Rates are collected by Councils to pay for public services and activities (i.e. buses, pest control, environmental monitoring, etc) and are based on location, value, size and / or services to the land. In some situations, rates remissions are applied to land where certain criteria are met. This means landowners pay less on their rates.

Bay of the Plenty Regional Council will collect its own rates directly from 1 July 2022. The territorial local authorities (district and city councils) previously acted as the rates agent, this included assessing rates remissions.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council has now developed it's own draft policy to outline when rates remissions can be applied to land. Below is a summary of the changes to the rates remissions and postponement policy. The Rates Remissions Policy for consultation document and the Statement of Proposal are also provided under the Document Library.

Change 1: Transition rules

Collecting rates directly will allow Bay of Plenty Regional Council to get a better understanding of the issues that some ratepayers face. The draft policy proposes to extend currently approved remissions from district and city councils until the next full policy is completed, which will include a full submissions and hearings process.

Change 2: Māori freehold land

Māori Freehold Land is a different ownership structure than general land. It is generally owned by many people, is not appropriate for the land to be sold by its owners, and the ownership structure makes borrowing for development difficult. Therefore, there are a different range of economic costs and benefits for owners of Māori Freehold Land.

Regional Council proposes to address these issues by setting remissions for Māori Freehold Land that is:

• Culturally inappropriate to develop.
• Used for a purpose other than it is zoned for (e.g. farming in a residential zone).
• Being developed for housing.
• Being developed for economic use.

Change 3: Standardised remissions

All other remissions have been standardised across each of the districts in the Bay of Plenty. Bay of Plenty Regional Council is proposing to have the following remissions for:

• Environmental and sustainable home loan repayments.
• Forestry and bush in the Rotorua Lakes area.
• Edgecumbe urban river scheme.
• Queen Elizabeth II covenants.
• Rates penalties.
• Financial hardship.
• Unforeseen circumstances.
• Land used for Māori cultural purposes.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council uses rates remissions as opposed postponements because postponements allow debt to build up over time which does not provide for affordability.

Feedback received before 4 May 2022 will be summarised for Regional Council. Those wishing to speak to their submission will have an opportunity to speak to Council at hearings before any recommendations are made. The revised policy will be presented to Council for adoption in late June 2022.pen in new window