Wellington City Council Annual Plan 2019/20

Introduction

For the purposes of this submission, it is important to note that Wellington region businesses pay the highest share of rates in the country. Businesses pay 44 per cent of the total rates collected by Wellington City Council while taking up only around one-fifth of the total rateable property. Regionally, businesses pay around one-third of the rates collected by Greater Wellington Regional Council. Therefore, as the largest contributor to Wellington City's and the Wellington region’s rate-take, and paying the highest proportion in the country, businesses have a real stake in what happens to
rate money.

To this end, it should be noted that in May 2018 the Chamber put in an extensive submission on the five areas highlighted by the WCC in their draft long-term plan (2018-28), namely: Resilience and Environment, Housing and Community Wellbeing, Transport, Sustainable Growth, and Arts and Culture. It is not necessary to revisit the content of that submission again in respect to the five priority areas, but this submission particularly concentrates on rating policy (particularly rates differentials) as outlined on p.17 of the Annual Plan.

The Chamber would welcome the opportunity to discuss its submission with the WCC
and requests to be heard orally...

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