An urgent independent review called for by Mayor Neil Holdom combined with an internal review of New Plymouth District Council’s 2025/26 annual planning process, has identified two further administrative errors made during the preparation of the Annual Plan 2025/26. This follows the minor administrative error relating to GST found in May.
The overall rate increase across all properties is at 9.1% - lower than expected.
However, an incorrect assumption about the average land value and number of residential properties was used in the rating model. As a result, the average residential rate increase for 2025/26 is 12.8%, not the 9.9% figure that Council based its decisions on. This equates to an additional $102 including GST per average residential ratepayer for the coming year.
The review and subsequent report produced by Simpson Grierson, also identified a resolution wording error relating to restricted water flow rating.
Mayor Neil Holdom says he was extremely disappointed by the error and the impact it could have on households and the community’s trust.
“As Mayor, I take responsibility for the integrity of the information we use to make decisions. Councillors acted in good faith based on the data presented to us. We now know that information was flawed and the safeguards we had to verify the validity of that information and the assumptions behind it have failed,” said Mayor Holdom.
“I want to offer my sincere apology to our community. You deserve better. The buck stops with me, and I am committed to ensuring we learn from this, fix the underlying issues, to rebuild public confidence and find a way to put this right.”
The reporting error does not affect the validity of the rates, but the Council is taking action to mitigate its impact.
Council will meet on 22 July to review the Simpson Grierson report, amend the rates resolution wording to ensure properties on a restricted water flow are able to be charged $418 for each cubic metre of water as intended, and consider a range of recommendations to decide on one of the following options:
Mayor Holdom said all options relating to rates came with pros and cons for the organisation and the community.
“Fundamentally an error in our systems has meant the average residential ratepayer in our district will be charged $102 more in rates this year than our financial model had indicated and we have to determine whether we let that stand or find a way for the organisation to deliver on this expectation.”
Holdom said improvements to NPDC’s internal processes and checks would be implemented immediately following the findings of the independent review.
Chief Executive Gareth Green is also proposing structural changes to strengthen financial capability and oversight within the organisation.
Mr Green said that it was clear that the systems and processes that Council has relied on has let everyone down.
“On behalf of the NPDC organisation, I wish to offer my sincere apologies to the Mayor and Councillors, and our entire community, for the failing of our systems and processes that led to these errors.
“As the leader of the staff organisation of NPDC, it is my responsibility to ensure that we have adequate safeguards to ensure that every piece of advice we provide our elected members is accurate and robust, in order for them to be able to make good decisions.
“That clearly has not been the case in this instance, and this failing shows that change is required. For an assumption to be able to be made with ramifications as significant as this, without visibility from Councils leadership, Governance or even Audit NZ, shows that substantial improvements need to be made. I am committed to implementing these swiftly and building back the trust and confidence of our community,” says Green.
Mayor Holdom said Councillors will also be asked to update Council policy to implement an independent review of all future financial plans including the schedules and underlying rating assumptions prior to decision making.
“This situation highlights the risks of insufficient specialist financial experience, particularly in local government , following a restructure designed to improve efficiency and reduce Council operating costs.
“While Audit NZ signed off on the Long-Term planning process that included the incorrect rating assumption, the community rightly expects that process to provide assurance the underlying models and data are robust. That assurance did not eventuate in this case.”
“We owe it to our community to be honest, to take ownership, and to do better. That’s exactly what we are doing,” said Mayor Holdom.
Fast Facts
• Error 1: On 13 May 2025, Council adopted a rates resolution that mistakenly used GST-exclusive figures. This error was identified and the minutes corrected at the 1 July 2025 Extraordinary Council Meeting. There was no financial impact to ratepayers.
• Error 2: Relates to restricted water flow charges and an administrative wording in the minutes that requires correction. Without this correction NPDC would not be able to collect approximately $1.4 million, incl GST, in rates from approx 767 properties.
• Error 3: This relates to using incorrect assumptions about the average land value and number of residential properties, resulting in an average residential rate increase of 12.8% not 9.9%. Options to fix this will be discussed at an Extraordinary Council meeting on July 22.
• These errors do not affect the validity of the rates which are still valid and there has been no statutory breach.
• We have 37,605 ratepayers of which 30,605 are residential, 2,067 commercial/industrial, 3,085 farmland and 1,848 small holdings
• As always, any ratepayer experiencing hardship can contact us to discuss payment options as well as possible eligibility for additional rates remission & postponement.
• The approach used by NPDC to model the average residential rate increase is based on a rating unit with the median land value for a residential property.
• All council agendas are publicly available on our website. See Council Meetings
Page last updated: 04:00pm Thu 17 July 2025