Pre-Election Report: Financial Capacity & Affordability

Published on 30 September 2025

A more detailed version of this release is available in Waitaki District Council’s Pre-Election Report.

The last few years have been tough for every Council in the country, including Waitaki. It's also been hard for families to manage their money, and we've seen that in the feedback on our Annual and Long Term Plans. In 2022, prices went up a lot, making things like fuel, food, and housing more expensive.

For councils, the cost of delivering services went up even more during this time. Construction costs rose by at least 27% over the last three years. Labour shortages made contractor rates go up by another 15-20%.

While inflation dropped to 3.3% in 2024, the price increases of the last five years still affect both the cost of living and the Council's ability to provide services.

The next Council has a tough job of balancing spending and funding. With rising costs for things like infrastructure, services, insurance, and borrowing, it's hard to raise rates or charges without making it harder for families. The Council's Financial Strategy sets clear limits on how much rates and debt can go up.

To handle these challenges, the Council is working hard to keep things affordable while meeting community needs. This means managing money carefully, making sure services are efficient, controlling debt for investment, and looking for other ways to get money.

The Transformation Programme is helping to make every ratepayer's money go further. It does this by making sure projects and services for the community are planned and done efficiently.

There are some big decisions coming up about fixing or replacing things like pipes, bridges, and roads. Some of these have been around for 50 to 100 years, but we only started saving money to replace them in 2002.

Tough decisions still need to be made about what the Council will and will not support, and what it will and will not do in the future. This will be the job of the next Mayor and Councillors, and future Councils to come.

ENDS

media@waitaki.govt.nz