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The Mayor and Councillors meet next week to finalise Christchurch City Council’s Annual Plan 2025/26.

The Annual Plan outlines the day-to-day activities and services the Council provides, as well as the capital projects it will deliver, like One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha, Ōmōkihi South Library and Customer Service Hub, and the Christchurch Wastewater Treatment Plant.  It also outlines how the Council will pay for them.  

Elected members will consider and vote to confirm the plan on Tuesday 24 June. Watch the meeting and read the report. 

Chief Financial Officer Bede Carran says the feedback process saw submissions from 744 people and individuals, and resulted in five sessions of hearings over two weeks.

“Our community has given us a very nuanced picture of how people feel about the services we deliver, and how we all pay for it,” Mr Carran says. 

“As usual, there are competing priorities as one person’s nice-to-have is another person’s must-have, and it’s the job of the Mayor and councillors to tweak those priorities and produce a plan for the next year that people are broadly happy with.” 

The report proposes an average rates increase for all ratepayers of 6.77%, lower than the 7.58% proposed in the Draft Annual Plan 2025/26, which went out for consultation in February. 

This translates to a 6.66% increase for the average household, or $5.08 a week. 

The key areas that the Council consulted on in its Draft Annual Plan which will be considered on Tuesday are: 

  • Operational spending of $871 million on the day-to-day services the Council provides. This is $9.7 million higher than what was proposed in the Draft Annual Plan. 
  • Capital spending of $643.6 million in 2025/26. This is $92.5 million lower than what was proposed, due mostly to rephasing $71.5 million to later years based on what we can realistically deliver. 
  • Pausing the collection of the targeted rate for the Christ Church Cathedral reinstatement.   
  • Increasing the rates we charge for infrastructure renewals in 2025/26 by $2 million, which would reduce the amount we need to borrow to fund our capital programme. Doing this would make it easier for the Council to have a balanced budget in future years.  
  • Granting $5 million to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand for its planned extension in the 2026/27 Annual Plan.  
  • Allocating money for a scoping study for a central city shuttle service.