{"id":415450,"date":"2026-05-07T01:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T01:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/415450\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T01:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T01:37:12","slug":"northlander-forced-off-land-as-regions-rates-to-top-370m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/415450\/","title":{"rendered":"Northlander forced off land as region’s rates to top $370m"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northlanders\u2019 rates payments are expected to climb to $374 million in the coming financial year, as a Kerikeri district ratepayer says years of cumulative rates increases are forcing her off her land.<\/p>\n

By Susan Botting of LDR<\/p>\n

The North’s expected 2026\/2027 rates haul was 10% higher than the $340m collected in the current 2025\/2026 financial year.<\/p>\n

Oromahoe ratepayer Gail Olliver (73) said she is selling the lifestyle block she bought after moving from Auckland in 2017 to what she believed would be her forever home.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to move inland where property is cheaper, so my rates bill will be lower,” Olliver said.<\/p>\n

Her rates were $5000 a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am already paying $97 a week in rates. I think of it in weekly amounts because I have to,\u201d Olliver said.<\/p>\n

She said she is worried about Far North District Council (FNDC)\u2019s proposed 6.7% rates rise and the council\u2019s rebating system means has a two-year wait for any return entitlement.<\/p>\n

Retiree Olliver \u201cdabbles\u201d in retail, selling new and used clothing and bric-a-brac from a small Kawakawa shop, but says she makes little money from it.<\/p>\n

Rising rates, combined with insurance and other cost increases, meant she could no longer afford to remain on the land.<\/p>\n

\"Far<\/p>\n

Far North Mayor Moko Tepania told the 2026 State of the Far North his council was using a new zero based budgeting approach to annual financial management meaning it started from scratch with a new clean slate budget every year to justify every spend item, rather than carry over items from previous years (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

Olliver can barely make ends meet, in spite of income from a flat rental on her property, a border in the sleepout next to her house and putting money from her pension towards rates, insurance, power and mortgage payments.<\/p>\n

FNDC group manager corporate services Charlie Billington did not comment specifically on Olliver’s situation.<\/p>\n

Billington said feedback on FNDC’s 2026\/2027 Annual Plan was open until May 17.<\/p>\n

Olliver said the Government’s push towards council amalgamations via larger unitary authorities would potentially serve the Far North well.<\/p>\n

Amalgamation with other Northland councils would offer the district a larger ratepayer base to cover its many unique costs.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including the US strikes an Iranian flagged ship, and the people who left a virus ridden cruise ship early are forced into isolation. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Olliver was among roughly 100,000 Northland ratepayers facing higher rates across the region in 2026\/2027.<\/p>\n

District council rates increases of between 5% and 10.1% have been proposed by FNDC, Kaipara District Council (KDC) and Whang\u0101rei District Council (WDC).<\/p>\n

Northland Regional Council (NRC) has bucked that trend, proposing a rates freeze, in spite of originally budgeting on a 4.04% increase in long term planning.<\/p>\n

Northlanders\u2019 2026\/2027 rates are expected to provide FNDC with $76.455m, KDC $38.896m, WDC $129m and NRC $130m.<\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei Mayor Ken Couper said about two thirds of people who made submissions on WDC’s Annual Plan supported a flat 5% rates increase, one of three options put forward.<\/p>\n

About a quarter favoured the 10.1% option.<\/p>\n

The balance supported a third option, also set at 5% but adjusted so businesses would pay a slightly smaller share of the overall rates take than residential ratepayers, or in some cases a zero increase.<\/p>\n

Couper said WDC was now weighing up its final budget which would be finalising on May 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs usual, the requests for increased levels of services are greater than the fiscal envelope available,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Whangārei<\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei ratepayer Andrew Booth with some of the new calves on his predominantly Autumn-calving Mangakahia farm. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

Mangakahia dairy farmer Andrew Booth (39) said WDC needed to think carefully.<\/p>\n

The WDC and NRC ratepayer said his preference was for a lower increase, with the tweaked 5% option his choice.<\/p>\n

Couper has previously warned halving the proposed increase would create a multi-million-dollar budget shortfall.<\/p>\n

He said this would need to be addressed through a mix of cost savings, reduced services or increased debt.<\/p>\n

Booth said he was not in favour of filling the gap through borrowing, which would simply increase council interest costs.<\/p>\n

Instead, he urged the council to spend rates only on what was genuinely necessary and within its core responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\"Annual<\/p>\n

Annual Plan about three proposed rates increases has been a key part of budget setting for the coming financial year. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat ratepayers need might be different from what they want,\u201d Booth said.<\/p>\n

He described rates as \u201ca necessary evil\u201d if communities expected council services, and welcomed NRC\u2019s proposed rates freeze.<\/p>\n

The Government has signalled NRC will disappear by 2028 under its local government restructuring push.<\/p>\n

Booth said amalgamating WDC and NRC could bring benefits where services were duplicated, but warned any merger needed to be handled carefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they can do it right, yes, but if things fall through the cracks, then I\u2019m not so sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Booth said amalgamation should not result in the loss of critical NRC services such as dairy effluent compliance monitoring, pest control programmes or biodiversity support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not like to see these fall back on volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Titoki\u2019s Booth and his wife Vicky farm the family property beside the Mangakahia River, about 70km upstream from the Kaipara Harbour. They are among more than 1000 landowners taking part in the Kaipara Moana Remediation, New Zealand\u2019s largest harbour restoration programme.<\/p>\n

\"Kaipara<\/p>\n

Kaipara ratepayer Dargaville’s Elizabeth Card (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kaipara ratepayer Elizabeth Card (81) is viewing KDC\u2019s proposed 7.9% rates rise (after growth) with a degree of resignation.<\/p>\n

Card said there was little ratepayers could do beyond \u201cgrizzle and carry on\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Dargaville retiree who moved North from Auckland to be with family, has paid rates for 56 years and said she was concerned for people living on fixed incomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of people in Kaipara struggling to make ends meet,\u201d Card said.<\/p>\n

She said public consultation or more information about the council\u2019s rates rise would have been better.<\/p>\n

A KDC spokesperson said the council had not publicly consulted on its coming year\u2019s Annual Plan because its budget and work plan aligned with what had been agreed on in longer term planning.<\/p>\n

Public consultation, on its proposed coming year\u2019s fees and charges only, closed on May 4.<\/p>\n

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northlanders\u2019 rates payments are expected to climb to $374 million in the coming financial year, as a Kerikeri…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[219,42,43,1067,135,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-415450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-economy","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-northland","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415450","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=415450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}