decades underway, we needed a plan that ensured essential services could continue, while also recognising that our community simply cannot afford steep rate hikes,” she said.

To help ease pressure in the short term, the Council has opted for an unbalanced budget in the first three years of the LTP. This approach allows the Council to deliver critical services and maintain assets, while beginning a pathway to financial recovery.

To smooth rates and maintain service levels, a portion of operational expenditure for activities such as depreciation, IT upgrades and District Plan costs will be debt-funded in the early years.

“We know this is not sustainable in the long term, but this measure provides financial breathing room while the Council reviews operations and works towards returning to operating surpluses,” Ms Lascelles said.

Over the life of the LTP, the Council plans to invest $184 million in capital projects, with the bulk (89%) targeted at core infrastructure, including three waters and roading. Much of this investment is needed to replace ageing infrastructure and meet regulatory requirements.

The Council has received an adverse audit opinion due to the treatment of three waters budgets in the LTP. This reflected timing, not mismanagement, Ms Lascelles said.

She stressed that the underlying financial information for the first two years of the LTP was robust and based on the best available information the Council had at the time.