Operational expenditure changes

The Council has reviewed its budgets and made changes to ensure general and commercial rates for the year remain as low as possible and that the Council is spending wisely.

We are proposing $6 million savings in the operating budget, and gather $165,000 in increased revenue (in addition to the proposed increases set out in key proposals 1, 3 and 4).

These savings, along with the decision to not fund a further $13.5 million in depreciation, reduces the total amount of rates we require for the year.

The proposals include:

  • Investigate establishing an Urban Development Office to make efficiency savings of $1 million and streamline services for the public
  • $500,000 reduction in Economic Grants. These fund WellingtonNZ, Destination Wellington marketing, support major events, and includes the City Growth Fund
  • $255,000 reduction in Heritage Resilience and Regeneration Fund through removing funding for earthquake prone building works due to Government changes in this area
  • $500,000 saving in support for community climate mitigation activities and transport education initiatives, focusing instead on Climate adaptation, and mitigation activities that deliver demonstrable emission reductions
  • $760,000 reduction in the budget for activities in the re-opened Te Ngākau Civic Square ($350,000), and general savings across the Council’s Creative Capital services ($410,000) which include the allocation of grants, Toi Pōneke, management of the art collection, events, Te Ngākau, and venue subsidies eg. NZSO subsidies
  • $650,000 reduction across the total budget for the Council’s Social and Recreation activity area (0.4% of budget), which includes swimming pools, community centres and libraries, our public health services, public toilets, playgrounds and sportsfields, and social wellbeing and safety initiatives. Advice on where savings may occur will be presented to the Council in May
  • $15.9 million in targeted internal savings including:
    • $13.5 million reduction in depreciation funding
    • $1.1 million reduction in the consultancy budget
    • $70,000 reduction in international tourism attraction funding for WellingtonNZ.
    • making changes to our Communications, Engagement, International Relations, and Property services to make efficiencies where possible

Changes to fees and user charges

New fees

We are proposing new fees in the following areas to streamline some Council booking processes or to offer new services:

  • Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui Central Library – new fees for the bookable spaces and services in the new library.
  • Toi Pōneke – new fees for the bookable spaces and services in the new arts centre.
  • Gardens, Beaches & Green Open Spaces – new fee for hire of new spaces/facilities at the Begonia House, and Gardens
  • Parks and Reserves – new hourly fee for Reserve Planner, and a new fee for after-hours vehicle release
  • Recreation Centre – new fee for hiring out courts to commercial groups or enterprises
  • Sportsfields – new room hire offerings
  • Cemeteries – new fee for re-attaching plaques, hourly fees for staff time, and an after-hours vehicle release fee in Council cemeteries.
  • Public Health Regulations – including alcohol licencing, animal control, animal boarding, and health licensing & inspection
  • Building control & facilitation – new hourly fees to address pending legislative changes (eg those relating to Small Stand Alone Dwellings and Self-Certification)
  • Development control and facilitation – new hourly fees to address pending legislative changes
  • City Archives – a new fee for online search of archives for building consents and documents
  • Gardens, beaches & green open spaces – for hiring the Begonia House foyer space following its upgrade
  • Waterfront – aligning berthing fees to reflect similar berthage fees in the region, and to recognise the CBD locality
  • Marina – increased charges proposed to achieve R&F policy compliance
  • Waste minimisation – higher disposal charges due to increased Waste Minimisation Act and recycling levies.
  • Public health regulations (animal control) – increased dog transfer/change of ownership fees to ensure internal alignment with similar charges and higher dog euthanasia charges to reflect increased costs
  • Swimming pools – increases are proposed for Child Swim and School Swim charges as prices have not increased since 2022 whilst the costs to run these programmes have increased
  • Sportsfields – for keys and access cards
  • Recreation centres – proposed fees for some programmes have increased to ensure internal alignment
  • Parking – the maximum weekday charge at both the Tory Street and Clifton carparks, and for motor home parking at Barnett Street are proposed to increase to align these charges towards ‘market rates’ for parking in Wellington

Other fee changes

We are proposing other fee changes including fee increases above inflation for the following areas due to changes to existing Council policies and raising costs for service provisions:

A 5 percent increase for encroachment fees is proposed for 2026/27.

The Council’s Road Encroachment and Sale Policy provides for encroachment fees to be adjusted annually according to CPI changes and reviewed every three years by the Council as part of its Long-term Plan process.

We also have standard inflation increases proposed and these are outlined in the Consultation Document on page 25.

What next?

Need more information or ready to make a submission?