Revenue and Financing Policy FAQs

All property owners in Hawke's Bay contribute to the work of Hawke's Bay Regional Council through their rates. Our region covers Wairoa, Heretaunga-Hastings, Ahuriri-Napier, Tamatea-Central Hawke’s Bay and parts of Taupō and Rangitikei districts.

We manage natural resources on your behalf, such as water and air quality, land sustainability programmes, and coastal, wetland and habitat protection. We also manage regional programmes such as flood protection, biosecurity, transport planning, regional economic development, and regional civil defence emergency management.

• Targeted rates - most of the rates you pay are targeted rates for benefits you gain locally from specific services, such as flood control, pest management and, in Napier and Hastings, public transport and air quality.

• General rates - these pay for those activities where everyone in the region benefits equally. This rate is currently calculated on your land value, so the charge varies between ratepayers. As part of the current consultation, we are proposing to change the basis for the calculation to capital value. You can see the impact this will have on various sample properties within the consultation document.

• Uniform annual general charges – this portion of the general rate (above) is applied as a fixed charge per separately used or inhabited parts (SUIP) of a rating unit.

You can use our online database to find out the latest land and capital values for your property. You can use these to calculate the ratio, which we refer to on page 5 of the consultation document. Search here by address or valuation.

The councils have different responsibilities, so you pay for the different services they provide. Some regions have a unitary council (Auckland, Gisborne, Marlborough) where these functions are combined, but that’s not the case in Hawke’s Bay.

• Rates for your local city or district council pay for services to your property, such as water, sewage, rubbish collection, as well as community facilities such as parks and sports areas, roads, and community programmes.
• Regional Council rates are used for managing natural resources – water, land, air, and coast – and other regional functions like transport and civil defence.

Many rates’ charges such as drainage and flood control can be applied geographically. For example – flood protection activities throughout the region are funded by those properties which are directly impacted, and therefore receive the benefit.

There are other factors funded by Regional Council rates which benefit the whole community, and all ratepayers contribute to. These include regional civil defence emergency management, public transport, and our total mobility scheme. 

As part of this review, we are proposing changes to some of our funding structures because urban development and changes to land use over time, have made the current rating areas obsolete. In addition, the current rating structure is complex and costly to administer.

There is a legal requirement to ensure that we remain compliant with rating legislation, and that our rating structure reflects the work we do, and who benefits from it. The most significant change in our region occurs around urban development and growing communities, and it’s important that the right people are funding the right activities.

Rates vary between individual properties depending on which services are provided in your area.

You may have made changes to your individual property such as improvements, renovations, or completion of a new dwelling that have increased the value of your property. Or you may simply have a smaller property or dwelling than is average for your area. Either of these factors may impact your rates compared to the sample property.

We are proposing to increase the rating area from where public transport is funded to recognise the urban development since the policy was last reviewed.  This means that funds sourced will be fairer and more consistently spread across a larger number of ratepayers.

The proposed change to the rating basis from land value to capital value is considered a more appropriate rating tool and will mean that some properties will pay slightly more, while others pay slightly less.

This change of rating area reflects urban development, and means that funds sourced will be fairer and more consistently spread across a larger number of ratepayers.

This review began 18 months ago – before Cyclone Gabrielle – and looks at all HBRC-managed activities. The proposed changes in this review do not anticipate any infrastructure decisions that may arise from any post-cyclone reviews. The proposed changes would see a consistent rating basis, and a simplified application through the amalgamation of rating categories for properties with similar benefit characteristics. A change from land value to capital value rating is also proposed for most schemes.

Main drivers for change:

• Using capital value (rather than land value) to calculate the general rate, flood protection and drainage schemes rates, and passenger transport rates.

These properties typically have higher ratio of capital value to land value. The proposed changes will result in an overall increase in rates.

Main drivers for change are:

• Using capital value (rather than land value) to calculate the general rate, flood protection and drainage schemes rates, and passenger transport rates.
• A decrease in the regional economic development rate due to changing the way the rates are applied.

Pastoral properties would receive the greatest reduction due to the overall proposed changes. Horticultural properties on average have a higher capital value to land value ratio so may see increases due to proposed changes.

Main drivers for change are:

• Using capital value (rather than land value) to calculate the general rate, flood protection and drainage schemes rates, and passenger transport rates.
• Increasing the rating area for the passenger transport rate
• Decrease in rates due to sustainable land management and biodiversity moving fully to the general rate.

Other properties include mining, dairy, lifestyle, forestry, specialist, and utilities.

Main drivers for change are:

• Using capital value (rather than land value) to calculate the general rate, and flood protection and drainage schemes rates.
• Decrease in rates due to sustainable land management and biodiversity moving fully to the general rate.

You can contact us directly by email at haveyoursay@hbrc.govt.nz or call our offices on 06 835 9200.