By Jonathan Leask, Local democracy reporter
Selwyn’s new district councillors want to see a rates rise of under 10%, but it could mean some "difficult" decisions ahead for the community.
Mayor Lydia Gliddon was voted in after she promised to reduce a forecast 13.3% hike to single digits next year.
Staff informed councillors at a briefing last week they had already identified at least 11% of possible savings, which would be presented and discussed in more detail at a budget workshop on December 17.
“It’s actual savings,” Gliddon told Local Democracy Reporting.
“There is going to be some tough discussion to be had over it, but that’s our job.”
The council signalled some projects could be delayed to make the savings.
It would then be discussed again at the draft annual plan workshop early in 2026.
At the councillor briefing last week, performance and delivery team leader Rob Steel unveiled a prioritisation tool, used to identify cost savings and income opportunities.
It identified 90 initiatives for further investigation for the annual plan 2026/27.
“We're estimating that overall, the potential rate savings could be between $15m and $18m.”
That will be at least an 11% rate savings, as based on 2025/26 figures, and 1% of rates is $1,356,730.
Steel said the initial estimates needed further development before being presented in detail to the councillors to consider at the budget workshop.
Steel had also warned that any significant changes to the annual plan could trigger a special consultative process — something the council wanted to avoid because it’s nearly as demanding as a full long-term plan process.
Gliddon said that would mean spending money to save money when the next long-term plan isn’t too far away.
“That’s not cost-effective for our community.”
With options to proceed, pause or push projects out completely, Cr Elizabeth Mundt also wanted consideration to “finding different funding models or having a joint community venture”.
“We're going to need to be very creative in how we deliver for our communities.”
Councillor Sophie McInnes said many of the projects in the long-term plan had been fought for by parts of the community, and councillors would need to consider the pushback from people who feel they’ve already justified their need.
Gliddon acknowledged there would “be some easy choices for us to make and there are going to be some difficult choices that we might need to work through”.
Those decisions will also be worked through with the community. Gliddon was supportive of a six-week consultation period.
“We're going to be addressing quite a lot.
“It just allows us lots of time to have those conversations with our community.”
Gliddon said the other factor to consider is there could be more details about the Government’s proposed rates-capping legislation by December 17.
