Consultation on proposed fees and charges changes open
Invercargill City Council is calling on the community to let it know if it has struck the right balance when it comes to proposed changes to its 2026/2027 Fees and Charges schedule.
Public consultation on Council’s 2026/2027 Fees and Charges opened yesterday.
Finance and Policy Committee Chair, Councillor Trish Boyle, said Council reviewed its fees and charges schedule every year.
“Council has to strike a fine balance when it comes to covering the costs of using the services and facilities it provides in our community. It can be a challenging trade-off between user-pays and rates funding to ensure Council is able to continue providing these services,” she said.
“For the 2026/2027 financial year Council has proposed increasing some of its fees and charges, in order to better reflect how much it actually costs to provide certain services and facilities within our community. If fees and charges do not appropriately reflect the cost of actually using Council services, that has an impact on rates across the wider community.
“It is always important for the people of Invercargill and Bluff to have their say on the decisions made within local government, because it has a direct impact on them. Our proposed changes to the 2026/2027 Fees and Charges is no different. I really encourage our community to share their feedback with us by making a submission, to let Council know if they feel we have got that balance right,” Boyle said.
Council Group Manager Finance and Assurance Patricia Christie said the majority of fees had been increased by five to 15 percent, to reflect rising service delivery costs including inflation, Council’s rate increase, and the corporate overheads required to support each service.
“Central Government has directed local government to move towards recouping more of its costs, in areas such as public transportation, on a user-pays basis. Council’s proposed changes are also in line with its Revenue and Financing Policy,” she said.
In the past, the true cost of providing some services and facilities had not always been fully reflected in their fees and charges, which meant rates revenue had been subsidising this, Christie said.
Revenue generated by the proposed changes to fees and charges was $31.95 million, or 21 percent of operational funding for the 2026/2027 Annual Plan – a 1.96 percent increase in comparison to the previous financial year. This forecast recognised that demand for some services may drop as a result of the changes, she said.
Meanwhile, Three Waters fees and charges revenue was planned at $7.50 million, a 2.87 percent decrease, due to lower demand on commercial water consumption and sewerage trade waste.
The public consultation period would close on Friday, 24 April.
Click here for more information and to make a submission.
