Councillors considered the draft report in a meeting in Queenstown yesterday, after the Wanaka Sun print deadline.
Meanwhile, 938 resource consent applications were issued, of which 94.75% were processed within required timeframes.
The annual report is a progress report on the long term plan for 2021-2031.
During the July 2023-June 2024 year, the building services team processed 1,391 building consents with a consented value of $993million and undertook 18,000 inspections.
Council employs internal staff and external contractors to deliver its building services.
In the previous financial year (2022-23), the Queenstown Lakes District Council ranked fourth in the country for total value of building consents issued and fifth for number of building consents issued.
The percentage of building consents processed within the 20-day statutory timeframe reduced from previous years to 92%.
The target of 98% was not achieved because several staff and contractors were unavailable during the year, the draft annual report said.
The average processing time improved over the year, from 16 days in July 2023 to just over 12 days in June 2024.
Other financial information in the draft report included:
— an operating surplus of $82.2m for the year, compared to a budgeted surplus of $53.4m and an actual deficit of $53.8m for the previous financial year,
— total revenue of $359.6m (above budget by 29.3% or $81.5m),
— actual operating expenditure of $263.2m (above budget by 14.7% or $33.8m),
— further losses of $9.7m recognised, relating to the disposal of three waters assets.
