We are in the first year of the largest capital investment programme Auckland has ever seen. The 10-year Budget promised $26 billion of capital investment towards improving Auckland’s critical infrastructure along with environment and community outcomes, driving Auckland towards its vision of becoming a world-class city.
Over the past two weeks, the Finance and Performance Committee and Governing Body were presented with the second quarterly progress update on the council’s financial management and performance against the 10-year Budget.
Solid capital progress
For the six-month period, $832 million of the capital investment was delivered for Aucklanders with the graphic below showing some regional highlights of what this means for you in your area.
Strong overall financial management and operational performance
Solid financial management was also demonstrated over the six-month period with the following summary from the report.
Councillor Ross Clow, the Finance and Performance Committee chair, says that, overall, the council group is delivering on the responsible and prudent financial management that is expected by Auckland’s ratepayers.
“Our net debt increased by $63 million over the past six months to $8.3 billion, with total debt on track to be under budget at the end of the financial year, a good result considering our significant capital investment in critical infrastructure during this period.”
“This compares to our assets growing in value by $938 million to a total of $52.4 billion, $4 billion in annual revenue and retaining our credit ratings of Aa2 from Moody’s and AA (stable) from Standard and Poor’s, which is their second-highest possible rating,” he says.
Savings commitment to Auckland
Last year, the council committed to significant savings for Aucklanders, the graphic provides a summary of the council’s progress towards a $23 million commitment for this year.
“Not only do our savings targets further reflect our commitment to efficiencies, but we’ve also now got an effective and centralised process for identifying and measuring these savings so we can show Aucklanders exactly how we are tracking towards those targets”, says Councillor Desley Simpson, Deputy Chair Finance and Performance Committee.
The next quarterly progress update to the Finance and Performance Committee is scheduled to be on 19 June 2019.
