18 June 2021
The Council had originally scheduled 23 June as the date to sign off the Draft Long Term Plan 2021/31. The draft document needed to reflect the following changes:
- Changes to the financial model for the Eastern Growth Plan, for funding via financial contributions, as well as moving the project out to year 4 of the plan.
- Reforecast of opening balances – as we are close to the 2021 year end we can more accurately forecast our opening position for the LTP, particularly in regards to debt, and carry-forward capital projects.
- Due to indicative funding from Waka Kotahi being less than what was requested, we have updated our financials to reflect $100k less revenue per year, over the first three years of the plan (of which approx. half would have been funded by Waka Kotahi, and the other half through rates). This will not have a significant impact on planned work, and will mean a slight decrease in rating for roading.
- We have updated our assumption around interest rates on borrowings. While the rate used in the draft LTP is still available to us, there has been some recent indications from the Reserve Bank that could mean interest rates may start increasing next year, so we have increased our assumed interest rate. This has an impact of increasing rates, but is partly balanced out by the changes above (eastern growth and Waka Kotahi).
Due to the changes above, and particularly eastern growth, the Council is still working through updating the financial model, and financials in the LTP document, including the overall rates impacts. In order to allow sufficient time for us to complete these updates, obtain Audit sign off, and elected member review of the updated document, we will change our planned adoption date from 23 June to 30 June. Therefore, we have cancelled the 23 June meeting, and have all planned items moved to the 30 June extraordinary meeting. Although delay in the adoption is not ideal, it will give the Council and the auditors more time to review the LTP, and ensure we have a robust document ready for adoption.