Arlen Hill 10 Year Plan

Legally, every three years, all councils in New Zealand are required to produce a 10-year plan, also known as a Long Term Plan (LTP), which outlines their objectives and budget for that period. The requirement for councils to prepare LTPs, and for the Auditor-General to audit them, was put into the Local Government Act 2002 as part of significant local government law reform to replace the previous Local Government Act 1974. These plans usually introduce projects that the council intends to deliver over the planning period, accompanied by timeframes, costs, how this will be paid, the effect on rates and debt, and the level of service provided. 

The main changes affecting the content of LTPs have been for the documents to contain the council's:

• financial strategy (since the 2012-22 LTPs); and
• infrastructure strategy (since the 2015-25 LTPs)

You can read more about LTP's here.

Below is an example infographic, taken from Dunedin City Council's 10 year plan 2021-31, showing the local government planning timeline:

Local Government Ammendment Bill:

In 2017, a new bill was introduced in New Zealand. The main objectives of this bill are to restore the purpose of local government to "promote the social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of communities"; to restore territorial authorities' power to collect development contributions for any public amenities needed as a consequence of development; and to make a minor modification to the development contributions power. You can read more about this bill here.

Below is an example image that can be used alongside text to highlight the main objectives of the Local Government Amendment Bill (2017):

Throughout the next planning period, we aim to achieve these four well-being goals set out in the bill.