Simon Watts announced the cap<\/a> on August 25, saying it would ease cost-of-living pressures and get councils \u201cback to basics\u201d.<\/p>\n\u201cFor too long, ratepayers have been hit with steep and unexpected rates increases, adding pressure to household budgets at a time many New Zealanders are already feeling the squeeze,\u201d Watts said.<\/p>\n
Under the legislation, councils will be required to keep annual rates increases within an initial target range of 2-4%, the minister said, \u201cputting a brake on excessive increases and giving ratepayers greater certainty\u201d.<\/p>\n
The cap will take effect in 2029, but councils will need to \u201cconsider\u201d the cap from next year. <\/p>\n
Harnish \u2013 whose rates went up $400 this year and around $300 last year \u2013 said a rates cap could have helped home owners 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
But right now, he believes the move is an election ploy.<\/p>\n
Harnish said he understood that councils were \u201cnot immune\u201d from rising costs, with roads costing more to maintain, wages increasing and materials costing more.<\/p>\n
However, if the increases were necessary, \u201cthen show us why\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause rates aren\u2019t simply another bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t shop around for a cheaper council. We can\u2019t change providers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t decide that this year we\u2019ll simply go without council services.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you own a home, you pay the rates you\u2019re told to pay \u2013 and increasingly, that bill appears to be rising considerably faster than the ability of ordinary New Zealand households to pay it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northlanders\u2019 rates payments are expected to climb to $374 million in the coming financial year \u2013 a 10% increase on the $340m collected in the current financial year.<\/p>\n
The Far North, Kaipara and Whang\u0101rei district councils have proposed rates increases of between 5% and 10.1%.<\/p>\n
Whang\u0101rei Mayor Ken Couper said he recognised that rising household costs were \u201cplacing pressure on many families and ratepayers\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, any rates-capping proposal needed to \u201ccarefully balance affordability with councils\u2019 ability to respond to local needs and invest in essential infrastructure and services\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA fixed cap will likely add further complexity and may limit councils\u2019 ability to respond to specific community needs, particularly during periods of high inflation, significant investment or periods of high growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaipara Mayor Jonathan Larsen said he supported the goal of keeping rates affordable.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery council should be focused on delivering the services their community needs at the lowest practical cost,\u201d Larsen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve already shown that in Kaipara.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier this year, we went back through the budget and brought the average rates increase down from 8.9% to 3.9% after growth because we knew so many households were under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local Government New Zealand [LGNZ] warned that rates capping would have \u201creal impacts\u201d on the essential infrastructure and services councils delivered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIntroducing a 4% cap when councils\u2019 costs are increasing at a much higher rate will hamstring … councils\u2019 ability to maintain investment in the services and infrastructure that people rely on them to provide,\u201d LGNZ president Rehette Stoltz said. <\/p>\n
In May, the Northern Advocate reported that years of cumulative increases forced 73-year-old Orom\u0101hoe ratepayer Gail Olliver to sell her lifestyle block<\/a>, which she had believed would be her forever home.<\/p>\nFar North District Council did not respond to questions before deadline.<\/p>\n
Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harnish\u2019s comments come after the Government decided to cap annual council rate increases at 4%. Local Government Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[161215,26695,4464,139317,13982,24747,5205,537,36174,71,33359,1345,21325,30616,300,111,43,139,1067,69,2738,21041,14904,7676,801,312,61,67575],"class_list":["post-594338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-absorb","tag-bills","tag-cap","tag-continual","tag-continues","tag-costofliving","tag-council","tag-crisis","tag-difficult","tag-from","tag-haemorrhage","tag-home","tag-increases","tag-kaikohe","tag-money","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-owner","tag-peoples","tag-questioned","tag-rates","tag-rising","tag-says","tag-to","tag-wallets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594338","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=594338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}