10 Year Plan - Business FAQs

10 Year Plan Consultation BusinessFAQs

1. What is the Draft 10 Year Plan / Long-Term Plan (LTP)?

2. If I want to discuss the 10 Year Plan what can I do?

3. What information must the 10 Year Plan contain?

4. Why are rates increasing next year by 16.9%?

5. How does it affect meas a business owner?

6. What is the draft 10 Year Plan 2024-34 proposing?

7. Did you find savings to soften the rates increase?

8. Why are you engaging with communities on the draft 10 Year Plan?

9. Why are Development Contributions increasing, this may affect my business?

10. Has this got anythingto do with the District Plan?

11. What parking fees are you proposing to increase? Why?

12. What’s the latest on the Cross Valley Connection programme mentioned in our 10 Year Plan and our Consultation Document?

1. WhatistheDraft10YearPlan/Long-TermPlan(LTP)?

It sets out Council’s priorities, including spending proposals, over 10-year periods. All councils are required by legislation to finalise a LTP every three years. At Hutt City Council we refer to the LTP as our 10 Year Plan. Public consultation for our 10 Year Plan 2024 – 2034 is live 2 April – 3 May, 5pm 2024; after which Councillors will consider all community feedback before making final decisions. Council adopts the 2024-2034 10 Year Plan on 27 June. A full version will be available on our website and made available in our neighbourhood hubs. Each 10 Year Plan has a three-year cycle to ensure changing economic and external factors are considered on a regular basis.

2. IfIwanttodiscussthe10YearPlanwhatcanIdo?

Please reach out to our Business and Economy team with any questions and support you may need regarding our 10 Year Plan. Email us at business@huttcity.govt.nz

3. Whatinformationmustthe10YearPlancontain?

Detailed information on the projects, services, and activities that the council intends to deliver. It looks at the proposed spend and how it will be funded including rates and debt, for the coming decade.

4. Whyistheratesrevenueincreasingnextyearby16.9%(aftergrowth)?

The draft 10 Year Plan has an overall focus on infrastructure investment across water, transport, sustainability, and resilience initiatives. None of that is cheap to finance. In particular, our water infrastructure – drinking, waste and storm water – has suffered from chronic under-investment for decades. There’s no hiding from that. Significant investment must be made now to sort the issues for current and future generations. We are proposing to take on much more debt through the next ten years to address the infrastructure deficit while maintaining a prudent approach to borrowing and debt headroom. As Council is limited in its funding sources, the balance will largely fall to funding through rates.

5. Howdoesitaffectmeasabusinessowner?

The total revenue collected from rates for 2024-25 is proposed to increase by 16.9% (after growth). The impact of this on the average commercial central property is an increase of $63.04 (16.9%) each week. For the average commercial suburban property, the weekly increase is around $54.31 (17.1%).

A key factor impacting commercial rates is the rating policy settings and the allocation of general rates between residential properties and commercial

properties. In the previous 10 Year Plan after consultation with the community, Council moved to a percentage allocation of the general rate. A percentage approach helps to reduce fluctuations in the general rate caused by valuation movement differences between rating categories. At the time, the commercial category paid 31% of the total general rate.

Between 2021-22 and 2023-24, we shifted the allocation of general rates between residential and commercial ratepayers by 1% each year so that in 2023-24, commercial ratepayers pay 34%. We are proposing that commercial ratepayers continue to pay 34% of the total general rate for the term of the 10 Year Plan.

6. Whatisthedraft10YearPlan2024-34proposing?

To address a growing population and the resulting impact on ourcity we plan to spend $2.6 billion over the 10 years (increase of $1.2 billion compared to 10 Year Plan 2021 – 31). Of this spend, 62% is on water services and 21% on transport.

It would deliver the largest capital delivery programme in our city’s history including spending $1.6 billion over 10 years to safeguard our city’s drinkingwater network and to provide effective stormwater and wastewater systems. An extra $2.8 million is earmarked for Wellington Water Ltd to eliminate the current backlog of water leaks in Lower Hutt by December 2024.

