Archived FAQs
Between 25 September and 5 November 2023, Council conducted extensive community engagement on four rate rise options to commence on 1 July 2024.
Council considered this feedback, and other reports and information, at its meeting on 27 November 2023 and selected a 15% rate rise as its preferred option to inform the preparation of a SRV application to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).
Council has now inserted the rate rise into its key corporate planning documents, namely its Long Term Financial Plan 2023-2033 and Delivery Program 2022-26.
These documents are now on public exhibition and show how the rate rise will deliver community benefits, and the applicable additional ratepayer costs, in the medium and long term.
- Sending 30,057 letters, accompanied by a six-page brochure, in the mail to all ratepayers, including ratepayers based overseas
- Sending out more than 36,000 emails to various databases
- Placing 42 pavement sticker signs at around 10 localities
- Publishing social media posts which were seen 198,853 times
- Distributing at least 1,585 flyers to businesses and passers-by
- Creating a Securing Willoughby’s Future online Have Your Say portal which was visited 5,100 times (www.haveyoursaywilloughby.com.au/swf)
- An invitation on the Have Your Say portal to complete an online opt-in survey (1,873 respondents filled out the survey)
- Commissioning research company Micromex to undertake a representative telephone and online survey of 419 residents (survey was weighted to reflect the 18 plus age and gender profile of the LGA)
- Holding eleven engagement events attended by 56 people, including a stakeholder roundtable with Progress Associations and business groups
- Inviting respondents to make comments or submissions to explain their feedback.
- Rate each option against five sentiment ratings (from Very Supportive to Not At All Supportive); and
- Rank every option from one (most preferred) to four (least preferred)
- 64% of opt-in survey respondents, and 74% of representative survey respondents, ranked an SRV option as their first option.
- Across both sentiment questions, Maintain Services had the highest overall support.
- Residential landowners and renters ranked Maintain Services, and then Increase Services, as their highest ranked options
- Recover from the financial impacts of high inflation outstripping Council’s average rates by 15.3% between 2021 and 2023;
- Continue to deliver highly-valued services to the community
- Increase Council’s ability to absorb future financial, extreme weather and growth shocks; and
- Provide capacity to maintain and renew community assets
Council is considering applying for a Special Rate Variation (SRV). This application would need to be made to the NSW Government’s Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).
It’s a requirement of SRV applications that councils must insert the rate rise into their relevant Integrated Planning and Reporting Framework (including the Long Term Financial Plan 2023-2033 and Delivery Program 2022-26).
This requirement ensures that the rate rise is fully integrated into Council's corporate planning.
As such, on 27 November 2023, Council endorsed the above documents being placed on public exhibition.
A single SRV option of 15% (the existing LTFP refers to proposed rate increases ranging from 18.5% to 23.5%)
Incorporating an overall $2m efficiency target for 2024/25, which is consistent with the target information presented to the community between September-November 2023 alongside the rate rise options. This target will be met through savings, efficiencies and new non-rate revenue and will assist in reducing the size of the overall rate increase. This target will be met, and explained, as part of the development and exhibition of the 2024/25 Operational Plan, which is expected to take place around May-June 2024.
A strengthened analysis of the societal and economic challenges to Council’s budget.
An updated sensitivity analysis, which tests how Council’s proposed future budget responds to economic shocks, such as higher inflation and lower staff vacancy rates.
Introducing new information, including productivity and cost containment measures, community awareness of (and willingness to pay) a rate rise, alternatives to a rate rise, average rate impacts by major rating sub-category and ratepayer capacity to pay the rise rises.
A new ‘base case’ which will apply in 2024/25 if Council is unsuccessful in an application for a 15% rate rise. Under this base case, rates will increase by the official NSW Government rate peg of 5%, but Council will need to reduce services by $2m and find $500,000 in new revenue. Council would however still remain in a fragile financial state, with deficits in four of the nine coming financial years and a limited capacity to withstand future financial shocks.
Increase annual programs for street tree maintenance and tree planting
Apply additional resources to maintenance, cleaning and beautification of parks, cycling and walking routes and town centres
Facilitate a volunteer ParkCare program for community involvement in our local parks
- If Council does choose to apply for a Special Rate Variation, it would need to submit this application by 5 February 2024.
