Kāpiti Coast District Council’s Annual Plan and fees and charges adopted for 2026/27

Kāpiti Coast District Council’s Annual Plan and fees and charges adopted for 2026/27 

Kāpiti Coast District Council has adopted its Annual Plan 2026/27 which sets rates and progresses activities for the coming year.  

Kāpiti Coast Mayor Janet Holborow says Council has held the rates increase to 6.5 percent, keeping in line with what was agreed to in the Long-term Plan 2024-34.  

“Like many councils, we’re managing rising costs. In our case the rates increase also includes three water services, but we know that any rates increase isn’t ideal,” says Mayor Holborow.  

“Balancing the budget and setting rates meant weighing increasing costs against continuing to invest in the essential services and infrastructure our community relies on now and into the future. 

“For this Annual Plan we have stayed the course of our current Long-term Plan and holding to our commitment of an overall rates increase of no more than 7 percent. This has included taking deliberate action to find savings and lessen the impact of growing and unavoidable costs.   

“We have also reviewed and adjusted some our fees and charges. 

“Services such as food and alcohol licensing, building consents and wastewater discharge incur processing and administering costs and many of our fees and charges have been significantly below other councils’ ranges.  

“Ensuring these costs are fairly paid for by the users of the service rather than largely falling on ratepayers is something we’ve also been more deliberate about this year. The collective $300,000 increase to fees and charges also reflects inflation costs.  

“We know households and businesses are feeling the pinch and reducing the burden on ratepayers is a key concern for our community. 

“We’ve started to develop our next Long-term Plan which will set the direction for the district from 2027 to 2037, with a sharp focus on the first three years.  

“The LTP will lay out what we need to do to keep any future rates as low as possible, which might mean significant changes to our activities or service levels.  

“Discussions with our community will be a big part of our decision making, with conversations starting later this month. We encourage everyone to get involved and help shape Kāpiti for the future." 

Editor’s notes 

Where Council found savings for the Annual Plan 2026/27 

• Reducing staff costs due to both organisational and project delivery changes ($660,000)  
• Reducing funding for the Social Investment Fund ($150,000)  
• Increasing fees for private plan changes ($200,000)  
• Reducing economic development budget ($325,000)  
• Reducing cultural capacity funding ($150,000)  
• Stopping our planned rates-funded debt reduction for one year ($400,000) 
• Increasing fees and charges to reflect the impact of inflation, generating an additional $300,000. 

Council will still invest approximately $75 million in capital works in 2026/27. This includes: 

• work to progress the replacement of the Paekākāriki seawall 
• upgrades to the Paraparaumu Wastewater Treatment Plant 
• upgrades to the Waikanae Water Treatment Plant 
• planning for a second water reservoir 
• installing a new bore in Ōtaki 
• Completing Te Ara Whetū, the new Waikanae Library upgrade 
• Completing the Waikanae Park upgrade.