Howick ward councillor Maurice Williamson is celebrating after Auckland Council announced it’s saved $332 million in the last three years.
The council’s exceeded its annual operating savings target, with $60.2m saved in the 2023/2024 financial year.
That surpasses its annual $50m savings target and contributes to $332m in savings over the last three years.
The figure was presented at a recent meeting of the council’s Revenue, Expenditure and Value Committee, which Williamson chairs.
He says it’s pleasing to see such strong results that show the council is on track.
“The savings targets are an ongoing initiative to look closely at the business and where added cost efficiencies can be delivered.
“This year, we’ve overshot the target and gathered an additional $10.2 million in savings, demonstrating discipline through a line-by-line approach to our spending.
“This is a fantastic result and I’m convinced we can deliver even more savings, as they continue to be a focus.”
This year’s savings were delivered through a range of initiatives across council including a focus on reducing the corporate property footprint, minor changes to services, centralising and reducing council support functions, maintenance optimisation and integrating service centres into libraries.
There’s also been an increased focus to identify opportunities to increase non-rates revenue to better recover the costs of those services.
Mayor Wayne Brown says the savings achieved are the result of a sustained effort to ensure efficiencies are being achieved on behalf of Aucklanders.
“We must make savings and cut costs for Aucklanders. This is more evidence the ship is turning.
“I’m pleased particular attention is being given to value for money and careful investment across council business.
“These savings results bode well for the Long-term Plan 2024-2034, which includes an additional savings target of $28 million this year, rising to $67 million for 2026/2027.”
When Williamson announced he was standing for a council seat in the Howick ward at the 2022 local-body elections, he told the Times he was motivated by residents’ concerns relating to the council’s performance and issues such as rates and debt increases since the Super-City structure was formed in 2010.
“Rates have risen by over 150 per cent in real terms, after correcting for inflation.
“Liabilities have more than tripled and debt servicing is costing over a million dollars a day.
“There has to be a day of reckoning. No organisation can just keep spending money that it hasn’t got and racking up debt.”
