Last month, OurAuckland featured the Auckland Council Group’s annual report with some of our key projects and achievements delivered in the past year.
The annual report was published in September and shows a strong overall financial performance, including $1.5 billion of capital investment to maintain existing assets and build new infrastructure to support Auckland’s projected population growth to 2.2 million people by 2043.
This includes investment in roads, water and sewerage, stormwater, public transport, libraries, community services, parks, sports and recreational facilities. Auckland Council Chief Financial Officer Sue Tindal says the group’s financial performance reflects a need to invest for Auckland’s future balanced with financial prudence and best value for money.
“Alongside the $1.5 billion of capital investment, the value of our assets has grown, net debt levels are below budget and we have met efficiency gains of an additional $38 million per year, meaning we have been able to deliver the same level of service for a lower cost than budgeted.
“This sets a strong foundation for the council’s 10 year budget, or Long-term Plan 2015-2025 (LTP). We will be increasing our annual investment in Auckland to $1.8 billion over the next financial year and for every year of the LTP for a total of $18.7 billion over 10 years.
“At the same time the value of our assets will also grow from $42 billion to $60 billion and we will also slow the growth of our debt, which will be $11.6 billion by 2025 – 15 per cent lower than previously forecast,” says Ms Tindal.
Visit the Auckland Council website to view the full annual report.
Keeping our costs down
In the past five years Auckland Council has delivered more new assets and more services than ever before while spending less money than expected by all of the eight former councils.
This is primarily done by working smarter and better to achieve efficiency gains, where the council delivers the same, or better, levels of service for a lower cost than originally budgeted.
These efficiency gains have grown year on year and now represent $180 million per year in the five years since Auckland Council was established. Through the new Long-term Plan 2015-2025 (LTP) a range of future efficiency gains are planned and forecast to increase year on year over the next 10 years, representing over $300 million of efficiency gains by 2025.
