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Reducing Spending on City Assets

Tuesday 1 May 2012, 1:17PM

By Wellington City Council

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WELLINGTON CITY

As part of our consultation on our draft Long Term Plan, we're looking closely at how much we spend on replacing assets.

Assets are physical things - like buildings, pipes, roads, library books - and even park benches. At the moment, we replace these assets when they reach the end of their useful life. How long assets last varies - a library book might need to be replaced within five years, whereas a water pipe could last as long as 100 years.


The cost of replacing our assets is projected to be nearly $1 billion over the next 10 years. The amount we are spending is rising as our water, stormwater and sewage networks are aging.

We have completed an initial assessment of the condition of our assets and have found that we may be able to reduce expenditure by up to $26 million over the next 10 years.

This could mean that we delay replacing some assets, like carpets in Council buildings. Or we could choose not to replace assets, for example by replacing fewer retaining walls.

We might also change how we run our services, but our focus would be on only making changes that would not have significant permanent negative impacts on our key services or on safety.

Three options are under consultation:

  • keeping asset renewal spending at the level in the draft plan
  • reducing renewal spending and using these savings to offset borrowings which will reduce interest costs and reduce rates
  • reducing spending and funding new projects.

 

Reducing our spending on replacing things could mean that we would need to spend more on repair and unplanned maintenance work.

Find out more by reading our draft Long Term Plan summary online.

Public Input - Draft Long Term Plan 2012-22

Submissions close Friday 18 May.