Rate Increase Held Down To 3.57%

The Marlborough District Council has formally adopted its 2012-2022 Long Term Plan, setting the new rates for the year ahead.

The increase in total rates and charges for Marlborough for the 2012-13 year will be 3.57% up on last year’s levy.

That’s a slightly lower rate of increase than the 3.75% achieved by the Council last year.

Mayor Alistair Sowman says the Council has worked hard to keep the rates take as close as possible to the rate of inflation with very little new spending.

“It was an infrastructure-only budget but we have to accept that infrastructural costs - things like pipes and concrete – are also subject to inflation,” said Mr Sowman

“The prevailing view from ratepayers that there was no room for extravagance and councillors understood that so they were disciplined in cutting back on the non-essentials. I think we can be satisfied that rates have been held as low as possible in the face of significant budgetary pressures, such as rising insurance premiums,” the Mayor said.

Different geographic areas will be affected differently. This year, individual rates have also been affected by the movements in land values that have occurred as a result of the district-wide revaluation.

For example, a Council benchmark property in the Blenheim Vicinity, a rural property outside town which experienced a large drop in land value, has a rates reduction of almost 15%.

In contrast, Council benchmark properties in urban Blenheim have rates increases between 3.6% and 4.9%.