Image: Mike Hauser.
The City of Melbourne has unanimously endorsed a 10 Year Financial Plan and accompanying draft Asset Management Strategy that the council hopes will deliver “growth, prosperity and liveability”.
Under the Strategy, the council plans to assess and monitor its existing assets, ensuring they perform at their peak while also planning for future city assets.
The City was motivated to develop its Financial Plan and Asset Management Strategy by the fast paced growth of the amount of people living in or using the city’s assets, which is expected to place enormous pressure on the city’s existing resources.
City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said daily users of the city are expected to increase by 23 per cent by 2024, and that the city needs to be “agile enough” to make the most of the opportunities this growth will bring.
“This plan will secure our competitive advantage as a top global city: as a premier location for business and knowledge sectors to expand and thrive; it increases our expenditure on core services and creates opportunities for our community,” Mr Doyle said.
Mr Doyle stressed the importance of the Budget surpluses in the 10-year plan, saying that the council’s net worth is forecast to increase significantly from $3.8 billion to $5.8 billion by 2025.
This will fund important infrastructure including the Queen Victoria Market Renewal Project.
To develop the 10-Year Financial Plan, the City spoke to a ‘People’s Panel’ of 43 demographically selected residents and business owners to voice their opinion on spending and revenue priorities for the next decade.
These residents and nominees considered a broad selection of topics and issues that they felt were heavily impacting the city, such as climate change, technological advances, a growing economy and an evolving demographic.
The selected panel felt these will alter the needs of the city and provide new ways of doing business.
The panel came back with 11 key recommendations that Councillor Stephen Mayne, Chair of the Finance and Governance portfolio said mostly align with the City’s 10-Year Financial Plan.
Interestingly, the council has initially chosen not to meet the recommendation to increase rates by CPI plus up to 2.5 per cent for the next 10 years because of state government plans to introduce a rates capping policy for all Victorian councils.