We’re asking the community how to prioritise spending onthe Petone Wharf, the Petone Library and the earthquake prone Petone Recreation Ground grandstand.

A new weekly kerbside service to collect food scraps and green organics in one bin is proposed to start in July 2027. This is a joint project with Wellington City Council and Porirua City Council and has some assumed government funding. This would only go ahead should partner and government funding be approved.

A new Rates Remission Policy to help low-income households with their residential rates is also included in the draft LTP for public comment.

An updated Development Contributions Policy (DCP) to help fund growth-related infrastructure is included in the draft LTP for public comment.

7. Didyoufindsavingstoreducetheratesincrease?

We’ve gone through line-by-line to find savings, identify revenue opportunities and proposed spending cuts before coming up with our proposals. We’ve had to make some difficult calls and after rigorous work have made $35 million in savings across the board

8. Whyareyouengagingwithcommunitiesonthedraft10YearPlan?

We are very keen to hear from our business community for this 10 Year Plan. Despite it being a legislative requirement, we want to work closely with our community on the priorities and projects we set, because it’s important our plans support the aspirations for our city.

Our consultation period is 2 April to 3 May5pm, and people can fill in the online feedback form or visit one of our neighbourhood hubs to fill out a paper form. There is assistance at our hubs if required. Following our consultation, Councillors will carefully consider all community feedback and make final decisions.

Detailed timings and information is available here: 10 Year Plan 2024 - 2034 | Hutt City Council

9. WhyareDevelopmentContributionsincreasing,thismayaffectmybusiness?

A key financial strategy principle for Council is “Growth pays for growth” which means allocating costs and charges where they fall. The proposed development contributions charges included in the Draft 10 Year Plan 2024-34 have increased, especially for the Wainuiomata and Valley Floor catchments, which reflects the significant increase in investment Hutt City Council is proposing to make in the city’s growth-related infrastructure. These are driven by higher growth projections, better understanding of infrastructure required, much more infrastructure planned and higher inflationary cost impacts on projects.

10. HasthisgotanythingtodowiththeDistrictPlan?

The District Plan is different. While 10 Year Plans and Annual Plans focus on projects and budgets, the District Plan is more of a rulebook for land use and urban development. These rules cover things like residential development, subdivision of land, height and location of buildings, commercial and industrial developments, heritage and noise.

You can find more information about the different types of plans here

11. Whatparkingfeesareyouproposingtoincrease?Why?

The following changes are being proposed:

• Addition of paid parking along the shopping area on Jackson Street and the Britannia Street car park in Petone at a rate of $3 per hour.

• Increase of hourly rate from $2. An hour to $3 across all paid parking zones

• Increase of daily parking costs from $7 to $10 across all paid parking zones

• All parking fees charged 7 days a week

• The usual exemptionswill still apply including mobility parking. Increased parking fees will provide more resources to invest in much - needed infrastructure and other transport related activities.

• It will also allow us tomake parking improvements, manage demand to improve parking turnover, and incentivise active mode shift. People may be more likely to consider public transport options or cycling and walking for example.

12. What’sthelatestontheCrossValleyConnectionprogrammementionedinour 10YearPlanandourConsultationDocument?

Cross Valley Link (CVL) is one of the new Roads of National Significance along with Petone to Grenada announced by the government in the draft Government Policy Statement. One of the key outcomes government has signalled is for CVL to unlock the urban housing growth in Lower Hutt. This project will also improve transport connections, improve resilience and safety, reduce congestion and make a big difference to our haulage and freight network.

A Programme Business Case was completed by HCC in 2021 that signalled CVL as a new multi-modal transport corridor connecting Gracefield and State Highway 2. In collaboration with NZTA Waka Kotahi, we will be working to refresh the business case to align with the new government policy statement. The current draft timeline is 2024 – 2034. Keep checking in for updates to our HCC website and our Facebook pages as this project progresses.

For any additional business / commercial related queries please contact: business@huttcity.govt.nz