Dear Supporter,

The campaign for a nationwide rates freeze is moving along quickly.

Find out where your council stands on a rates freeze

With new reports coming from across the country daily, we've set up a dashboard to keep track of which councils are signaling a rates freeze and which are dragging the chain.

--> Click here to view the rates freeze dashboard <--

As you can see, four councils are signalling a rates freeze already, with many others planning some form of rates relief.

Our job now is to keep up the pressure, flipping more councils into the rates freeze category, and making it harder for the rest to justify their inaction.

Turning up the heat on councillors

We've now written to every councillor in the country – all 825 of them – to inform them that more than 5,000 New Zealanders like you have signed our petition for a rates freeze.

You can read our full letter to councillors here.

We're suggesting that they cover any revenue shortfall by asking officials to identify low-priority spending that can be deferred or abandoned. Kicking the can down the road by borrowing more without each and every council working hard to identify wasteful spending and cutting back on nice-to-haves, would be a cop-out.

The same goes for merely delaying rates payment deadlines. That's what Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel is trying, calling it a "rates holiday".

As Jordan told Chris Lynch on Newstalk ZB, that failure to reduce real costs disrespects ratepayers who may not even have jobs in the coming months. Listen to the clip here.

We've also pointed councillors to this latest development:

Finance Minister backs rates relief

We've argued that rate hikes would undermine central government's strategy of immediate economic relief for struggling households. Now it appears the Finance Minister agrees with us.

In yesterday's meeting of Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee, Gerry Brownlee asked if the Government was recommending that councils freeze rates. Grant Robertson replied by telling MPs it is his expectation and belief that every council will be looking at its books to see what is possible to reduce the rates burden.

We know that many councillors are Labour Party supporters. They'd do well to listen to their Finance Minister.

Even the local government lobby is changing its tune

In my last update, I mentioned that Local Government New Zealand boss Dave Cull called our campaign 'misguided'.

Look what he's saying now.

"We're very conscious of the need to reduce the burden on our ratepayers under the circumstances.

"If that means freezing rates - that's the obvious conclusion."

Councils considering even small rates rises should reduce those to at least the rate of previous years, Cull said.

This is a good sign. Clearly the idea of a rates freeze has been more popular with ratepayers – and even some councillors – than he expected. 

Taxpayer Talk: pro-freeze councillors join our podcast

Yesterday I sat down (remotely of course) for a podcast interview with two local councillors who support a rates freeze.

Sam MacDonald from Christchurch City Council and Chris Milne from Hutt City Council gave an inside perspective on ways councils can easily find savings and freeze rates. Chris even suggests cutting his own salary!

--> Click here to listen now <--

Alternatively, find all our podcasts on Spotify here, or on Apple Podcasts here.

Thank you for your support,

Louis Houlbrooke Campaigns Manager New Zealand Taxpayers' Union