Back in November, we sent the newly elected Kāpiti Coast District Council a detailed briefing laying out a practical pathway to more affordable rates, stronger financial discipline, and genuine community engagement — not just slogans, but workable solutions.

Here’s what was in it 👇

📉 Making rates affordable
We called for rates to be capped at no more than 5% of median household income, with average annual increases of 3% or less.
Crucially, we didn’t just say “do better” — we set out nine specific cost-control measures to show how this could actually be achieved.

🗣️ Fixing community engagement
Too often, consultation happens late, with limited information and no real feedback loop.
We proposed seven practical changes to shift Council away from box-ticking and toward earlier, transparent, two-way engagement that genuinely informs decisions.

Since then, we’ve followed up with councillors, inviting them to sit down with us, ask questions, challenge assumptions, and explore how this work can help deliver the lower-rates pathway voters clearly signalled during the election.

We can now share the detail with you …………………..

• Click here for a summary of the options for delivering an average 3% rates increase from 2026/27 onwards and the full financial management briefing behind those options

• Click here for the separate package focused entirely on improving Council–community interaction

Because when it comes to rates, engagement, and accountability — the devil really is in the detail.