{"id":162540,"date":"2025-12-01T10:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T10:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/162540\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T10:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T10:43:10","slug":"local-councils-relieved-with-governments-rates-capping-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/162540\/","title":{"rendered":"Local councils relieved with government’s rates capping approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rehette<\/p>\n

\nLocal Government vice president and Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver\n<\/p>\n

The national voice for local councils is relieved that the government is taking a more flexible approach to capping the amount local councils can increase rates.<\/p>\n

The government announced on Monday that its long-awaited rates cap law would be a variable target band.<\/p>\n

From 2027, councils would not be able to increase rates beyond the upper end of the government’s set range without permission.<\/p>\n

The cap was expected to start with a maximum increase of four percent.<\/p>\n

Local Government interim chief executive Scott Necklen said it was somewhat reassuring that the government had chosen a more flexible rates model<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But he wanted assurance<\/a> that the policy would not affect local councils’ ability to invest in core services like roads, bridges and public transport.<\/p>\n

“We need a common-sense, fast-track process for exemptions that enables investment in key infrastructure in economic growth in the regions, or when responding to natural disasters.”<\/p>\n

Local Government vice president and Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz said keeping rates low was a priority for all local councils.<\/p>\n

But she said several councils, including the Gisborne District were rebuilding infrastructure after multiple severe weather events.<\/p>\n

“Our community’s expectation is also that we deliver the critical infrastructure and services they rely on in a timely way.<\/p>\n

“These are the sorts of considerations we will be working with the government to implement.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local Government vice president and Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz. Photo: RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver The national voice for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-162540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}