Pay rises for all ‒ and ground shifting changes ‒ on first Wellington City Council agenda

Monday, 17 November 2025

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Ground-shifting changes — from how we pay rates to the future of the inner city — are on the agenda at the new Wellington City Council’s first meeting this week. Also up for discussion: pay rises for all.

Under recommendations to the council on Thursday — proposed by the Remuneration Authority with limited room for adjustment — every elected position is set to receive a pay bump from the last triennium. Mayor Andrew Little is slated to earn $201,947 a year, up from predecessor Tory Whanau’s $189,799.

It will come in the same meeting Little makes good on two of his election promises by starting a review of the Golden Mile project and setting the terms for a new Revenue and Financial Value Review Working Group, which he has put his deputy Ben McNulty in charge of.

The October election played out amid a Wellington hobbled by high rates rises, council blowouts and a perception of excessive spending. Little’s critics argued he would be more-of-the-same so having the two items in the first proper meeting appears to be a way to silence those ‒ not least councillors Ray Chung and Karl Tiefenbacher, who ran against him and frequently made the calls.

McNulty’s working group has a wide-ranging scope to run the rule over, not just all operating expenditure, but also all revenue streams and to “identify under performing areas”. The council’s major revenue stream is rates but it also takes in money for parking, consents, and other services.

Crucially, the working group is also charged with finding avenues for “revenue enhancement and corrective actions, including any changes to rates policies”. Any recommendations would have to go up the chain to Diane Calvert’s Te Taurapa Planning and Finance Committee, and ultimately for any rating changes, on to a full council meeting.

Working group deputy chairperson Rebecca Matthews said that could well mean a vote this term to switch to a land-based rating system, which the last council had intended to work on before it was derailed by internal ructions.

A land-based rating system would see property owners charged based on land value alone, rather than the current model of land plus building value. Supporters say it could curb land-banking and boost housing supply, but critics argue it’s unworkable in Wellington — and that the council should focus on spending less.

Matthews said a majority on this council backed the idea.

She expected the commercial rates differential ‒ broadly 3.7-times residential rates ‒ to be reviewed as part of the group, which would also look at new ways to make money.

Meanwhile, the $139 million Golden Mile revamp from Courtenay Place to Lambton Quay, has long been a headache for the council with many businesses along the route opposing it and a series of cost blowouts before work begun.

Whanau failed to get a contract signed for the Courtenay Place section before leaving office and Little pledged to review the project.

He appears to be making good on it with a paper before council proposing an “independent review given emerging and escalating risks associated with contract development for the Courtenay Place works”. It would also pause any negotiations for the Courtenay Place section ‒ which was to be the second section after an already-finished Cambridge Tce intersection ‒ until the review is complete.

Calvert said the review needed to be broader than planned and should examine project governance, which oversaw cost blowouts and left businesses feeling unheard. She pointed to similar issues in a recent Thorndon Quay project.

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