The Press asks: What can be done to reduce rates in Christchurch?

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

Christchurch residents are facing a rates increase of close to 9% this year, so The Press senior reporter TINA LAW asked city councillors if they will push for cuts and where.

Selling surplus council property, cutting back on non-essential maintenance and slowing down the capital programme are some of the ways Christchurch City councillors propose to save money this year.

Most did not specify where they want to save money, and some said there is not enough support around the council table to push through cuts to the levels of service - things like library and pool hours and how often the likes of parks are maintained.

Council staff say that a smaller rates rise is most likely to come from significant changes to levels of service.

But in December they told councillors that significantly changing levels of service would trigger consultation and involve amending the 10-year budget, the long-term plan, which could not be done before July, by which time the council legally has to confirm the 2025/26 rates increase.

The council is due to approve its draft annual plan on Wednesday so it can go out to public consultation. It is proposing an average rates increase of 8.93%, higher than the 8.48% forecast last year.

That means an increase for the average house, worth $828,000, of $342 a year, or $6.59 a week.

However, some councillors still want levels of service looked at.

Here, councillors offer their thoughts on making savings, in alphabetical order:

Kelly Barber is open to any idea that will reduce the burden on ratepayers, but says he will not be “pushing for cuts”. However, he is happy to support them if there “is a will around the council table”.

“I’d like us to put a raft of options before the public and let them inform us as to how far we go.”

Melanie Coker will support the council management team to look for efficiencies, avoid costs, digitise processes and move work in-house.

“I would be reluctant to lower levels of service or sell off strategic assets to cut rates. I’ve not heard anyone tell me they want to see longer grass, rubbish collected less frequently, or libraries and pools open fewer hours.”

Deputy mayor Pauline Cotter says the council is always looking for savings.

It has previously asked residents for suggestions on reducing services, but “receives conflicting responses when one person’s ‘must have’ is another person’s ‘nice to have’.”

She says the council is reducing costs by instructing chief executive Mary Richardson to continuously focus on finding efficiencies.

Celeste Donovan says the council’s goal is to keep rates increases as low as possible while maintaining the essential services and infrastructure that residents depend on, without deferring costs to future years.

“It’s about striking the right balance — saving where we can, but not at the expense of cutting vital services.”

Tyrone Fields will push to “suppress” the capital programme. He wants the council to do things more slowly and more deliberately, but did not specify which projects he wants to slow down.

“We can’t impact the stadium even though it is the equivalent spend of the next 30 biggest capital projects on our books. It will be amazing, but it comes at a massive cost to ratepayers.”

James Gough says it is essential any decision to reduce spending is based on robust data showing the trade-offs and implications.

“I acknowledge that we’re essentially a minority council. Without the numbers around the table, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to reduce expenditure as much as I would like.”

He is reluctant to point to any specific project or service he would cut, but wants staff to identify areas where “demand is negligible or the trade-offs are acceptable”, including adjusting operating hours for underutilised facilities.

“I also want to see more proactive work around the disposal of underperforming or surplus properties.”

Tyla Harrison-Hunt believes the council can save a significant amount on consultants by bringing work in-house.

“There should be a line-by-line review on how and what we spend. Making blanket cuts is lazy and is reflective of short-term thinking. Focusing on things like the rhetoric of cycleways is simply clickbait when it’s barely a dent in our rates.

“There can always be savings whether it’s in operations, capital or social investment. But is it palatable? Quite often, the answer is ‘no’.”

Victoria Henstock is reluctant to cut services and thinks changes can be made to the delivery of the council’s capital programme.

“We ought to be delivering the most services in the most cost-effective ways possible every year.”

She does not think the council has done enough to make cuts in the lead up to this draft annual plan.

Yani Johanson is pushing for greater focus on increasing revenue to offset the cost of the new stadium.

“It is a regional stadium that brings regional benefits and there should be a capital contribution from other local councils alongside greater private and philanthropic contributions.”

He is against spending $7.2 million on safety improvements to the Scruttons Rd rail crossing in Heathcote.

Aaron Keown wants the council to cut non-essential maintenance on council buildings and believes some of the city’s libraries could close one day a week, because, he says, there are still six other days on which people can visit them.

“We should look at delivering the most services in the most cost effective ways possible every year.”

Sam MacDonald declined to comment, saying only that he will continue to work through the annual plan with his colleagues, as the council normally does.

Jake McLellan is open to finding efficiencies, like the council did when it brought its parks maintenance in-house.

“That's a great example of saving money and offering a better service.”

Mayor Phil Mauger, who is standing for re-election, did not respond to a request for comment, but in his election announcement said he wanted the council to save money by looking at library and pool hours and not mowing grass as often.

He expressed doubt over whether the council needed to spend $60m upgrading its transfer stations in the near future, and questioned buying more land to create stormwater basins was necessary at the moment.

Andrei Moore has been pushing for spending cuts for some time but has not been able to garner enough support from colleagues.

“Options are limited as we aren’t reviewing any operational savings.”

The council could save $4m by not moving the Canterbury Kart Club out of Halswell and Moore wants to consult the public on returning the $5m Christ Church Cathedral grant to ratepayers.

Mark Peters wants the council to make savings by reviewing the levels of service it provides to the public and says he has been asking for this to happen since he was elected in 2022.

He wants the upcoming draft annual plan to ask ratepayers if they would like the council to review levels of service and which ones.

Peters is also frustrated the council decided in 2023 not to develop a business case to cede control of assets to its investment company Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL).

“This could have been helping us right now and potentially meaning we could have lower rates increases being needed.”

Tim Scandrett says the council should ask ratepayers what is important to them.

“At present I think we are delivering cost-effective programmes of work but think we must always review how well we do.”

He hoped the council’s newly formed infrastructure working group, chaired by Keown, could be a template to look at all areas of the council.

Sara Templeton, who is standing for the mayoralty in October, says the conversation about spending cuts requires leadership rather than “kneejerk reactions” and needs the deeper conversations with the community that come with a long-term plan. The next long-term plan will be consulted on in 2027.

“It’s easy for people to talk about making cuts, but much harder in reality when residents see what’s at stake.”

She says the best ways to lower rates over time is to make sure the council is on top of infrastructure renewals and increase the number of homes close to the city centre, which spreads rates across more dwellings and takes pressure off the suburbs.