- An exhibition running from late November to mid-January is required so that the documents are adopted by Council before the application is lodged.
- A longer than normal exhibition period of six weeks has been provided to account for the end of year holiday period.
- The rate increase would result in average residential rates rising by $163.15 in 2024/25, or $3.14 a week.
- Average business rates in the Chatswood Town Centre area would increase by $1,170.42 in 2024/25 or $22.51 a week, while average business rates outside the Chatswood Town Centre would increase by in $978.56 in 2024/25, or $18.82 a week.
- Following this one-off rate increase in 2024/25, rates would rise in line with the NSW Government rate peg in future years.
- Council will now commence preparing a Special Rate Variation application to the NSW Government in line with the preferred rate rise. The application will need to be approved at a Council meeting scheduled for 30 January 2024, before being lodged.
- Council entering into payment agreements
- Providing rate relief following general land revaluations
- In the case of eligible pensioners, allowing rates and interest charges to accrue against property until the estate is settled.
What has Council placed on public exhibition?
What engagement activity did Council undertake on rate rise options between 25 September and 5 November 2023?
Activities to make community members aware of the rate rise options included:
An estimated 47% of Willoughby LGA residents stated they were aware of the rate rise options. This is higher than the 34% average awareness rate for other Sydney councils which have undertaken rate rise engagement campaigns.
Activities to seek feedback from the community on the options included:
What was the outcome of this engagement?
Community sentiment was measured by asking survey respondents to either:
The key sentiment outcomes for both the opt-in (Have Your Say) and representative (Micromex) surveys were:
In addition, in the representative survey, Increase Services was the preferred option among the respondents who selected one of the three SRV options as their highest ranked option.
A full engagement outcomes report is available at this link.
A response to key engagement themes is available at this link.
What is Council's preferred rate increase for 2024/25?
On 27 November 2023, Council voted to support a 15% rate increase (effectively the Increase Services option presented to the community between September-November 2023).
The proposed rate increase will assist Council to:
The proposed rate rise will also allow Council to allocate an additional $2 million a year in additional cleaning, care and beautification projects in parks, cycling and walking routes and town centres, and for tree planting and maintenance programs.
Why has Council placed the revised Long Term Financial Plan 2023-2033 and Delivery Program 2022-26 changes on public exhibition?
What changes are proposed to the Long Term Financial Plan 2023-2033 (LTFP)?
Every council in NSW must have a LTFP. It outlines a ten-year projection of Council’s future financial state. Council last adopted a LTFP in June 2023.
The exhibited LTFP differs from the June 2023 LTFP by outlining:
See also the attachment to the 27 November Council meeting outlining the LTFP changes.
What changes are proposed to the Delivery Program 2022-26?
The Delivery Program 2022-26 is a four-year document, which identifies the principal activities to be undertaken by Council. It was adopted in June 2022, and last updated in September 2023.
A brief summary of the outcomes of the rate increase is proposed to be added to the Delivery Program 2022-26.
The Delivery Program 2022-26 is also proposed to be amended to state that, as part of the implementation of the rate rise, Council will:
Has Council voted to lodge an application for a Special Rate Variation?
No. Council will be considering whether to lodge this application at an additional meeting on 30 January 2024.
What will happen if, and after, Council lodges a Special Rate Variation application?
IPART will seek community feedback on the application (in February-March 2024) before making a decision in May 2024.
Subject to IPART’s decision, the rate rise will commence on 1 July 2024.
Why are the documents being exhibited at the end of 2023 and into early 2024?
What is the impact of the rate rise on ratepayers?
What happens if I am unable to pay the rate increases?
Council’s Hardship Policy for Rates and Annual Charges outlines a range of mechanisms in cases of genuine hardship, including:
As part of its 27 November 2023 resolution, Council voted that "Council ensures that irrespective of how rate payers receive their rate notifications (e.g. physically or electronically) that it is clear and obvious that there are hardship provisions available to access and that this information is accessible."
Find out more information here - www.willoughby.nsw.gov.au/Residents/Rate-information
Council also received independent advice that there was a general capacity to pay the proposed rate increase across the LGA, subject to application of hardship provisions. Read this report here.